I had the script, the DP, the studio and the composer. All I didn’t have was the money. A common experience for filmmakers, and nothing to mark this out as noteworthy.

We decided to take a punt and go ahead with the auditions; we sent out the call for talent (one actress needed), we booked a room in an office block and auditioned five different actresses.

There was agreement in who we should ask to fulfil the role of ‘Sorrow’. I got home, the house was in darkness, so I went into the lounge and sat down. It had been a great day, and I was buzzing. There is nothing like being in a room full of creative people, but what was I going to do without money?

My dear soulmate walked into the room and asked me if I’d seen the mail. An envelope. It looked like a card. It wasn’t my birthday. I opened the envelope and in it was a card with the opening of the empty tomb in Jerusalem. You may have heard of it! All it said inside was, “Sowing for Life” with a cheque for £5000!

Sometimes, I decided, you’ve just got to go ahead with it and see what comes. From this, I raised another £5000, and we were set to go.

Imagination precedes logic.

A definition of logic

‘A system of reasoning and determining valid and invalid arguments’.

If we start with logic, we will never write a story. We will kill our imagination with well-meaning reasoning and processes before we ever put pen to paper, or rattle a keyboard.

We learn by doing.

We learn by failing.

We learn to resurrect our failure into a different form.

In this Eastertime, our doings need to die to be raised to life.

But resurrection is just a religious belief or dogma, right?

Well, no. It turns out that resurrection is the law of the Universe. Quantum scientists tell us that nothing is ever wasted or lost; it is recycled, reformed, upcycled into a new form. After all, we are made of stardust (and we are golden!).

Kleptomania and Anatomy

As writers, we are kleptomaniacs. We collect the stuff that fuels the imagination. If something didn’t work for ‘this’, it may work for ‘that’ story; it may be waiting for another iteration.

Let me say it again. We are made of stardust. Particles from a dying star found their way to us, and a new form was born. You are cosmically significant!

My most valuable book on screenwriting? John Truby’s ‘The Anatomy of Genre’. Whatever the genre of my next project, I will dip into this book and check out what Truby has to say about it; expectations, tropes, examples/models, world-building. From that read, I will already know which of those I am going to break or bend. In other words, how to serve the curveball.

Anatomical studies though, are like dissecting a cadaver. I find that difficult to do with stories, because they are living things and don’t lay still; whereas genres are classifications - they don’t have a pulse.

The American poet, David Whyte said that we don’t always have the language to cope with, or talk about, our tragedies and traumas and that’s where storytelling or poetry comes in. It helps us articulate the trauma.

Our work can help others to articulate different emotions; grief, anger, love, intimacy, sorrow and resilience. This work doesn’t need any justification. Put that definition into your Writer’s Bio and wait for the response!

Robert Bird, in his book about Andrei Tarkovsky’s films, ‘Elements of Cinema’, helps us to see how the Russian filmmaker created an environment, an atmosphere where this articulation could be achieved. Tarkovsky said his aim was to:

“...develop and investigate characters in a...state of extremely tense emotional imbalance, where these characters will either break or achieve final definition.”

There’s a choice we have as a writer: does the image of our character fragment, shatter, or achieve final definition? With this understanding of what we are doing, we are free to explore through the story we want to tell. Neither is right or wrong.

Logic may tell you it has to be the latter, or you destroy the agency of the character; but what if that is the point?

Is the tomb empty or still holding the cadaver? Maybe it’s time for a little resurrection?

After Logic comes...

I am a writer. My words are like oil, my images like fire. My aim is to put the two together and ignite a flame in your imagination. If I manage to do that, then I guess you won’t be bothered if I have broken any screenwriting rules along the way.

But, if we start with logic and 20-plus rules to follow so that we write the perfect script, our story will probably never be written; we will be too intimidated by the process.

If, on the other hand, we just start with a little kernel of an idea, followed by a pinch of free-association and then we write it down and wait for the dough to rise. It may be an action sequence, cuttingly sharp dialogue, or a simple premise for the story. Then, we actually have something to work with.

Imagination loves company, so create a character web to catch those fragments of the story in.

Story is a way of looking at the world. It may be a picture frame, a window, or a mirror. These offer three different ways of seeing. The picture frame may be like a Rembrandt (control) or Jackson Pollock (chaos); the window may look out on a forest of ancient redwood trees (natural environment) or a rubbish tip (environmental disaster); the mirror may be a character reflecting on their life, or the shattered fragments being reassembled to find identity and meaning.

As the writer, it’s up to us how this all starts and takes shape and not a well-manicured script guru. Have confidence in this process; it will not let us down.

Shifting Realities

And now to end with, a quote from a writer who knew only too well, the shifting realities of the self, society and the universe. It will help you see just how far down the rabbit hole you can go! Brace yourself now...

“I have a secret love of chaos. There should be more of it.

Do not believe---I am dead serious when I say this---do not assume that order and stability are always good, in society or in a universe. The old, the ossified, must always give way to new life and the birth of new things. Before the new things can be born the old must perish.

This is a dangerous realisation, because it tells us that we must eventually part with much of what is familiar to us. And that hurts. But that is part of the script of life. Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves will begin to die, inwardly...

And it is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic organism that can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new.”

Philip K Dick – ‘The Shifting Realities of Philip K Dick’ – Edited by Lawrence Sutin. Vintage Press, 1995.

And so, I’m here, we are here, to support you in your endeavours; to help you become the ‘elastic organism’ that can bounce back and create something the world is dying to experience, but doesn’t know it yet.

Let's hear your thoughts in the comments below!

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