I finally got my final grade and markers comments for the short script I wrote as the final assignment for the Massey screen writing course I did. I got a pretty good mark for it, but more importantly, the markers comments were a very useful critique, and of the best kind. They said what the marker liked about the script and areas where it could be improved. And given that the marker was NZ playwrite and professional script writer Stuart Hoar, he does know what he's talking about. Better still, he didn't just say what could work better, but how it could be made to work better. The old bugbear - rack up the conflict.
He also couldn't understand the function of a particular character. I'd put this person, the protagonist's love interest, into the script as a proxy for how she feels about the bulk of the other characters, but hadn't really thought about him fully as a person. How he would react to what happens and what are his motivations. In other words, he was just a cipher to me, and that's what came across. It's amazing what comes through in your writing. If you as writer don't care about a character or don't know why he's there, then why should the reader.
This course also introduced me to the wealth of screen writing books out there. Screen writing is so commercially focussed, which makes it very self-critical. Your story has to work to make it into production. So books on screen writing have the most brilliant tips and hints for any style of story writing.
Plus they tend to be written in very easy to read formats. Screen writers are adept at using a minimum of words to put their story across, and this translates into their books on screen writing book techniques. I've just bought one called "Save the Cat" by Blake Snyder, recommended by Katrina Bliss ( one of NZ's best romance writers).
