Newsworthy?

Variety had an interesting article about screenplays that reflect the writer's life. It's always cool to read where stories come from, so it's a useful article to check out. But is it newsworthy? Who doesn't write something autobiographical when they write? I took a creative writing course in college called "The Autobiographical Imagination." I assumed we'd learn to write memoirs. But on the first day the professor announces that we could write whatever we wanted -- poems, fiction, essays -- anything. That whatever we wrote would be autobiographical because we'd be expressing ourselves.

'They" always say to write what you know. I don't believe it's possible to write anything else. I know you're thinking, "Well, I don't know about the Vietnam War and it's not autobiographical for me because I'm only 30!" You still will write a script about something you know. First off, you'll research the subject matter. But not too much. But you won't be writing a history special. Your script needs emotion and characters and specifics that take it from concept to story. And that stuff will be what you know. Even if you don't know the exact emotion of someone going to war, you know of a time when you've been frightened, and can transfer what you're feeling into the context of your story. The topic compels you for a reason, because you relate to something about it. Write about that. That's what you know.

I think it would be impossible to dedicate myself to several drafts of over 100 pages of screenplay without having an emotional connection to the material. Even a writing assignment needs that element of YOU. Every script is a reflection of its writer. So it's important to remember to tell your story, but kind of obvious at the same time. Why tell anything else?