Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Anatomy of a (brief) partnership

The second half of 2010 has been kind of all over the place, writing-wise. In May I got married and went on my honeymoon having just completed the best script I ever wrote -- the first one that I could honestly say showcased my strengths as a writer. It earned a high score from ScriptShark, which meant it would be scouted to a variety of management and production companies. In the grand scheme of things this was a relatively small amount of validation, but it felt pretty great nonetheless; I mean, if one professional script reader thinks I have talent, I can at least hypothesize that there might be others out there who agree with him.

Anyway, when I returned from my hybrid Costa Rica-Las Vegas honeymoon (no, it wasn't planned that way), it was time to get cracking on a new project. Earlier in the year I'd talked with a writer friend about collaborating, and in June the time was finally right for both of us. We feel that we each have strengths we can bring to the table, as well as the added advantage of extra brainpower to tackle whatever problems come up.

Here's how that ends up going.

In early June, I work up a quick pitch for an espionage thriller/romantic comedy and meet my new writing partner for drinks to run it by him. He likes it! We're off to the races, bouncing around plot and character ideas, recommending movies to each other to watch for inspiration, and generally being excited about the prospect of writing a great script together.

Over the next couple weeks we exchange a lot of emails, discussing ways to improve the premise, strengthen the conflicts, and so forth. Then we meet up again to hash out our plan for moving forward. During that meeting we realize that what we have probably won't work. There are elements we like a lot, but also some very big, very fundamental problems that we can't see a way past. So we put our idea aside and start spitballing a new one along similar lines. By the end of the meeting we have a solid character and premise that seems like it'll sustain a movie.

Another week or so goes by. More emails, more spitballing, more story problems cropping up. When two people have to agree on everything that goes into a story, I begin to realize, the process is a lot less quick. We talk on the phone at one point and it feels like we've hit the wall once again. This time, the idea seems pretty solid but we're not at all sure it's going to be funny. (Our purpose from the beginning has been to write a great script that's both thrilling and hilarious.) Long silences on the line as we each try to think up a way to rescue the idea from the jaws of extinction. Finally, it occurs to me to change the story's setting to something more conducive to comedy. That we we can play the life-or-death stuff absolutely straight and rely on the incongruous surroundings to make people laugh. My partner likes this. He likes it a lot. Once more, we're off to the races!

Within a week, my partner is getting cold feet again. He's not sure it's going to work. But this time I really feel confident in the concept, so I decide to bang out the first 12 pages of the script to show him what I have in mind. And when I say "bang out," I really mean it. I haven't written a single page of script in months at this point and I can barely stand it. All the pent-up creative energy I've been storing up comes bursting forth, and it's every bit as thrilling and hilarious as I've imagined. I send it to my partner, he's fully on board with the approach, and -- you guessed it -- we're off to the races.

For a while. Then we start hitting more walls. We're exchanging lots of emails, can't seem to find a way to move forward, and then finally I toss out a brand-new idea for a completely different movie. Just something that popped into my head. Another espionage thriller/comedy, this time a sort of Spy vs. Spy with a romantic twist.

He loves it. I love it. We quickly decide to abandon our previous idea and move on to this one. It's fun, it's funny, it's easily pitchable, it's everything I've been wanting to write.

We're off! To! The! Races!

I'm about to leave town for a few days for another wedding, so we meet up before I leave and hash out a writing plan. We're not fooling around this time -- we feel like there's a real spark with this one, so we want to get right on it. I whip up the beginnings of an opening sequence from the road, and it doesn't flow as easily as I'd hoped but that doesn't faze me because I'm still in love with the concept. There are ideas that you really have to finesse to turn into a good script, and there are ideas that you just have to avoid screwing up, and this one is definitely the latter. Once I get home, my partner and I really get to work. I'm writing pages, he's writing pages, new ideas are coming fast and furious. Yes, progress has been slow up to now, but the great thing about working with a partner is that once you're really moving, you can move twice as fast.

Once again we hit some logistical snags with the plot and characters. The scenario is brilliant, but we're not sure how we arrive at it in a believable way. It's kind of like when Hitchcock demanded that the finale of North by Northwest take place on the faces of Mount Rushmore, and left it up to Ernest Lehman to figure out a natural way to end the story there. He did, but his account of how painful that process was is legendary. (The only difference with us is that there's no Hitchcock involved and also that we're not getting paid.) Undeterred, we continue working out story beats and writing pages. This will work, we think. It has to. It's great.

