Getting Back in the Game

Since it's been almost six months since my last post I think it's time to either get back in the game or fold: I choose to get back in the game!!
It's not like I haven't been writing, but I haven't been FOCUSING on my writing. Distinction? Hmmm... difficult to say. Perhaps it's because my eighteen months of unemployment has made me a little...UNSTABLE? Nawwww, that can't be it.

Actually I've done more creative thinking just trying to earn little bits of money here and there to somehow make my rent payments, pay my car and insurance bills as well as the utilities. But there still lingers in me the desire to pursue this crazy craft and complete the specs I've got in my head! And with this desire I've continued, as I always have, to keep reading and researching a very wide variety of subjects. I also RELIGIOUSLY follow other blogs on the craft. ScriptShadow, Go Into The Story, and Just Effing Entertain Me, are my daily staples.

What do I get from them? Why do I take my coffee first thing and sit and anticipate and read what these people have to say?
I guess it's a feeling of involvement because these three writers all share an exorbitant amount of passion for what I and WE all do: write. Beyond that, they have all created a very eclectic group of followers which somehow grounds me back into the craft, no matter how depressed or worried I am about the daily dilemmas I have to endure, I know I can get back into "the vortex". That's a word from this New Age "thinker" my wife is getting into. I hate the method they use to make the idea of "thinking" your way into riches or prestige or what ever you want. Plus they charge a hefty fee for this "knowledge". But I guess just to placate my wife I've been using the phrase when something or someone isn't doing what is expected.Also I'm being sarcastic in a secretive way.I know, I'm an ass, but damn, I can't help it!!

So to continue, when things aren't going my way, getting involved in the discussions on these writing sites is therapeutic.It grounds me back into writing and THINKING in terms of writing screenplays.I learn from my peers.I get ideas and I get motivated. Which is what I'm attempting to do with this post: get back in the game.

If I publish a post tomorrow, I've succeeded.
Stay tuned and find out.

Components of Writing-Finding Voice

Many years ago I lived in a town, a small city actually, where there was a vibrant and healthy music scene. There were bars where Friday and Saturday nights you could find almost any kind of band you wanted to hear.I knew some members of one of them and as it wasn't a big city, I often found we knew the same people. Now I had been playing guitar at that time for about 15 years and although I wasn't overly confident in my abilities, I knew I loved the instrument and was willing to learn what I could and still could just play for hours for myself alone.One day the lead singer of this particular band was at a mutual friends house and I was playing. I never sing because I don't feel inclined and never thought my voice was remotely what someone would want to hear.Also it takes all the left-side of my brain to just concentrate on PLAYING. The lead singer came over out of the blue, looked at me and said, "You know what your problem is? Your guitar has no voice". I'm not a violent person and I didn't even hit the guy, but those words still sting me to this day and at the time I was devastated because I knew he was right.
He was also an arrogant asshole, but I knew he was right and that's a whole other story. So what I did was I practiced even more. I took classical guitar lessons in college after that which opened up a whole other world of scales, compositions, and harmonics.But I kept playing and I got better. I played slide guitar with open tunings and that expanded the scope of 8 bar blues. I don't play much anymore. Just when I FEEL like it and also it helps if I get stuck on a developing idea. I usually can use a song to get me in the time or place I need to be to get out of the hole. But this idea of my playing having no voice made me think about a screenplay I read this week. Well really I've read two so far this week, but it was William Monahan's "Edge of Darkness" which made me think about voice. Mostly because his voice is so unique on the page even when there is tons of tension and action involved!
But I still am wondering what is voice in a screenplay? I know it's what makes us unique as writers the way we create our characters, what they have done, are doing in the plot, and what they say and how they say it. It's also how we present our action lines and descriptions, the words we use and the ideas we inject into the theme-line. I also know it's what readers look to be unique and compelling to the point they want to HEAR what we have to say because they connect and like our voice. If this all still seems so formless and abstract an answer, I know and I think it is almost an intangible entity, yet when it's not there, it's blaring, which for me makes it fascinating.
Now where to go with this. Can I tell you HOW to find your voice? No. It's already there, and each of us must find it on there own. Also it's something which grows with experience. It's also NOT something you can imitate convincingly. I have no desire to SOUND like Monahan, Black, Bolt(well maybe) or anybody else. Why? Because I'm NOT any of those guys. I'm me an you are you and your voice in your writing is the sum total of all the knowledge you have accumulated in your life at this time, with more coming later.
A part of voice growing with experience into the one which is uniquely yours, is learning the craft and all it's tools. All the things we learn from Julie Gray, Scott Meyers, Carson Reeves, John August, or Jeff Kitchen, are like me learning classical guitar or 8 bar blues. They help us to develop and grow. And with that growth we find our voice.

Sorry it's taken so long to post here and I promise I'm going to keep on a more scheduled track because it's good for me and I hope it will be good for you. I read a lot of different blogs everyday and if you don't I'll try and steer you in the right direction.