Gross Dialogue Tip

Trust me - the following is not a commercial of any sort. This is about dialogue, so bear with me for a moment (or just skip down to the very last few sentences if you're in a hurry!)...

“PRO-NRG”

Have you tried this new product?

It was featured in a recent SHARK TANK episode.

Now, in your head, how do you pronounce it?

Some will say “Pro-nerg” as Mr. Wonderful did.

Some will avoid pronunciation. It’s all letters: “P-R-O-N-R-G”

The correct pronunciation is “Pro N.R.G.” Get it? Pro Energy.

So why isn’t it spelled Pro N.R.G.?

ING Direct had fun with this problem in their early marketing, always making it to look as if ING was the end of a longer word being blocked somehow. Meanwhile, they insist now to be called “I.N.G. Direct” - so why are they not spelling it like that!?

The ambiguity and confusion hurts marketing. Ambiguity is not good in marketing and can be disastrous in screenplays.

And clarity is why screenwriters (and novelists) must spell things out in dialogue, including numbers, symbols, initialisms, abbreviations, etc.

But it’s only ONE reason why. In screenplay, the other reason is to keep the truth of the page. One scripted page equals one minute of screen time. Reducing “seventy-five smackaroos” to “$75,000” does not represent the time it takes to say it, and it does not make it clear how to pronounce/phrase it.

Which indicates a third reason to spell out things in dialogue in screenplays: How things are said reveals your character's voice:
mobster: seventy-five big ones
banker: seventy-five thousand dollars
Joe Schmo: seventy-five thousand bucks
IRS form: "$75,000" 

And the fourth reason is clarity. In dialogue, the "IT girl" would be a shout about that girl who possesses the X factor. The "I.T. girl" is the girl who works in the Information Technology Department.

So...

IN DIALOGUE, always spell out your initialisms AS THEY ARE PRONOUNCED: F.B.I., O.K. (or okay), T.V., etc.

Acronyms are a whole different animal. Pronunciation trumps all, so there is NO punctuation: MADD, VISA, INTERPOL, etc.

To be clear when you have a word that could go either way, your actor will know what to do depending on how/if you punctuate: ASAP, A.S.A.P., AWOL, A.W.O.L, R-O-L-A-I-D-S, etc.

A "Gross" Ghost in a Misty Forest

New stuff happening, has happened, will happen.

Screenplays have been completed!

Novels are underway. Non-fiction bios are outlined and ready to go.

But it's not just all about ME and MY projects. It's about other people's work these days.

The more screenplays and books I proof, edit and analyze, the more people I meet who want more help. And I've found I have a knack for seeing the forest despite the trees - when I look at other people's work.

Of course I continue to be blind to the forest when looking at my own trees, so my own work is much more slow going. But that's OK.

We all think we can fix other people's work, but it's not usually true. We often look at something that needs fixing & we end up imposing our own ideas on it.

I would have a lot of ticked clients if I were doing that. What I've been doing is looking at the work before me as completely belonging to its original creator, and figuring out how it can be reshaped to truly meet that creator's vision.

Thus, more "ghost writing" work has come my way, and I must say that I enjoy SOME of it. I've turned down more than I've taken so far. There does need to be a gelling of minds for ghost writing to work. But all of these special requests have sparked the need to expand my range of services, and there's a bunch of new stuff on the horizon.

So, meet Tammy Gross - Proofreader, Writer, Analyst, Ghost Writer AND "other" (watch for updates to the sites...)

ProofMySpec.com

Coverage4Screenwriters.com

GrossProofing.com

Screenplay - DONE! (sort of)

...
Wow - Lesson learned.

Just write the stupid thing!

That's not an American colloquialism. If you're attempting a "first draft" of anything - write it. It's stupid. It's putrid. It's ugly. Just write it.

Once the stupid thing is done, the real work can begin. That's where I'm at now: REWRITING.

Took me two years to figure it out. All the books say to do it, but making yourself "write through the bad" is really, really tough.

