Screenwriting : Writing What You’ve Never Lived — Cheating or Craft? by Alex Gutenberg

Great topic, Alex Gutenberg! I research, use what I've witnessed in life, and use my imagination.

I’m enjoying the research until I drown plus the cooking cleaning and martial arts which helps with my script. Plus it helps that I’m a big time empath and a water sign (Scorpio)

Method sounds like fun but I don’t have the time nor the money for acting right now. I’d rather get the screenplay out the way.

Alex, when I want to write about something I've never experienced, I like to hit the Internet and research, research, research...and then do some more research once I start on the script.

Research as a foundation then use imagination & if doable/affordable try the experience. Eg Did London Eye for Romantasy scene & historical trails for horror scene. However, mining the character doing ‘whatever’ is important so they act/respond in ways unique to them.

Maurice Vaughan Diana Levin Jim Boston Debbie Croysdale Guys, guys — I meant something a little different. Research is obvious: if a screenwriter has never stormed Troy, of course you need research, haha.

What I am really talking about are the emotional nuances — the way a character looks, a gesture, a line of dialogue.

I do not mean to trigger anyone, but let me put it this way: if you have never had a gun pressed to your head, yet you are writing such a scene — do you imagine yourself in that moment, or do you picture someone else, almost as if you are observing from the outside? Or do you just read reddit?

P.S. Just for clarity: I have lived through that experience. One detail that stayed with me was the smell. Because of that, I now feel I can write a more interesting dialogue — where a character notices the smell — rather than falling back on a generic action cliché.

Sorry to hear you went through that, Alex Gutenberg. I would research (like read articles and watch movies), use what I've seen in movies/shows/etc., and use my imagination for that and other situations.

Maurice Vaughan Oh no worries, all good! What I meant was more like this: if you wanted to write about homelessness, are there examples of writers actually going out and living on the street for a while? Immersion.

Or maybe we screenwriters are already just one step away from that life anyway, haha.

I haven't heard of any writers going out and living on the street for a while, Alex Gutenberg, but that would be great research. I called the FBI once when I was outlining a TV series.

Hi! Yes, I go to a homeless shelter and have collected a lot of information for a script. But I won't write it, as I am interested in other stories. To create scripts, authors use primary and secondary artistic conventions, observations, information gathering, metaphors, allusions, hyperbole, and interpolation.

it was easy for me to put emotion into my story although it occurs in the supernatural, all you need is to go through mind numbing sadness and heartbreak sometimes.. great maturity, thoughts and insights in your post, thank you for sharing

I'd say "method" is one of the most misunderstood terms in the industry...to be a method actor, writer, whatever, you actually need to pretend, not to re-live. Method comes from the inner question "What if?" Over a century ago when then famous Russian director/writer Constantin Stanislavsky visited and had a tour across U.S. he presented this as part of his "System" (y'all might wanna read that book).

So, that being said, yes a good screenwriter needs to be a good pretender with a wide imagination and that's no cheating at all. He also needs to be a good observer. When once asked how does he manage to write such compelling dialogues, Tarantino said it's mostly anecdotes he overheard people sharing...

@Alex Yes, I try to be inside character’s head, as I mentioned above. Didn’t only mean psychologically. Writer’s should use all of the senses. Interesting you remember smell, over all, when a temporary hostage. I’ve a Noir protagonist whose shooter’s face appears eventually as a black dot, slow burners take a while to die. Sight being a main sense. For a modern script, weapon kills instantly, thoughts & feelings solely fear. Your experience with gun to head caused an organic visceral experience resulting in creativity, so hopefully not all bad. Cannons (old fashioned) are sometimes fired in Andalusian village festivals which you’ve probably seen. I made mistake of sneaking (as far as was possible) into a location hoping to film it, which resulted in violent ear wringing. I wrote my will in hotel room. Weapons & other physical props can cause vast possibilities for the reaction & behaviour of characters.

