Writing is Different

 I love writing. I don't know if I'm particularly good at it, but I prefer it to any other form of communication. When I was younger, I wrote silly stories, and cheesy love poems (my sister had one of my poems memorized at one point, specifically to humiliate me with it when surrounded by our friends). 

And that's why I love to write books. I self-published a book a few years ago on Amazon. It's called, The Gem: Remember to Forget. It was an idea that plagued my dreams, and to chase the dreams away,  I wrote the book. I have been told it's good; I'm not particularly fond of it overall, but I am pretty darn proud of the fact that I finished it, and went through the editing and printing process. It was a humbling learning experience. 

Fast forward to this semester in school, where I am learning how to write a video script. What a difference it is to write a video script than a novel manuscript! With a novel, I focus on character development, background, specific conversations and plot lines. 

When I wrote my short video script for this assignment, I was challenged to imagine what my video would look like, and I wrote according to how I saw it in my mind. Instead of writing down exact words to say, I wrote down facial expression cues, and what type of background music would work best in the scene. Writing scenes is strange; because I have to think about what I would see, touch, smell, hear and do in each moment. And then I compartmentalize those moments on paper, to separate out the different cues as to when a song should start, and what expression my face should do at certain moments. 

This script writing business has carved out a new level of dimension for my writing capabilities. Because even though I'm writing a script for a video, the same thought process would work for writing a novel manuscript. This exercise for school has opened up new dimensions to my writing, and I hope I'll be a better writer for it.