MUSING #26 - I wrote a Screenplay!!

Muse: completing the first draft of my first screenplay!!!

Musing: I have written many things since graduating college with a degree in Creative Writing. And even without that degree I would have written many things, but I may not have completed as many. Most of those completed pieces, however, were short in length as they were mostly for web-content, short films, or spec comedy pilots. I’ve written longer works for the stage, but have always been daunted by the idea of writing a complete, three act, story-arching, 90-120 page screenplay. I’d taken courses on writing screenplays and continue to come up with ideas for them, but I’ve never been able to get past the first act. Until now!!!!  

I came up with the idea for my script nearly a year ago. It was an exciting idea, mixing history/true events with my weird sketch-like comedy. What I loved most about the idea is that it breaks traditional writing practices of how we portray the protagonist. Because in my screenplay, the protagonist doesn’t speak. He isn’t mute, or being prevented from speaking. The scenes of his life that are shown just don’t show him speaking. Instead, they show the people and events around him that he watched, listened to, and learned from. It focuses on the beautiful mix of serious+ridiculous that can surround a person and helps them become something greater than a person can make on one’s own. And in the scenarios of my film, the world builds up a humble Vermont boy into a compassionate lawyer, to a mindful Governor, and eventually a dedicated President. The title of my screenplay is ‘Silent Cal’ which was the actual nickname for the often silent President Calvin Coolidge. 

I know I still have lots of work to do. I’ve heard from many writers (personally and by watching interviews) that the hardest part is in the editing phases. And though I have found that to be true for my shorter works, I feel my mountain has been climbed. Maybe there’s another peak to go with the edits, but I’ve gotten above the clouds. To a height I’ve never been. And now that I’ve gotten here once, I know I can make it again. There’s a part of me that feels even more of a writer now, at least the kind I want to be, because I have finished the first draft. And I’m more excited than daunted by the next phase of work. I want to see where this script goes and who connects with it. I want it to be read and enjoyed and who knows, maybe even made into a film! Coolidge was president in the 1920s, and much of what I wrote was influenced by what has already happened in the 2020s, so it could be a great time to have a film like this made. But of course I think that, I wrote the fucker. And I will keep working on it to then get it out into the world and see what happens.