An interesting post I read over on the excellent site of screenwriter John August. A reader asks, “Should I write a novel or a script?” It’s a question I’ve asked myself about at least three different projects over the past couple years. August’s response — the visual vs. the internal — is good food for thought.
I’m constantly being torn between all the different forms of storytelling that I love: movies, novels, TV shows (the rare excellent ones), graphic novels… Over the past four years of having to read some pretty terrible children’s books, I’ve even had ideas about that medium. Too many choices these days. I find it impossible to commit to one form. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard to finish anything.
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I know exactly what you mean, but I find that simply trying my hand at each form of media reveals which ones I’m best at. Writing a script for a graphic novel and writing a screenplay seem like similar activities, and while there certainly is some crossover, the two media are so distinct that I think they require different modes of thought. For example: the ability to flip back and forth through the pages of a comic book calls for a different flow of exposition than the forward-moving film. The reader’s eyes move across the page in ways the movie-watcher’s can’t. The people I really hate are the ones so talented, they can do it all (like Brian K. Vaughan).
Posted 04 Jun 2007 at 12:06 pm ¶Yep, that trying of hands is what I’ve been up to over the past couple years.
I have heard of Vaughan but have yet to read or see any of his work. I aim to rectify that soon.
Thanks
Posted 06 Jun 2007 at 7:41 pm ¶An interesting question in regard to this and MFA programs- should MFA programs de-emphasize the short story? I spent the last five years finishing a book of short fiction, so I love the genre, but it seems to me that the reality of the market dictates a need for novelists and non-fiction writers.
I can’t speak to others’ experiences, but certainly in my own, I found little guidance in terms of marketing or selling your own stuff other than references to literary journals and few magazines. I wonder if MFA programs shouldn’t require a course on getting your work “out there” and learning what publishers and agents are looking for. This- of course- brings us back to the question of whether MFA programs are here to build careers and to help us develop as artists.
Hopefully MFA programs will do both.
Armand
Posted 10 Jun 2007 at 8:01 pm ¶Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1
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