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This also applies to other subject matters, too. Unless you've been in the military, you should lay off such stories where the military is a key factor.
Some things you cannot properly research. Sex is one of them. Another example might be martial arts. You can't write a good martial arts story without an understanding of it (I'm talking more than just fighting). At the very least, you would need a good fight coordinator, but even then, you wouldn't understand the heart and soul of it.
I don't see why a virgin couldn't conceivably make a decent attempt at erotica.
I'm guessing that Ian has never been chased by a slasher killer, Wesley has never fought a chicken, Ziggy has never travelled forward in time, and Alan has never been a sixteen year old girl called Banana (if I am wrong on any of those points I do apologise). Doesnt mean they can't write it.
You can watch a lot of porn, interview people who have been in the military and learn a martial art. At the end of the day to sit down and write any character you still have to use your imagination.
That's what an editor told, although I believe it. I'm not referring to cheap porno, btw. I'm talking about passion and that's something you can't research in books.
Slasher films and porno merely mimick other slasher and porno films. And there's no passion in porno movies. Porno films are usually written by the director in a day's time just so he doesn't have to pay a writer. No one who writes slasher films knows what it's like to be chased by a mad killer.
I can't comment on Alan's Banana, as I haven't read it, but Ziggy didn't write about time travelling. His character just popped up in the future. Since time travel is only theoretical now, writers have more room to make things up in this matter. It still has to have some level of believability.
If you talk to someone about martial arts, you'll learn a little bit about the style (what separates it from other forms) and maybe some techniques. You won't learn about the heart of the form.
There's a big difference between 'Kickboxer 9' and 'The Karate Kid.' Kickboxer 9 is just about fighting. It's all visual (much like a porn movie) with little story (much like a porn movie) and little character development (much like a porn movie). Karate Kid goes very far into the style of Karate. Ralph Macchio learns more than just technique. He develops the confidence, spirit, experience and philosophies that you can't get through an interview or from a book.
To be honest I know nothing about martial arts, but I am quite willing to believe that Kickboxer 9 didn't get to the heart of the subject!
I agree with you that some things you can't research, but there are also some things you can never experience i.e. life in somebody elses shoes. If you could never write anything but what you have directly experienced, films would be pretty dull. Nothing interesting ever happens to me!
I must admit I get dragged to comic fairs and there are always these hilarious erotic comics drawn by teenage boys who have quite obviously never seen a real woman naked. But bless them for trying, they are flexing their imagination muscle and that can only be a good thing. And people actually buy this stuff, so who am I to turn my nose up.
I don't think someone needs to have had sex to have experienced passion. I also don't think someone has necessarily experienced passion just because they have had sex. But thats taking the topic off on whole different tangent...
I was talking about this thread with a friend who is a comic book artist. A couple of drinks later we decided we were going to produce our own spoof erotic comic, based on the sometimes rather messy reality rather than the fantasy portrayed in most erotica. See what you've started Phil!
It's true that I haven't been a sixteen year old girl named Banana, but ever since a very young age, I've had fond feelings towards ...
... okay, i was just holding a towel. I dropped it. I looked at the floor, and it's gone. It's the weirdest thing. Have you ever held something, dropped it, looked for it, and it was gone? Was there a towel in the first place, or was it a towel of the mind? It was definately a real towel. Where the fuck did it go?
This particular towel was big. Perhaps it was a continuity error, and I wasn't supposed to notice it. Will this "draft" of the universe be re-written because I noticed a continuity error? I don't really care to learn the answer. What were we talking about before my paranormal event?
Oh yeah ... muses are typically abstractions, like music or a personality, or a picture, et cetera. The more complex the abstraction which is your muse, the more stuff you can write aabout without really knowing too much about those subjects.