Peter Oruamen's Lounge Discussions

Okay, guys. I'm in need of some advice. I can't decide between writing my story as a novel or a screenplay. Now, I'm fully aware you can't make that decision for me and all that jazz. That's not what I'm asking for. I'm asking for wisdom.

I have been trying to write this story for almost two years now. The story itself is fine and plotted out. It works. However, the problem, is the medium. I keep trying to write it as a novel, but I feel like I'm pretty dang terrible at prose writing. I just can't seem to fill in a lot of the inner monologue, deep POV kind of stuff. It's just not working for me.

This has led me to believe that maybe, just maybe this story is a screenplay, especially given the fact that I see and hear the story in my head, rather than the deep, deep thoughts of the characters. I know what they are feeling and what they are thinking, but it all comes to me in visuals and dialogue.

However, what's stopping my progress there is the fact that I'm not feeling really confident that anything is going to come of writing this screenplay. As in it might never see the light of day, and thus, I'll have wasted my time writing it. I'm kind of feeling life pressing in on me and I don't want to waste my time.

Then again, the same could be said for the novel. I'm a struggling writer ( I write content for various online publishing/news platforms) so I have a very, very tiny budget with which to promote any novel I self-publish, and thus, the book may go completely unread as well.

Anyway, I'm in a stalemate and this sucks. I want people to enjoy the stories I make. I just don't know how to make that happen in either medium, so I'm stalled. I've been flirting with the idea of writing the screenplay and if it doesn't sell within a certain number of months, writing up a radio drama script from it and producing it as a podcast, which I could do.

I don't know. Anyone else ever been in this position? How did you think through it?

The other day I was reading up about Marlon Brando and I came across his method acting skill. There was this instance in class that really struck me. His teacher had told everyone to act like chickens when a bomb is about to go off. Everyone except Marlon Brando went panicky. He was sitting in one corner, brooding like chickens do. When his teacher asked him why he didn't act like the others he said, "I'm a chicken, what do I know about bombs". I thought that was cool. Method acting requires deep introspection into oneself. Its the ability and amplitude of an actor to project his feelings within a character. i think method acting is cool.