STEP 4: A Screenwriter is Born

One morning I awoke with the first four scenes of Fruit of the Tree in my head. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I saw images, heard snippets of dialog. I went straight from bed to the computer, bypassing for once my morning mug of café con leche. I opened up Aaron’s script for Gettin’ Grown (to borrow the proper formatting for a screenplay) and wrote the scenes down.

They flowed relatively easily from my fingertips. Suddenly I was experiencing what creative writers recount: the characters speak for themselves, develop themselves, and sometimes take you in surprising directions. Again, this was something completely new for me: it had never happened in a lifetime of expository writing.

I sent the scenes to Aaron, saying “Please don’t laugh.” He wrote back to me, “I think we’ve found our screenwriter.” With some trepidation I shared my writing with the other members of our team, and they too encouraged me to continue.

Now I felt the terrifying weight of the responsibility to write this screenplay appropriately. How could I, as a white woman, write in the voice of a black man, a man of a different generation? Did I have any right to attempt this?

I first asked Aaron if he would be willing to co-author the script. I needed his experience in storytelling and scriptwriting, as well as his excellent ear for dialog. I also needed his guidance and vision as a black man. He agreed to collaborate with me by long distance and bought me Final Draft, the screenwriting software he used.

Then I called a local Milwaukee filmmaker, Brad Pruitt

Brad Pruitt, Consulting Producer

, who had spent some time observing our team at work on the set of Gettin’ Grown. He and I had had some other brief occasions to get to know each other over the years, and I trusted he would not mince words. Brad’s three responses were: “Go for it! It’s in your DNA.” “You have Aaron’s perspective to count on.” and “I’d be happy to consult on the project and do whatever needs doing to see the movie made.”

A book! I needed a book about screenwriting to help me get beyond the first four scenes. Aaron sent me one. I read it and bought several more. I learned about film treatments, a sort of long synopsis, a fleshed-out outline of the script. I learned about the 3 act structure and getting beyond the 3 act structure. I learned about the dramatic arc, hero’s journey and character development. I learned about proper formatting. But still, I needed to practice, to get immediate feedback and mentoring.

So I went to the wonderful (and inexpensive!) Shake Rag Alley’s Stage and Screen Workshops Week in August of 2006 and took a screenwriting class from an experienced Hollywood screenwriter and playwright, Bill Svanoe. Several people in the class were experienced creative writers, so it was a bit intimidating to share my amateur scene writing assignments aloud – but oh so helpful! And I discovered that not only did I enjoy this kind of “visual writing” a great deal, but that I might actually have some talent for it. Bill encouraged me to continue to write Fruit of the Tree and to send a completed draft to him for “coverage,” screenwriter lingo for feedback.

Suddenly I had a new goal in life – and a new identity to go with it. I had only barely incorporated the idea of myself as a producer of films (despite the many I’d helped produce over the years for Family Development Resources). Now I had a newborn – a screenwriter – to incorporate and nurture in the family of characters that lives in me.

~ by Fran Kaplan on January 3, 2009.