I am a retired professor of physiology at the University of Houston. After I retired, still wanting some creativity in my life and believing films to be the highest art form, I started working in films. I wrote, directed, or videoed six narrative or documentary shorts that were shown on local TV. I made a feature-length documentary DVD on Houston's Maritime Museum and related nautical history. I worked on two- “real” films on the craft table, set dresser, face-in-the-crowd, and general factotum.
Afterward, I started writing movie scripts. The skills needed in science writing are the opposite of those needed for screenwriting. Surprisingly, it’s hard to go from the rigor of science into the anarchy of imagination. But I love movies, so screenwriting was the way I chose to spend the rest of my retirement. One would guess I’d choose topics that involved lab experiments gone bad, where the protagonist turned into a superhero or a superfly, but for some reason, most of my scripts are teenage adventure stories. I suspect there’s a message in there.
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Jeez, David - funny you mention the differences between science writing and screenwriting. I've written a few sci-fi scripts, heavy on the SCI (I never outgrew my paleontology and Dad used to build telescopes - so I'm cursed with nerdbrain). My one teen-adventure tale is embedded in a sci-fi scenario as well (sigh)
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David Mailman , would you consider the idea these are not opposites? If so e.g., you can think of the abstract as the inviting incident, introduction and background to be the build up, key findings and insights to be the turning points, and adjustments to be resolutions. I can't say much of physiology, although I can imagine all these in kinesiology or sports medicine. : ) Guaranteed it has to be more interesting than any academic paper I've read!
Hi, David. How is it going? Teenage adventure stories sound exciting. Maybe some of the teens are into science. You should be able to write great teenage science characters.