A Blog on Writing -- Topic: Write What You Know vs. Know What You Write.

As I have shared with all of you at some point over the past eight months since I began the project, I'm writing a three episode television show. Episodes 001 and 002 are well into their Final Draft phases (though there's still a long way to go before they get there), and I have quite a bit of the outline, conceptualization, and preliminary research for Episode 003 done. Now all I have to do is write the damn thing.

I liken the process at this point to a train speeding towards its destination: Each compartment is a scene, the people riding inside are the characters, and the wheels beneath are the theme which propels the scene, skating along the train tracks which are the plot or framework on which the story rides. The problem is that if the compartments aren't in the right order, the wheels won't align correctly, which will grate the tracks and cause the whole traintotoppleand*kill*allthepeopleinside!!! aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!! That's right, this is life or death shit right here!

*ahem*...But seriously, as a writer, when you create characters that speak with their own voices in your head and make you write things you never knew you were capable of writing, that means their alive...really alive, and that makes you responsible for them.

In order to help me do that I turn to those screenwriters, creators, and idea-men and women I admire most. Not only is conducting these story trains their jobs, they love to do it, and are therefore better than most people at accomplishing a safe and punctual arrival at the station, with all their compartments in the exact right place. My absolute favorite is of course the man I never seem to shut up about, J. J. Abrams. But I bet you didn't know I have a second favorite? That's right, I'm double dipping with my inspirational heroes. Sorry J. J., but I have a secret dirty mistress and his name is Andrew Stanton.

Andrew Stanton is behind the screenplays of PIXAR hits Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo (for which he won his first Oscar), and WALL*E (for which he won is second Oscar--do I know how to pick role models, or what?!), as well as Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and A Bug's Life. In short, the guy's a genius. Never went to college for anything having to do with writing, and the guy manages to put so much heart and truth into his children's movies, that it renders the finished product so much more than just kiddie fare, as demonstrated in what is in my opinion, the best and most human scene in Monsters Inc.:

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SULLY begins gathering materials stacked along the cave walls.

SULLY:
We need to get to Boo!

MIKE:
Boo?! What about us? Ever since that kid came in you've ignored everything I've said, and now look where we are! Banishment! (MIKE begins to pace) Oh, we were about to break the record, Sulley. We would have had it made!

SULLY:
None of that matters now.

MIKE stops and turns at this.

MIKE:
...None of it mat-...Wa-wait a second...None of it matters? (SULLY stops gathering materials and stands at the mouth of the cave with his back to MIKE)...Okay. That's-no. Good. Great. So, now the truth comes out, doesn't it? Sulley, what about everything we ever worked for? Does that matter? Huh? And what about Celia? I am never... never going to see her again. Doesn't that matter? (SULLY is silent, still not turning to look at MIKE) What about me? I'm your pal, I'm... I'm your best friend. Don't I matter?

Beat. SULLY speaks after a moment.

SULLY:
I'm sorry, Mike. I'm sorry we're stuck out here. I didn't mean for this to happen. But Boo's in trouble. I think there might be a way to save her if we can just get down to that-

MIKE:
"We"? Whoa, whoa, whoa. "We"? No. There's no "we" this time, pal. If-if you want to go out there and freeze to death, you be my guest... because you're on your own.

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BOOM! Awesome. Beautiful really.

I bring this all up because tonight I recieved a weird, sort of unsettling comment from one of my feedback readers on the TV show. I asked her some pointed questions about her characters and their motivations within the screenplay she's writing (which I in turn have been critiquing for her). In a curt sort of way she responded with, "Not everyone has to write screenplays like you, Pedro. Some of us have lives, and have actually experienced the things we write about, y'know...'write what you know'." That last was in a very 90's "duh!" sort of tone.

This struck me as an odd, unwarranted, somewhat rude thing to say, but aside from all that, the thought struck me...is she right? It seemed to me like a pretty one-dimensional way of looking at the "Write What You Know" concept. But I am also aware that I am sometimes guilty of over analyzing things, or blowing them out of proportion (I write dramas and melodramas, what do you want from me?). Still, I knew in my heart of writing hearts that there was something off about her statement and it left me feeling a little afraid to continue on with my 3rd Episode. To remedy this, I looked up some interviews with good ol' Andrew for guidance and inspiration, and I came upon great nuggets of wisdom that have helped me see more clearly:

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QUESTION:
When you write your screenplays, is the audience you
are aiming for, children, or their parents or both?

Andrew Stanton: This is the biggest no-no of all when it comes to family
films. If you are writing for anybody else but yourself, your screenplay will fail.
The minute you start to second guess your audience
you start making limited choices and closing doors to possible solutions to your story.
The minute you underestimate children, you're going to
make something that is just pandering and annoying.

I feel the same way about film. There's no reason I should
have to dumb-down my filmic grammar.
If the story is told well enough, the kids will get it or work
harder at getting it and everybody wins.
Whenever I bring my kids to school, I often get a parent
saying my kids love your movies and you know we love them too.
I always respond, "Good. I wrote them for you, not for the kids."

QUESTION:
I know people say "write what you know" but isn't it sometimes a
good idea to write what you WANT to know? To learn the truth in something?

Andrew Stanton: Exactly. I always say either write what you know or know
what you write.

Nemo is a perfect example. I knew nothing about fish,
dentistry, Australia, and spent 2 years researching all of it.
That's part of the fun.
But hopefully whatever is the emotional point of your
movie is something you can relate to and that you do know...

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I believe that deserves another hearty BOOM! with an added THANK YOOOOOU!! for emphasis.

This explains the trend of people (especially those around my age, with a focus on those who don't write often) that write stories or songs or poems exclusively bound to the immediate world that surrounds them. The world within their reach. The world as they know it right now, inhabited by the people they've met in the last year or so, taking place in the spaces they visit every day, with no expansion to anywhere or anything or any emotion more exotic than the ones they find in their own backyards.

This is not to say that good, important stories cannot be found there, its just that...in MY small opinion, SOMETIMES...it's just too damn easy! Convenient, y'know? The story can feel more like a product of laziness than a legitimate attempt to tell a truth. A grab for attention and glory with as little work as possible.

No. I am not a spy for the CIA. No. I haven't had Post-Traumatic Stress. No, I haven't been water-boarded, haven't been engaged, married, had a baby, been a woman, had legal authority, or saved a best friend's life. I have not lived any of the things that happen to the characters in my story. But you know what I *have* been?

Chased.

Opressed.

Lied to.

Betrayed.

Loved.

Laughed with.

Lauhed at.

Kissed.

Hurt.

Confronted by dilemmas--both physical and moral--with very little time to respond with anything but the instincts in my blood and the voice in my heart.

and you know what? YOU have too...

THAT is what my TV show is about. THAT is who my characters are, and by creating them, who I am. I write it because I WANT to know how someone, forced to lie everyday of their lives, can ever trust or be trusted. And how are they any different than we, who lie just a little everyday...Can a person, any person, do that without being affected for the worse? How do we deal with/fix/make piece with the fact that lying is bad, and also a part of us?

I can't write the answers because I don't have them...but I think I know how to write the questions...