ANDRE BEGIN

A few years back, I put my blog on autopilot in early summer. I finalized several blog posts ahead of time, and queued them up to keep to my weekly publication schedule. The goal was to offer me some free time to spread my wings and try some other creative writing projects.

It didn’t take long for me to sink my teeth into fiction. Ideas had been simmering long enough that putting words to paper came quite easily.

For one story in particular, I already knew my main characters and the main source of tension between them. I started committing those to paper. What started with a few ideas soon became an outline. Then I rounded up the index cards I filled out pertaining to this story and started typing ideas into their respective places.

What I loved was that I could keep the story up on my computer screen, walk away to put a load of laundry in the machine, come back and add a few sentences, entertain the cat a bit, come back and add a few more sentences, do the dishes, add another couple of ideas. Momentum was building and I was already enjoying the creative writing process.

Well into the process of engineering the flow of tension and conflict for the screenplay, I started into a first draft of a heated conversation between two characters. For this dialogue, I tapped into something deep in my soul, very loosely based on something I experienced.

In no way does the conflict or the situation resemble anything I’ve ever experienced, but whether someone is angry about life, people or circumstances, conflict is conflict. It’s universal and can motivate some very impassioned reactions in any of us.

As I was deeply into the writing zone, almost on autopilot myself, the words and the associated emotions poured out of me. The exchange between the two characters flowed seamlessly. The interaction seemed so natural. The strength of conviction and motivation behind the dialogue was unlike anything I had written before. In some ways, I was not only creating a moment, I was living in it.

When I finished typing out the conversation that concluded with one character storming out of the room, the creative bubble around me faded as I returned to reality. In that moment, I noticed that my heart was racing, my breathing was fast and shallow and I felt beads of sweat on my forehead.

I was having palpitations! … Over something I just wrote! Who knew that was even possible?

For a moment, I wondered if another viewer might experience the same feeling as I felt it when I wrote it. If the situation and heated conversation resonated with someone as strongly as it did with me, the possibility was indeed there. And how wonderful would that be?

Instantly, this experience became one of those moments as a writer that I will never forget. The fact that I was able to dig that deeply as if I was in the room with the two characters was a huge rush. The fact that it was able to elicit such a strong response felt like a huge emotional welcome into the creative writing world.

I was overjoyed! I was thrilled! I was euphoric!

When I stepped away from the writing desk, I kept thinking to myself that if this is what it means to be a screenwriter, then sign me up for a lifetime membership! An experience like this makes it all worth it.

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Sincere thanks for reading!
Have a great day,
André