Workshopping a Novella into a Screenplay
I wrote a novella, Low Self-Esteem Reading Room, now I’m in a screenwriting class, clarifying things and bringing the drama. Film and story nerds, what do you think of my opening act?
Low Self-Esteem Reading Room
Normal World
A dark and dingy bar. Very few people in it. A makeshift stage — more of a riser, less than a foot tall — at one end, with a forlorn and dirty dance floor. When was the last time anyone danced in here?
A visibly nervous young man approaches the stage and grabs the microphone. We hear the screech as it feeds back, terrifying the handful of people there for Low Self-Esteem Reading Room, while the regulars barely notice.
“Fuck,” says the boy, more to himself than his meagre audience. “Fuck.”
“Fuck!” he screams, looking up and around. His friends laugh and people there for the other readers shift uncomfortably. The bartender grins. As long as no one fighting, and even then, he’s cool.
The boy quickly puts his head down. “This is soooooo -” he stands back from the microphone, his voice un-amped. He looks up again, at his audience, his face full of pain, like a trapped animal. He begins to talk quickly, kinda mumbly — but at least he’s close to the microphone and we can hear him.
“I-started-this project-called-“The Antibook” — I — I — wanted-to-write-a-novel — NO! — I — wanted-to-write — something!”
The boy looks down, when he looks up again, he bangs the mic with his mouth. “I-was-angry-didn’t-know-how-to-deal-with-it —
“AAAAAAAAAAAAH!” he screams.
“Oh god, that feels better.” He looks around — “I can’t read this to you.”
He looks down, mumbles “Please regard this powerpoint screen.”
He goes to the back of the riser and pulls up a portable projection screen that’s leaning against the wall. (He’s so awkward.)
“I’m sorry. I should have set this up earlier,” he attempts to shout. He then fumbles in his pocket, pulls out his phone and projects onto the screen:
ANTIBOOK
One Sentence Summary
The Antibook covers two years in the life of a man as he loses his sanity.
Longer Summary:
1. What is an antibook?
2. Why am I writing it?
3. ?
Materials:
1. Antibook journalling
2. Frogstyle posts, incl. Chernobyl story
3. Stuff I read in Soul Village
4. Soul Village writing workshops (much in long hand)
5. Tech blog posts
6. Videos
7. Shamanic journeying stuff
8. Uberbabe pigeon and sad leddy posts
People shift uncomfortably.
“Yah, Kyle!” yells one of his friends.
“God,” Kyle says, into the mic, smiling slightly and visibly relieved, “I wish I could disappear.”
Inciting Incident
Next scene is picture (2D, black line on what background) of a crudely drawn house, split in half by lightning.
“Crisis. I need a CRISIS!” screams the boy, offscreen.
Refusal
Next scene is a shot of Kyle’s head, from the front, shoulders, up. An image starts to appear between his eyes, slightly above them. It’s gets bigger until we can recognize a desk, with a computer and all the trappings of an office, except that instead of walls there are just the two-by-fours that hold up the walls. Kyle sits at the desk, wearing a royal blue shirt, staring at his computer screen. We hear the sound of someone typing on a computer as the letters appear across the bottom of the screen: “My subconscious, it’s become an office.” Kyle, in the office, looks up from his computer screen at the same time as Kyle, who’s head we’re in, does, staring at us viewers, expressionless. This scene lasts uncomfortably long.
Point of No Return
Now, we zoom into Kyle in the office, going right into the same spot on his head that we started with on Kyle, who’s head we’re in. We come out in the Low Self-Esteem Reading Room, looking at Kyle, on stage. We zoom into him: he’s sweating profusely, and each drop holds a tiny Kyle head. Each Kyle head in each drop is the same sweating profusely, nervous Kyle. “Fuck,” all the Kyles say. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
