Learning to tell a story - J Walking (original) (raw)

For the last ten months or so I’ve been engaged in a completely different world – the world of screenwriting. It began as a writing project – probably the 21st Century version of a yen to write the great American novel – a shot at a screenplay. I knew that I knew nothing about the art but was inspired by a thought I’d been having over and over… were I to die my regrets would swirl around the stories I never told… stories that only I could tell.
Isn’t that a stirring thought? My stories. Roll the symphony music.
Ten months later I am no less convinced that I want to tell these stories. I am, however, daily humbled by the incredible art known as screenwriting. While I may be able to learn the skills needed, every day shows me how very, very little I know.
When I was growing up my father always said that true geniuses are those who know how much they don’t know. I was too far from genius to comprehend what he was saying. I don’t think I’m that much closer now to be a genius but I am at least not so stupid as to miss his point – being humbled by what we do not know is a first step to learning what we need to know and if things turn out just right maybe we will stumble upon genius in the process… or maybe not!