Sometimes. we just want to cut loose and work on something different. Shifting genre gears can be a great way to do this. But getting up to speed in a field with different conventions can be tricky.
This calls to mind a chat I once had with a fellow writer. He and a friend planned to work on a screenplay together. Since they loved thrillers that was the genre they were exploring.
Right away the Hitchcock classic North by Northwest popped into my head. Cary Grant plays an everyman character embroiled in a nefarious plot. Along the way, he falls in love with Eva Marie Saint. The story builds to an action-packed ending on Mount Rushmore.
Anyway, I suggested the two budding screenwriters take a look at North by Northwest (rated among the top 100 films by the American Film Institute), and a few other classic films and really spend time analyzing just how they work. This was one of the great tips my wonderful playwrighting coach once suggested.
Actually, he advised us to take one play we really loved and live with it for a time, reading and rereading it, getting to know it inside and out — so that we would really understand what made it tick.
What a great piece of advice!
It’s the “hedgehog” strategy — as in “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Diving deep into a classic in a genre and spending time with it can be a very efficient, productive way to probe the underlying principles that drive it. It can also give you fresh appreciation for how an elegant and engaging story is constructed.
There are so many fruitful questions you can ask as you analyze a novel or play or film script you admire: How and when does it draw you in? What qualities does the main character reveal in the opening of the story? How does the writer release plot clues in a way that keeps you engaged and sustains momentum? Why is the ending satisfying — and is it surprising or does it seem inevitable?
Taking a deep dive into a work you love can be so much fun! Write on!
