Screenwriting : "Have you ever experienced a pain that inspired you to write a screenplay which became your best work?" by Naghme Rajaby

Pain — our own personal pain — can become inspiration for creative work, but I believe only after some time has passed. If the wound is still fresh, then whatever you write will likely be just a subjective opinion. And that opinion isn’t always right. If your perspective differs too much from the audience’s, they might simply say the film is garbage.

That’s why using your own pain in cinema is both possible and necessary. But, in my view, it works best after a while — when everything has settled, the wound has healed, and you can look at the situation with clarity.

Naghme Rajaby, I have written scripts but none dealing with past pains. However, I have written several songs which deal directly with issues that impact me deeply, such as racism. I have written several on that theme, including today.

This is actually something I write about quite a lot. It's called trauma (or incident) led storytelling. There is a lot that needs to be done to approach this in a really healthy way (such as taking care of your mental health, going to therapy to deal with the painful incident, and making sure that the re-telling of the story does not re-traumatize either yourself or your audience), but it can absolutely be a helpful thing. I would agree with what Aleksandr Rozhnov has said: time needs to pass, healing needs to take place, and you need to approach the story with clarity so you do not do harm to yourself or your audience. Also, it is important to not glamourize harmful situations or glorify unhelpful mechanisms.

You're right, Naghme Rajaby. I've used pain to come up with script ideas, scenes, and dialogue.

Let me explain what I mean. For example, you love a woman deeply, and she leaves you for someone else without giving any explanation. Is that pain? Yes, it’s pain. Do you feel like you want to kill her in that first moment? Yes, you do. The first reaction is destructive.

But when time passes, when things calm down and the wound heals, you may discover that maybe she was right — and that you were also part of the reason she left.

The beauty of cinema lies in showing that truth. By doing so, perhaps people who watch your film won’t make the same mistakes. That’s when a film resonates — because the audience can take a lesson from it.

This is what I mean by “time.” With time, you begin to analyze the situation differently. You find depths and nuances you couldn’t see at first because of the pain. And that makes the film more profound and of higher quality.

No, I don't do that. Almost all of my stories are fictional, with no references to real-life events. There is only one project where I used my personal experiences to create a story. This project is called "A Safe Place."

I’m the same as Arthur Charpentier. I’ve experienced a few painful events but nothing I’ve actually wanted to turn into art. My actual life is pretty boring that way lol it’s way more fun turning my idealism into art.

I have experienced the extremes life has to offer. However, I have no plans to make a film of it. Not out of wanting to bury old memories, but because I have better things to write about.

Yes, absolutely. My screenplay Ordinary was born out of grief and the search for meaning in loss. I lost someone very important to me, and writing became the only way I could process that pain. Through Elowen’s journey—her struggle between vengeance and justice, survival and sacrifice—I channeled emotions I couldn’t express otherwise.

It’s strange how personal pain can transform into a story larger than ourselves.

Naghme Rajaby That’s a great way to find ideas. I like using near-death experiences to showcase the feelings and psychological horror of those moments. It makes the story more relatable and accurate for the audience, while also giving insight into what certain pain truly feels like.

Dwayne Williams 2, I hope those were not near-death experiences you went through. I have been through three and they were not much fun.

Hey Naghme, I'm writing two screenplays. The one screenplay stems from my personal experience and the second screenplay from my aunt's pain. The reason why I wrote the second screenplay is to bring awareness to my aunt son's illness. But both screenplays are fictional, one horror and the other action. This is also the first time I am writing from something personal. Not used to it

Whether it is teen angst/emotional pain which is addressed in my high school screenplay, or physical and phycological pain addressed in my WW2 screenplay, pain is pain, and on some level we have all felt it. We relate. It draws an audience into the film

Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel that what draws audiences in is not the pain itself, but the answer to how one can overcome or escape that pain.

It is actually both. The visceral feelining/emotion pain draws them in and hooks them into the story to discover the answer.