Most of this year has gone into trying to see if we can collaborate and come with good scripts. The idea took off last year when I decided to invite a few like minded writers and artists to chat. The idea was to share information and discuss the craft. What started as an informal group over chai and samosa - AP, Sagar, Pallavi, Sheetal and me to begin with, later expanded to include Taher and through him, Shadab and Kanishka. For a while we worked on a pitch document for 'If You Love Someone...' which Taher was hoping to direct. Then Taher got a producer who sold the idea of a short story written by Kanishka 'The Wedding Ring' to an OTT platform and he wanted to get some ideas going. These are the learnings of mine through the process - more than six months.
1) Put your bottom line first. Put your most powerful stuff upfront.
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| Celebrating a hard day's work at Noodle King |
2) Know what your most powerful stuff - don't hide it, don't be shy.
3) Don't waste time with anything that does not move, astonish you.
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| Sagar and Taher |
4) Be clear what the protagonist wants and will fight for, what the stakes are, and put him/her in danger.
5) Be clear about what the major conflict is and intensify it. Let the protagonist and the antagonist fight over it.
6) Create pauses when intensity is too high. Not the other way around.
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| Sheetal |
7) Be explicit. Say it. Make them do it. Don't be subtle and expect others to get it.
8) Look at value changes by the end of scenes
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| Anjali and Sagar |
9) In short stories - let the main character be mischievous, have flaws, say something but does something else for whatever reason. Then the others who he is cheating find themselves in circumstances helping them to get poetic justice done in a fashion that the main character gets exactly what he said he wanted (but does not want)
10) Have a clear arc
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| Me and Shadab |
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