Larry Meyers: Frank, what’s the most critical part of the writing process for you?
Frank Military: Point of view is everything. Politics, God, religion, love, race, friendship, sports, poker, sex.
Larry: That also sounds like an actor talking. When you go into a scene, you have to have an attitude, a point of view, and you have to make choices as well. Is that something you think came from your acting background?
Frank: I don’t know. But I’m always surprised when I see actors that don’t have the tools to analyze a script. Instinctually they know that there’s a problem, but nine times out of ten they blame it on themselves. I have friends who audition and I’ll work with them and say, “You’re completely fulfilling what this is. The problem is in the page. It’s not a problem of you getting into a certain head space of where this character is or an emotional space of where this character is. It’s not that. You’re doing it. It’s just not there on the page.”
Larry: I always do a pass where I put on the actor’s hat and remind myself, “What’s the objective for the actor? How are they going to play this? What is the intention behind this line?” I feel like it adds an extra foundation for the script. Is that something you’re doing instinctually because of your training?
Frank: All of us have the actor’s voice in our heads because we sit and read our work. And we don’t read it at reading speed, we read it at the pace and rhythm of the scene, and that’s us acting. We should all listen to a read-through, listen to actor’s comments.
Larry: So do you work from outlines?
Frank: Yes, extremely detailed ones.
Larry: What do you tell people who hate to outline?
Frank: When I speak with younger writers, they fight structure. Yet look at simply structured music like the blues. When people are beginning to improvise they use the structure because it is freeing. A well-structured story is usually embodied through a well-structured outline. It gives me the most creative and fun moment in the writing process. When the outline is done, I know where the train is going. I can put on music and disappear in a meditative way into the actual writing. Blues is great for learning, but if you go to Jazz and you begin to understand more progressions, you know where you’re going and you’re free to take the composition and find your unique direction.
Larry: Does writing scare you?
Frank: The diving in is frightening for all writers until the moment that they dive in. And that’s the great thing. I know many writers that are filled with anxiety about their profession. I don’t have anxiety when I’m working because I’m putting my butt in the chair and doing everything I can to make the project as good as it should be and that’s all I can do.
Larry: What scenes do you work on first.
Frank: The scenes I go over are the ones that give me pleasure. I choose to sit and amuse myself. I want to get to the end and read a first draft. There will be lots of problems, but the big question that must have been answered is, “Is this working? Is this structure working, are these themes coming through?” That’s what I’m nervous about because if those aren’t working, the rest of it is irrelevant.
Larry: Do you believe there is such a thing as writer’s block?
Frank: A friend of mine was asking that same question. I said, “I’ve never had writer’s block.” And she said, “Oh Frank, now you’re acting like an idiot.” I said, “No, part of the reason is I’m a screenwriter. I only have a few things I have to actually focus on each year. So I was never blocked in the sense of there being a blank sheet of paper. There’s so much process that I can do mechanically, and so little I need to produce.
Larry: I don’t think anybody really does have writer’s block and that’s why I’m trying to figure out what it really is. I believe it is insecurity.
Frank: There’s that natural reluctance that we have to start on something. Many non-writers get insecure, they move forward and they stop. That’s the difference between a professional and an amateur writer. Pros have the confidence to say; “We’re lost today. Next time when we’re lost we go back to research, we write a character, we reread the book, we reread the magazine article, we call our friends and go have lunch.” Amateurs get knocked back, they tend to stop and the project follows.
Ed. Note: This is part one of a two-part series which concludes tomorrow.
Excerpts from Inside the TV Writer’s Room: Practical Advice for Succeeding in Television, edited by Lawrence Meyers (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2010), by permission.
Autographed copies available at www.tvwritersroom.com.
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