Ensemble (puke) and the popular kids (more puke)

The first thing you may be wondering is, "Why are there flamingos on this page and what do they have to do with screenwriting?" Absolutely nothing. I just felt like adding a picture. They look like they're deep in thought, wading around there, saying things like, "Where in the hell did Bob drop the remote? I told you not to let him have it."

I am writing what I suppose could be called an ensemble screenplay. I hate that word, so snobbish and uptight. I should say I dislike that word because I do not feel as strongly about it as I do about words such as "dinner" and "jot." Now those words I hate. But my screenplay has a group of people living together in a large old house that has become apartments. In a story like this, there are two things that must be very strong: character and plot. Plot because if you're not careful, your people can just end up drifting around having a thousand conversations that go nowhere, and character because if you're not careful, they'll end up too much alike.

On that second note, I came across an interesting thread about voice (http://groups.google.com/group/misc.writing.screenplays.moderated/browse_thread/thread/82c88be732d66516#). There's a lot of good advice flying around in there, but to me, it all seems to boil down to this: see those people in your mind. See them, hear them. Write down what you're seeing and what they say. Yeah, there will be times that you have to nudge them or even give them an outright shove right off the fucking cliff, but for the most part, listen to them, and do not ever, ever limit them.

On the topic of reading threads and other blogs, I keep seeing lists of links running usually down the right-hand side, and they all suspiciously seem to have the same blogs listed over and over. Everyone wants to seem (finger quotation marks) cool and in-the-know by having the most popular kids listed. Well here's the deal pantywaists, I'm going to rebel. That's right. I'm going my own way. So a call out to all you unknowns who are listed on nobody's links. Send me yours and I'll take a look. If you're unknown but I like your style, you're in like Flynn. If John August reads this and gets pissed, so be it, but while you're here John, wanna read my screenplay?

And a polite wave to http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/ who kindly let me use their flamingos for the small fee of including a link.