But within a few weeks I start to have serious doubts. The big problem, as I see it, is our insistence on making it a genuine action/comedy. For a movie in that genre to work, the premise has to be absolutely solid as an action flick, and then you can start dropping in the laughs. If the premise isn't solid, then you've only got a comedy, and that's not what we're going for. (True Lies is an action-comedy; Austin Powers is just a comedy, even though it has just as many guns and spies. We want to write a movie more like True Lies.) There just doesn't seem to be a way to keep all the story elements we want and make it believable. We wrack our brains over this issue for days and come up with nothing.

Finally, I meekly propose going back to the story idea that we had abandoned in favor of this one -- the idea for which I wrote those great first 12 pages. Maybe we were too hasty in moving on from that one, I suggest. Luckily, my partner is pretty malleable in these types of situations, so he says, sure, let's pick it up again. The advantage of having shifted gears for the past month is that we're able to look at the old idea with a fresher perspective. Now, with a few changes, it seems absolutely doable.

We meet up to hash out the story. (The Borders in Century City has been serving as our war room. It's a good spot for conversation, there's free parking, and nobody tries to kick you out for not ordering enough.) After an hour or so of discussion, we feel like we're ready to get going. This was always a good idea, and now it feels better than ever. With both of us cranking out pages on a regular basis, we should have a first draft in a month and a polished and ready-to-go script before Thanksgiving.

This time we're more tenacious than ever. When something doesn't work, we keep hammering at it until it's fixed. For a solid month and a half we're writing and rewriting, outlining and re-outlining, fully committed to producing an actual script. Sometimes it really feels like it's going to work.

But sometimes it really, really doesn't. And frankly, I'm getting impatient. By now I've devoted four months to this endeavor; it took me less time than that to produce the best script I've written. I'm anxious to keep moving toward my goal, which is to have a great portfolio of scripts that can get me paying work. It's starting to seem like this collaboration isn't the best way to get there. I share my frustrations with Alexis and her opinion is that I should do as much as I can to make the partnership work, because at the very least it will turn out to be a good learning experience for me. I agree with her logic; she knows that I tend to be impatient with just about everything, and it would be a shame to sacrifice all these months of effort.

Still, I can't help but hedge a little. It's been a long time since I've worked on anything that was my own, and I can't stop new ideas from coming to me. One day, when I feel like my writing self really needs cheering up, I take the day off work and challenge myself to come up with ten good story pitches in a variety of genres. That night, I read them to Alexis and our friend Rossanna over drinks and ask for their opinion. One idea in particular -- pitch number eight -- stands out to both of them as a winner, especially based on my personal writing strengths. Naturally, I start itching to write it.

Meanwhile, the collaboration is faring no better. The next time my partner and I meet up, we realize that we simply don't have enough story, and don't have any ideas for making it longer. Long silence ensues. It feels like we've hit every possible wall at this point, and I think we're both questioning our ability to cross the finish line.

I can't hold back any longer. I desperately want another script under my belt in 2010, I have a great idea for one, and if I start now I can make it happen. So, after a long sigh, I tell my partner that maybe the best solution is to step back from the material for a while and work on other projects. We can return to it later, with fresher minds.

He's okay with that plan.

I tell him about the idea I've hatched, the one that I already successfully pitched to my wife and our friend.

"That's the best idea you've ever had," he says. "You should go write that."

And like that, it's over. I go back to my world; he goes back to his. I drive straight to the nearest Umami Burger, whip out my notepad and start jotting down ideas. This time, when I hit a wall, I have no one but myself to consult... but I feel okay about that. It's worked for me up to now. If I'm diligent, I might just get a first draft done before 2010 is out.

The partnership didn't end up working the way I'd hoped, but that doesn't mean I won't try it again. Collaborating was interesting, even enlightening. It forced me to think in different ways than I'm used to, which is never a bad thing. Maybe best of all, it kept me focused on my own strengths as a writer, because I always wanted to be sure I was bringing something useful to the table. Hopefully, I'll be bringing a lot more the next time I team up with someone.

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