Sitting in the cozy bosom of the Writers Guild Foundation/Writers Guild of America buiding in Los Angeles, it struck me just how important validation is for a writer. A validation that doesn't come once in a career, or the kind that strikes in a lucky bolt of triumph and recognition when your script or novel is sold; I mean weekly, even daily validation.
I was attending the latest installment of "Anatomy of a Script," hosted by Robin Schiff and Winnie Holzman, where successful screenwriters come and discuss their careers, answer questions and break down their work over a three hour session that goes by all too fast. (If you are a screenwriter in the Southern California area, this is a wonderful resource). Listening to Laeta Kalogridis discuss her screenplay "Shutter Island," I took great comfort hearing her describe her challenges fighting page count, spending too much time focusing on transitions, and turning her wheels on a few lines of dialogue for hours at a time.
Of course I should have known it wasn't just me that struggles with these things, but when you spend so much time alone in a room with a cursor blinking back at you, you're hypnotized into questioning what's right and what's wrong, what's good and what's bad.
Everyone has notes and opinions when it comes to someone else's writing, and they sure don't have any problem sharing those steadfast views with others, but when it comes to one's OWN writing, suddenly the labels fall off the compass. There is no right answer, THERE ARE A THOUSAND ANSWERS, and all you have is your soppy gut to guide you across the bright white empty wasteland. When the words do finally come we see just how fragile our theories about what's good and what's bad truly are. Who really hands over their work for the first time and doesn't question everything they know and believe about everything?
It's a need for validation that manifests itself in an entire industry of magazines, how-to-books about the process of writing, #scriptchat on twitter, writers groups, writers blogs, writers tips of the day, and movies, of course the movies about writers who struggle with their art...
"Stand by Me," "Stranger than Fiction," "Misery," 2 out of 5 workshop samples, "Adaptation," "Wonder Boys," "Barton Fink," "Barfly," "Shakespeare in Love," "Sideways," Bukowski: Born Into This" -- Born Into This -- Could anything sound more pretentious?
What is this uncanny, insatiable need for writers to write about writing, if it's not a passive aggressive plea for validation? -- To show everyone, just how noble and important writing is to the world? "I am a writer. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
"Theeis eeis masturbation," I can imagine Werner Herzog say with his soft inflection that contrasts his Arnold-Schwarzenegger-like accent.
On Saturday I got to see a double feature including his two films "Nosferatu the Vampyre" and "Cobra Verde," between which he spoke to the audience.
Werner Herzog. This a soldier of film. A man who declares that he sees the films in his head, in their entirety before he sits down to write them in the course of 3 to 5 days.
It shows.
These films, namely "Cobra Verde," were hard to follow, sometimes hard to sit through, but they were also beautiful and most impressively, teeming with confidence. They give you the sense that this man doesn't give a damn if you like or dislike his movie.
He spoke of being a soldier of film, about "Holding an artistic outpost that others have abandoned. It means discipline. It means perseverance. It means courage."
While you're wondering what's the hell is going on, questioning the plot, continuity, Herzog presses on, unwavering. If the plot or the character won't pull you through the film, it's Herzog's utter confidence that will pull you to the credits.
Herzog says of the iconic image of steamship hauled over a mountaintop in his film "Fitzcarraldo," "The image of a steamboat going over a mountain is very unusual and it drew a lot of attention. It's like a big metaphor, but don't ask me what the metaphor means, because I wouldn't know."
Watching Herzog's films, you get the sense he's not questioning himself when he's sitting there alone in front of the computer. He embraces the loneliness! He sees virtue in that abandoned artistic outpost. He just writes.
This is the impression he gives his audience of film aficionados, filmmakers, directors, and writers looking for a little validation on a Saturday night...
Charles Rhoads
Good description of the writing experience.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the inspiration. We all need this from time to time.