Someone recently asked me to figure out where I want to go in my career as a writer. If I want to write action, she said, I need to pick a direction. Do I want to write fun, violent, popular stuff or high-brow, sci-fi deep and dark stuff?
I had never thought about this before. I just wrote what I wrote and had fun with it. I want to write fun, popular, high-brow, deep and dark stuff. Can you do that?
All I could do was respond with films I'd like to emulate: In Bruges, Pitch Black, The Terminator. Then I looked at them. They're dark. Dark and deep and violent and surprisingly good. So I said, well, that's it. That's what I want to write.
So I put it to you. Pick a direction for your career. What are the movies you want to write? What is your tone of choice?
lol, I wanna do EVERYTHING. I want to be write and direct like Ingmar Bergman on some days, then I wanna be like James Cameron or John Woo. On other days I wanna be sentimental and romantic like Wong Kar Wai or Jim Jarmusch.
ReplyDeleteI can't make up my mind :-/
I've written, and will continue to write, a bit of everything.
ReplyDeleteBut if I was forced to choose, I'd have to say I like violent films. And not just films that have physical violence. But also the types that just feel violent.
Movies like the kind that Sam Peckinpah made and Walter Hill used to make. The best of Tarantino and Scorsese.
That's tough. I have story ideas all over the action genre spectrum.
ReplyDeleteI would have to say I need to write in each area and see what I think I am good at and what others think I am good at then go from there.
If I had to lean one way, Sci-Fi. Not good news for breaking a spec sale but I have to write what I love and what I would go see in a theatre. Not going to depart from that.
My current story is a sci-fi action set in the near future. Having a lot of fun.
-Jim
I think having fun is what matters most, because even if you didn't make a sale, at least you didn't waste your time.
ReplyDelete