It truly doesn’t matter how long I’ve been a working writer, I still have days where I feel like I need to go back to How to Write Good school and learn my colors and my shapes. Recently I’ve been struggling with screenwriting, which at least I’m newer to, so maybe I get sort of a pass? But also, I’ve been doing it for 12 YEARS NOW? So…no. As a playwright I’ve always prided myself on my dialogue, the specific and hopefully memorable things my characters vomit onto anyone who will listen. But dialogue isn’t something you can hide behind. Maybe it’s clever or sounds profound, but what’s the story that’s being told? And is it the truth, or some version of it? And are the characters real people? When writing for the screen, dialogue can feel like boxes and boxes of Christmas ornaments that won’t fit on the tree. I just sit around with them all on my lap with no garage to put them in, telling anyone who walks by, LET ME SHOW YOU THIS RABBIT ONE, I ‘VE HAD IT SINCE I WAS THREE! Meanwhile, the tree is in flames. Or still in its Target box. On screen, What your characters do when no one is looking is so much more important than what they say. This is all to say that I am literally an almost 40 year old writer person having a ‘show, don’t tell’ writer epiphany. Additionally: A B C D E F G, H I J K LMNOP. Q R S, T U V, WX, Y and Z. NOW I KNOW HOW TO WRITE A MOVIE KIND OF, NEXT TIME WON’T YOU SING WITH ME?

Maybe if I could stop trying behind whatever