“You just muscle it out”
Advice on writing the first draft from writer-director Darren Aronofsky.
Starting Saturday, September 1, we will launch the 2018 September Zero Draft Thirty Challenge. Participants have a simple goal: Write a story from beginning to end in 30 days. Screenplay or teleplay. It’s like NaNoWriMo for screenwriting. This quote below comes from writer-director Darren Aronofsky whose film credits include Pi, The Wrestler, and Black Swan.
“First you start with an idea, then you start to flesh out the structure, and that’s a long process. I think that’s where we spend a lot of time, just figuring out the structure… all the acts… the beats of the story. And then comes the great leap which is the first draft, I call it ‘the muscle draft,’ where you just muscle it out. You don’t worry about what you’re missing, you just get through it, get to the end… You find that a lot of novice screenwriters will spend years on the first act and it’ll turn into the best first act in the world, but you need to have the whole picture. I think I read an interview with George Lucas saying that the best advice he got from Coppola was, ‘Just get through it.’”
There’s a lot of ‘meat’ here [or seitan for our vegan friends], so let’s break it down:
- “First you start with an idea, then you start to flesh out the structure, and that’s a long process. I think that’s where we spend a lot of time, just figuring out the structure… all the acts… the beats of the story.” This is prep-writing, a critical aspect of the process. I keep hammering on its importance because it is important. Don’t take my word. Take Aronofsky’s!
- “And then comes the great leap which is the first draft, I call it ‘the muscle draft,’ where you just muscle it out. You don’t worry about what you’re missing, you just get through it, get to the end…” Every professional writer knows this aspect of the story-crafting process intimately. Some call it the ‘vomit draft.’ I like muscle draft. It’s not so gross as the former and it denotes strength. Plus it describes the process really well: You muscle your way through it, FADE IN to FADE OUT.
- “You find that a lot of novice screenwriters will spend years on the first act and it’ll turn into the best first act in the world, but you need to have the whole picture.” A great first act is not a story. It’s a set-up. A foundation. Foreplay, if you will. Important to get to where you need to get, but it alone doesn’t get you there. You need to write the whole damn thing to see the whole damn picture.
- “I think I read an interview with George Lucas saying that the best advice he got from Coppola was, ‘Just get through it.’” If Aronofsky isn’t enough, then you’ve got George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola weighing in: “Just get through it.”
When it comes to a first draft, the focus has to be on getting it written. As Aronofsky says:
“You just muscle it out.”
If you want motivation to pound out a screenplay or teleplay? Join hundreds of other writers for the 2018 September Zero Draft Thirty Challenge by checking out the Zero Draft Thirty Facebook group. I started it in November 2015 for the first Zero Draft Thirty Challenge. It’s 3K+ members strong and a great partner to what we do here at Go Into The Story.
Hope to see you there!