On my birthday in October 2010 I finally finished the "puke draft" where I spewed out all the green slime (& some pretty terrific stuff, too) onto the pages. 171 pages. It should be 120 pages. When it's done for real, it will be sleek & GREAT. I hope.

Time to get to the real work now...

Online Resources - a Gross compilation

I was reading an 1888 book about the family of one of my historical characters. In the very detailed description of what a pilgrim girl wore in the 1680s I found the quoted phrase "loose gowu."

What is a "gowu?" I went on an online quest, as I often do. But I did not go to google, as most people would. This was one of those times when I went through the whole journey, as detailed below, only to end up questioning whether the word was a typo in the original text, having possibly meant "gown."

This was perhaps my first unsolved mystery in all my research (about generic data), because usually I need go no further than the following to find my answers...

INSTANT, FREE ONLINE ACCESS:

1. etymonline.com - factual & well researched origins of words and phrases
2. dictionary.com & thesaurus.com - factual & well researched
3. WikipediA - usually well documented, but facts need to be verified, especially with "legendary" info (50% of the info on 18th century pirates is incorrect, citing disputable references). Most other reference sites are stealing from WikipediA.
4. google books - it's amazing how many out-of-print books they have digitized. You can both read the original text & search it online by key words! Text is converted by OCR, so it's hit or miss when searching. You can also read several pages of newer books that have "preview" available, though inevitably the page you really need will often be missing.
5. Amazon.com - actually offers previews of many books, where you can often find the missing pages not previewed in google books. A bit tedious, but worth it for that gem you need.
6. Project Gutenberg - volunteers are digitizing out-of-print historical books & documents. Fallible OCR technology.
7. google maps & google earth - for places, just go look at it! If you can download the FREE google earth software, you'll be amazed what you can see & do. I like to FLY!
8. FamilySearch - detailed genealogies. The Mormons are dedicated to rounding up all of our ancestors. Much like WikipediA, the info here is only as good as what is inputted by well-meaning but sometimes mistaken family historians. So, it's a good starting point for genealogical research, but not the end-all. Refer back to google books after finding some connections.
9. British History Online - very exciting transcriptions from Colonial & British documents dating back to the 11th century. Compiled by dedicated scholars whom I've personally met. Much of the info is free, but for about $40/year you can upgrade to have full access.

For a monthly or annual subscription fee, some other fully accessible online resources include:

INSTANT, ONLINE - FOR A FEE:

1. British History Online - £24/year (approx. $40/year)
2. footnote - $80/year - digitized documents from the USA National Archives - much easier to use than the National Archives websites
3. The National Archives in England - per item fees when specific documents are available/digitized, such as papers from the Colonial Office which are often referenced in British History Online & historical bibliographies (for example, enter "CO 37/10" in the "Go to reference" search box). Online searching here is a bit frustrating. It's much more fun to go to the actual Archives in Kew, England.

If all these fail, just use google & lots of discretion!

For more details on these & more on-site resources, you can check out my July 8, 2009 blog.

Life Happens - a Gross interruption

I don't really get writer's block in the sense of not knowing what to write.

I get life block. The combination of busyness, business, fitness & other "ness"es take over, & suddenly I realize I haven't written anything for over a week. Or two. Or more.

Discipline has always been the dreaded "D" word in my life. The discipline of writing every day has not yet made its way into the elite few things that are my daily habits.

When my writing suffers, my research suffers. And so does my blog.

I think I have a new goal: WRITE EVERY DAY.

As has been said many times, don't worry about getting it right, just get it written.

Columbus Day - a Gross take on Colonial Times

Arguably, the dawn of the modern era was the most exciting point in our world's history as it relates to the world we now live in.

I believe our colonial heritage is underappreciated in art & literature, which is why it's become my passion to research & write about it.

300 years ago, the world was expanding in more ways than any other time. Our predecessors had discovered key things about religion, astronomy, oceanography, colonization, etc. The accumulation of knowledge and discovery put the world on a fast track to adventure unlike any time before. Suddenly, our globe was vast and conquerable all at once.

