Thread by @AGComedy, Right! So inspiration and ideas! I saw a virtual talk with Matthew [...]

Right! So inspiration and ideas! I saw a virtual talk with Matthew Kalil at the London Screenwriters Festival this year (check them out- phenomenal resource) and it blew my mind, and thought you might find it useful. THREAD 1/ #pipelinewritersuk

He’s developed this approach in his book called The Three Wells (I’ll link to his website below). When we are writing, looking at that cursor on the screen, wondering what to write, we have three sources for creation- three wells that we can dip into. 2/ #pipelinewritersuk

1) The EXTERNAL SOURCES WELL- is movies you’ve seen, any books you’ve read, any media you’ve consumed.
2) The IMAGINATION WELL- the lightening bolt from above- You just make it up, it’s come out of nowhere.
3) The MEMORY WELL- your own deep memories and experiences that 3/

you can tap into, though sometimes it’s difficult to go inside there.

Depending on what we’re writing, who we are, etc., we’re always tapping into these wells whether we realise it or not.

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He says to imagine a scene set in a cemetery. Chances are the first image that comes into your mind will be from an external source well- headstones, priests standing there, maybe its raining, lots of black umbrellas. This is the image we often first write, /5 #pipelinewritersuk

and it’s very easy to access, and very good it you are writing to deadline.

Now, the imagination well is more tricky - this is a cemetery scene in a graveyard that you’ve never seen before, or something happens there that you’ve never seen happen in a cemetery before. /6

You just completely make it up. So it’s a little more unique, because it’s probably something people haven’t seen before.

Then, the cemetery scene, but drawing from your memory well- a place you’ve physically been. (Like my friend Jonathan’s funeral - his mom screamed 7/

for ages as they wheeled him away. That’s personal memory tattooed on my mind). It’s more difficult to access because you have to slow your life down a little. But you can draw from it to find really interesting, more personal, authentic, emotional resonance there. 8/

Often we favour one well more than the others. But we need different wells depending on which draft we’re on, what style of script we are writing, what the theme is, etc.

He uses the example of a slasher film. Say you are writing from the 9/ #pipelinewritersuk

external sources/imagination wells primarily, but emotional engagement might be lacking. So what you could do in terms of your memory well (and hopefully you haven’t got a lot of violence in your past to tap from!), you could go scene by scene, and think of a time 10/

ou were in a location like that and ask yourself what happened there to do and what stayed with you in your memory from that experience. And then you insert that. He says it can be small, like you heard the sound of cicadas, and that will bring your scene more to life. 11/

So the way you can use the wells in your re-writes: With each draft, look at whether you’ve tapped very heavily into only one of the wells. Then you use the other well/s to round it out. In other words, if you’ve written a story that’s mainly from the memory well (which means 12/

it might be harder for people to relate to it), you can ask yourself “how can I find other stories to put into this” and introduce structure or character-types or whatever from external sources to round it out and make it more recognisable. If you’ve barely included 13/

anything from the imagination well, you can go scene-by-scene and play with the locations “Could the scene be set on a roller coaster ride instead of a living room?”.
Such a simple and perfect way of figuring out what might be missing, why your script feels out of balance 14/

Extra juicy points:
1) If you are tapping into the memory well, but there’s trauma in the experiences you are writing about, you need to make sure you are supported/have a safe space. I agree with him that some of the best writing does indeed come from emotionally going to 15/

the dark places (but I also believe this type of work can be cathartic and healing both to the writer and the reader. There are plenty who disagree) but yeah, make sure you have someone you can turn to.
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2) Writers should be constantly aware of all the story potential in the world. Pay attention to what’s going on around you. How people walk, or talk, what they say, how they behave, what they’re doing out there to each other. There are a million things you can use for 17/

stories, but its impossible to do laying on our couch or with our face stuck in a screen.
Check out this quote he paraphrases - “How vain it is to sit down and write, when you haven’t stood up to live.” OH MY GOD. 18/ #pipelinewritersuk

3) Writers block - tapping into a different well will help, because often our writers block is when we’re limiting ourself to one well in a given situation. What other movies have dealt with the problem? Who do I know who has done this? Why don’t I just make up a location?
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Anyways, all this stuff is just the tip of the iceberg- here’s the link to his website- http://matthewkalil.com/writer/

Anyway,">https://matthewkalil.com/writer/&q... though I would share, because it& #39;s an entirely new way of balancing scripts, not just a way of mining new ideas! END THREAD #pipelinewritersuk

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