Are you a Michelangelo or a Picasso? I am by no means an expert in art history or technique. But I like drawing (pun intended) inspiration from paintings, sculptures enough to Google or ChatGPT when I want to learn more about an artist. But these four have been favorites for a while - for different reasons and at different intensities (Michelangelo still my favorite). How would they work on a script? Just my inspirational opinions.
Michelangelo would’ve spent serious time carving out the story structure — the outline, the beats, the treatment — before writing a single word. He saw the statue in the marble and chipped away to set it free. Maybe your Save the Cat devotee? (see one of his 'unfinished sculptures - amazing)
Picasso? He might’ve just started writing — one scene leading to another, letting instinct and feeling shape the story. Less about "does this land on page 25?" and more about emotional rhythm. Structure emerging in motion.
Georgia O’Keeffe painted her subject again and again — increasingly abstracting it until she felt she was getting closer to its essence. That’s like revisiting a character in different drafts until you finally capture their soul.
Frida Kahlo? Holy %&#*. Purely emotional truth. Visceral. Personal. She’d be pouring onto the page — maybe not knowing the ending, but feeling every turn along the way.
So…
Are you sculpting something you already see?
Are you painting your way into meaning?
Are you revisiting the same form until it speaks back?
Anguishing with every scene or page, but solidly connected to the story?
I feel we're each one of these at varying points, no? Which one are you lately?
Do you have your own metaphor for how you approach screenwriting?
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I thought about outlining and writing a script when I read "Are you sculpting something you already see?" Sebastian Tudores. Sculpting something (writing the script) you already see (the outline).
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I am all of these in one and sometimes employ all of these with one project, oddly enough.
I start with structure, albeit most of the time loose. Rigidity leaves little room for exploration or creative expansion.
Then I just write, I let it flow. I breathe it and imagine it. I project it on my mental as I write it.
Then sometimes I go back to it again and again, a scene or a character, to get the nuance of tone, congruency, or more authenticity, maybe because I get more closely connected to the character and more able to walk into their shoes and wear their skin the deeper I get.
While I may have a way that I once believed the journey should end, it often does not end in the way I intended when I started.
It's just like our own personal journeys. We start with goals and ideas of where we want to end up. We have it thought out. This is where we start, and here is what we hope will happen in the middle that will get us to a supposed end. But if we are honest, it rarely turns out that way. Life happens.
The same happens with our characters, hopefully. As we write them, we see them grow and blossom, and then experience happens, and the way we once saw it before we crawled into their frame and looked behind their eyes just doesn't ring the same; it just changes, and that's okay.
I must first see (envision) to relay. I must know, understand, and grow in order to amplify, to validate, and to lean in. I must have my own experience with and intimacy with what I create to make it have impact and end justifiably. Is that not the art of craft?
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Renae M Richardson beautifully shared - thank you :)
"I am all of these in one and sometimes employ all of these with one project, oddly enough." - not at all odd. I can't think of another endeavor where a single individual takes a longer vertical journey from the thematic to the action of a single moment. A comprehensive craft, indeed - good luck with all your projects! Happy writing!
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Sebastian, now that you've laid it all out, I feel more like a Michelangelo...in that I don't want to start on an actual script until I've done the preliminary work: Plot points, a combination "outline/scene list," character profiles, and research about the city and time where the story will take place.
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I can't plan anything. The characters talk to me. I just take dictation.
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THIS is wonderful ❤️ I definitely feel this. I definitely paint and sculpt thru writing, and find my stories lean Van Gogh with the painful deeply tragic romanticism reflected in both Caspar David Friedrichs work and Antonio Canovas sculptures ❤️
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Hi Sebastian
I enjoyed your artistic analogies. I think I’m a bit Dali- my subject matter is weird and supernatural but written in painstaking detail.
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I am like my favorite Ninja Turtle named after said Renaissance painter. I found my outlines getting more and more detailed with each script I write.
I like pizza too, but can't skateboard.
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I see the entire story like a full picture in my mind — then I chip away everything that’s not essential and bring the heart of it onto the page.
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This made me think... I love to paint and have never sculpted (except in Blender) but I feel my stories start like a blob or a piece of stone, that I chisel until we're almost one and have found its final form.
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Jim Boston yes, totally following - and often those initial discoveries are such a fun part of the process
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Jon Shallit awesome - that's THE definition of being in flow
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Rosie Schreiber so happy to hear the metaphor connected - and you've introduced me to Friedrich! those aren't just landscapes - they are story worlds indeed! was interesting that every portrait of him I saw his eyes were just as intense as his paintings. Also - only now realized that the little statue replica in our house as I was growing up in Romania was actually Canova's Three Graces! Thanks! haha
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Hu Diana Lock ! thank you - glad it brought your mind to something so specific. And your analogous description of Dali v. your work was spot on! pure craft is what I would call it :)
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Michael Dzurak I knew very little to nothing about the Ninja Turtles - but I know a bit about Michelangelo! Aaaaand about your writing approach - interesting and great to hear about the trend in your outlines. I always told my students that if they were to get only ONE word tattooed it should be SPECIFICITY. Thanks for sharing :)
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Aleksandr Rozhnov that's great - so like Michelangelo BUT with FINISHED sculptures! Thanks for sharing Aleksandr and wishing you happy writing!
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Ooooh, Stefanie Engl I love the part about chiseling "until we're almost one" - the script, the story becoming an extension of you, like the painter's brush bridging to the canvas. thx for sharing!
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Maurice Vaughan I am sorry to have done that to you haha - although I'm starting to learn you have quite a prolific record. :)
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Sebastian Tudores "Specificity" That's been a trend in my outlines. Outline and honing... then script and redrafting. Keyboards don't need much of a break anyway.
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Michael Dzurak haha no they don't!