Hey Alex Gutenberg - great question. We of course try to be authentic and loyal to the character's truth in that moment. We can get there many ways but 'method' is only one. Craft is there to give us a way to use our informed imagination in creating a truthful moment in many ways. We are, after all, the character's first actors.

I love also your 'fake it with confidence and style' (reminds me of Eddie Izzard coaching his audience on how to look like they always know the words to the National Anthem at a game lol) BUT - don't think that's respectful to the craft, to your characters who only get to live through you, and most of all to the audience, Just my opinion :)

I graduated with a Writing Degree in 1992 - I had written fiction in my pre-college years and during college and post college. As my career took off, my writing fell by the wayside. I made a decision to pause my career to focus on my writing and the stories seemed to almost flood my brain. Every one is 'real' in the sense that the conflict, the characters and the situations are from my past. They are repackaged in a sense and take on varying degrees of exaggeration, absurdity and 'artistic license' but they are all still real. When I go back and read my early writing I realize at that time I had nothing to say - they were more fantasies of what I imagined might be the case. Many people can be successful with that approach but not me. All of my stories must be real to me individually for them to resonate with others.

Writing about what you haven't lived through is not deception — it's translation.

Translation of emotion from one shape to another.

A bullet is not a heartbreak. But both tear through silence.

A good writer doesn’t fake. They transpose.

Through empathy, imagination, and the courage to sit still with what hurts —

we write the truth of things we’ve never touched.

Because someone, somewhere, has.

And they'll read it and say:

“Yes. That’s exactly how it felt.”

Work with an expert who has walked the walk. Yout...also helps to see and hear what people are like, what locations are like.

You know, cinema really began thousands of years ago, when people in caves told each other stories. One prehistoric man might tell the group he caught a fish — say, a perch — and then show with his hands that it was the size of a boulder. Everyone would go “wow” and believe him.

It’s the same today. When we watch Bruce Almighty, we believe Bruce actually meets God. In The Matrix, we believe almost the entire human race is asleep. In xXx: State of the Union, we believe a man can jump out of a plane without a parachute, land on the ground, and sit on a crate completely unharmed.

And so on, and so on. That’s what cinema is: making the audience believe a lie. There’s simply no other way.**

Hi Nataly - I certainly agree!!! Great points.

Debbie Croysdale I hope you're okay after that incident, thanks for sharing, interesting answers!

Sebastian Tudores So, we're like the worldbuilder in the film Inception, where if we lack experience, we cover it with imagination, but it's not necessary to get involved in an adventure every time to become an excellent writer?

Darrell Pennington Jon Shallit Actually, this is my own deep reflection. I was just sitting here and realized that maybe I have never really been in love. And then the next thought came — how can I possibly write a screenplay about relationships if I have never loved? Sounds like professional deformation, ahahaha

Love is a mania, an insanity, a blessing of the highest order. Alex...go out and find it.

Love of one's children is seeing the wonder of life through their eyes. Alex, I hope you have kids someday.

"In The Matrix, we believe almost the entire human race is asleep." And are we wrong about this?

Alex Gutenberg that’s a great comparison. We’re like the architect in Inception — our job is to design a truthful, consistent world for our characters, then inhabit it with enough empathy and craft that the audience believes every moment.

Also, RE your conundrum on writing about relationships - for me, the best part about writing or acting or directing is the exploration of things I've yet to know and yet to experience. You can go on that 'adventure' emotionally, psychologically simply by asking 'what if' and allowing yourself to embody the possible answers. Karl May wrote an entire series on the American West, never set foot in the region; Honoré de Balzac dissected 1800s French society despite being as involved in it as Daniel Day Lewis is in the Hollywood party life; Emily Bronte's passionate Wuthering Heights would have to have been mostly emotional intuition since she lived mostly in rural seclusion; and Milan Kundera either saw or imagined a woman waving at a pool and went ahead and developed that one gesture into one of his most popular books, Immortality. SO - you're in great company Alex - enjoy the adventure! :)

That's the best way to create a good story...