One aspect that makes the colonial era so exciting to present day historians is its close proximity to today. In the universal scheme of things, 300 years is a blink of the eye. For historical information about centuries previous, we rely heavily on archeology & architecture. But since the 17th century, we find a lot more written documentation to tell us the stories. And it was written on really good, strong Colonial paper!

Because it was so recent, & we feel we can relate to the people who lived in that era, we sometimes scratch our heads over the behavior of our predecessors in those crucial years. When Columbus discovered the Americas, the world's face began to literally change forever. Faces of countless races disappeared from the planet, & some disappeared from history. Entire nations lost without remembrance.

Every single Indian nation that once populated the Caribbean was wiped out by the Spanish, who also went on to obliterate & dilute the Indians in South & Central America, too. Most of the Indians in North America's southeastern territories fell victim to both Spanish & Anglo colonists, the latter earning a fierce reputation across the entire continent in subsequent years.

The face of the land changed, too. The precious natural gems & metals of the earth were mined ruthlessly from the Americas. Millions of years of God's handiwork stripped out of the earth, leaving a scarred & fragmented landscape.

While much of the damage done in the 16th-18th centuries is undoable, so is the progress it catapulted. Never before was the idea of freedom more perpetuated. Time will continue to test its indomitability.

As we continue to enjoy the freedoms of the New World, we simply can't ignore the historic transition that brought our ancestors out of the Old World.

The Net works for networking - a Gross web

The internet is all you need to start up virtual relationships that lead to actual progress in research.

Personally, I can't orally put a coherent sentence together when I'm face to face with people. I go off on tangents with every expressed thought. I am easily distracted by my own words, and all the things going on around me when I'm talking.

But I can put a string of sentences together that make a little more sense when I'm writing. So the internet is perfect for people like me. It's also more efficient when it comes to weeding things out.

Forums are a great resource.

One very good place I find "experts" for my research is the messages boards on the History Channel. Both USA & UK fans come to the site to ask questions & spew knowledge. Sometimes, you get a gem from that.

This is how I met several people who have catapulted me to the next level with my research and my writing. Through a pirate forum, I found out about a book I had somehow failed to find sooner. It was not yet on google books, so it hadn't popped up on my radar earlier. I was able to also find the author's website & start corresponding directly with him to exchange valuable information.

Through a similar forum I found the author of one of the books that has been very helpful in my research. I contacted this author, and now we are negotiating to hopefully someday collaborate on a biography in the future.

Same thing happened on another forum where a published author contacted me after we both posted some corrections, and now we are sharing rare historical evidence with each other to collaborate on my first biography! Pooling our accumulated research & knowledge, we plan to solve a 300-year-old mystery!

The internet can lead to some real-life face time, too.

Meetup.com is awesome. I live by it. Really. Spiritually, physically, intellectually, personally, professionally - it has introduced me to many new actual relationships. Borne out of the 911 tragedy in 2001, Meetup.com connects people by providing a virtual starting point to get people face to face in real life. While researching in London, I was able to meetup & play volleyball in my very limited time there.

After a couple years of benefitting from attending many meetups, I decided to start my own meetup for screenwriters. We meet every other Saturday to read and critique and discuss our scripts & the biz. I've met some fantastic people this way. Some of those people have pointed me to resources I'd missed on my own. Through these resources, I've already had face time with several Hollywood producers and executives!

Networking can put you on to new information. It can open new doors of opportunity. It may help you find someone to mentor, or someone to mentor you, or someone to collaborate with. The possibilities are endless. It may even find you a financial supporter.

If nothing else, networking keeps you thinking & talking about your projects. It keeps your enthusiasm level high enough to keep the project buoyant. How many really cool projects have sunk into the forgotten ocean of death just because you lost your passion? Networking keeps them afloat.

Intelligence, sincerity, authenticity. These are some of the qualities you need to develop for successful networking. A degree of diplomacy will take you very far. Don't push. Don't back down. Balance it out.

I'm still learning the art, but I've already learned the benefits.