Tag Archives: Quenton Tarantino

I’m starting this Blog out with a disclaimer. The following is my OPINION. It’s based on what I’ve seen and heard and read, but it’s still my opinion and if you disagree, wonderful. That’s why I love talking to people and reading about screenwriting because everyone has their own way of seeing it. I learn from these discussions and articles and Blogs all the time. But one thing, to me, sticks out from people who do this for a living. They all have their own unique voice and you can absolutely see it when you read their work. The voice that makes their work stand out and special.

When I’m sent a script to read and it’s unreadable, I’m faced with a couple of ways to approach the writer. Sometimes I come out and ask if they want the truth or if they just want me to tell them it’s great. They always ask for the truth, but a lot of them lie because when I get their reactions to my thoughts, it’s like I shot them in the heart.

This Blog is courtesy of a writer who asked me to read his script, which he said in very sincere terms was ready for the “Big Time”. I’m not sure exactly what the “Big Time” is, but this script was not ready anything close to that. The one thing that stuck out was the phony voice it was written in. It was yet another attempt at a Quentin Tarantino voice, including the prerequisite “Royale with Cheese” scene.

I asked this sincere writer if he thought copying another writer’s style was what he intended to do or if he fell into it because all he’d ever read was Tarantino scripts. He said, and this is an exact quote, “It never hurts to copy the best”.

This is where I get down on my knees and beg anyone who wants to be a screenwriter to please stop this. The way you get a career in this business is to NOT copy what you see, but to write and write and find your own unique voice. The voice that says “Someone genuine and different wrote this.”

One the greatest compliments I’ve ever gotten on my writing was when someone was sent a page one rewrite I did on another writer’s script for a production company and then this person called me, saying they loved the rewrite and could tell from the first page it was me who had written it by the voice.

I wear that like badge of honor. You should too.

Every once in a while I get to read a script where I can tell the writer that not only did I like the premise and the execution, but that I found their writing voice unique, different, and wonderful. I got one a couple of weeks ago. I’m not naming names (Emily Blake), but it was sure fun to discover. And I found myself a little jealous of her pretty damn terrific premise. A good thing.

Occasionally a writer can be open enough with their writing to find their own unique voice quickly. Sometimes it takes a dozen scripts for them to figure it out. To reach that comfort level with writing something as yourself and yourself only. Not trying to force it or fake it, but getting to that zone where it flows from the real you. Not easy. But if it was easy, everyone could do it. They can’t.

That said……… Finding your own voice is not a substitute for having to write a great story. But, again in my own opinion, I'm convinced finding your own voice can make finding that great story easier.

So my challenge to you is to look at your older scripts, if you have them, and see if your voice changes depending on the script or if your own unique voice as a writer can be seen in each one. You might be surprised either way. To discover you haven’t yet found it or that you can see the tread of your own style as a writer developing through each script.

And don’t be hard on yourself if you haven’t found it yet. It takes time and knowing yourself as a writer. But know that you if try to copy the style of writers you admire you’ll probably take a lot longer to find your own.

Next time you sit down to write your next scene or script, reflect on why you think it’s YOU and you only that can relate this story the way YOU want to. Then tell it or write it the way only you can. To try and write what you think others may want is a trip into the land of the futile. You can never please everyone and you can never make everyone happy, so it makes sense to be true to yourself first.

Yes. You’ll still have to do rewrites and make changes because, well, that's the industry you’ve chosen and a script is never finished until it’s shot, but it’s easier implement notes and changes when it’s the voice that uniquely speaks from you and you alone making them.