Screenwriting From Iowa

“When you map your life in retrospect there’s a bit of a blind cartographer at work.” Jim Harrison Off to the Side: A Memoir This is a screenwriting blog that strays off the reservation (the reservation being Hollywood). Or as the official blog of Tom Cruise said a few years ago, “For a more off-beat look […]

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This post originally ran in 2010: “I wonder, when a writer’s blocked and doesn’t have any resources to pull himself out of it, why doesn’t he jump in his car and drive around the U.S.A.? I went last winter for seven thousand miles and it was lovely. Inexpensive, too.” Jim Harrison (Legends of the Fall) […]

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This post originally ran in 2010 and I’m reposting it in light of Jim Harrison’s death last Saturday: “Later that night the ocean again entered Tristan’s dreams…” Legends of the Fall (Jim Harrison) “So many nights I just dream of the ocean…” Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes (Jimmy Buffett) I’m not sure what the connection is […]

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I learned today that writer Jim Harrison died this past Saturday, so it seems fitting to repost this week something I wrote about him back in 2010: “I think I wrote Legends of the Fall in about ten days.” Jim Harrison on his novella for which the movie* was based Though Jim Harrison’s novella Legends of the Fall is […]

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“I remember taking workshops with Del Close, and he always used to ask the same question of a scene: ‘Is it true?’ He didn’t give a rat’s ass if it was funny. Telling the truth was always held in higher regard than making an audience laugh.” Writer/actress Tina Fey (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live) The Believer […]

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“The smallest, teeniest, weeniest, emotional discovery that’s real, beats the hell out of the biggest one that’s phoney.” Improv guru Del Close  (as found at http://delquotemarathon.tumblr.com) Related posts: 40 Days of Emotions  Scott W. Smith

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“Del Close was the improv comedy guru (both writing and acting) in Chicago when I went there. And he was the reason I went there. I was told about this guy doing groundbreaking work, where you are improvising plays, and he could teach you how to improvise scenes. He was a big influence on my […]

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“I get swept away by the sincerity. I do not get swept away by what people call pyrotechnics & prose. I do not get swept away by wit. I think wit is in a lot of ways damaging to fiction. I just feel like I’m listening to a writer and not the character. When I […]

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“I’ve lived in New York before. Everybody says it helps with publicity and awards and stuff like that. I’d rather have my nice life, for example, in Iowa.” Ethan Canin “With this extraordinary novel [A Doubter’s Almanac], Ethan Canin now takes his place on the high wire with the best writers of his time.” Pat […]

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“I had to fully engage with the process and just choose to be broke.” Writer/director  Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies ) 2016 SXSW Keynote Address This is a fitting follow-up to yesterday’s quote by filmmaker John Sayles about the difficulty of making money these days as an independent filmmaker. Joe Swanberg may be the most prolific filmmaker in the United […]

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