OTHER other writers

Since I work in television, I occasionally wonder about writing a script. I don't do it for two reasons: a) I don't have a really good idea and b) screenwriting flat out gives me the willies.

The thought of all those producers, actors, directors, editors getting their paws on my work and reinterpreting it - screwing it up... Oh, and if they decide they don't like your script the way you wrote it, they can fire you and hire someone else to rewrite it.

Now, fiction writers love to complain, but jeez, we don't have it that bad. Sure, we have to do edits and rewrites. But at least we get to do them. Think about getting fired from your own novel and having it handed over to someone else for rewriting. We'd freak!

When it comes to writing, I just don't play well with others.

However, a peek into the screenwriting trade always teaches me a ton. What does screenwriting have to do with novel writing, you ask? Behold:

I write the cinematic equivalent of Kelly Clarkson. My movies are Chicken McNuggets. They’re Budweiser. There are people in the world who literally get angry when they talk about movies like the ones I make, the way that pop culture absolutists will mock gag over Kelly Clarkson, the way that food purists will assail McNuggets as evidence of some gustatory crime, the way that booze snobs will call Budweiser “warm piss” and refuse to drink anything but some beer from Djibouti that “no one knows about.”

You know…unpopular.

The truth, though, is that Hollywood and Kelly Clarkson and McDonald’s and Budweiser aren’t actually commiting crimes against some absolute standard of quality. They’re just popular. That’s all. They’re common. They’re not special. They’re comforting, normative, unchallenging and perhaps a bit shallow, but they’re also enjoyed.

Sound familiar? Try this:

The takeaway for those of us who write films for a living is simply this. Who do you love? Write for them. If you love the critics, write for them. If you love women, write for them. If you love young people, write for them. But always write with love.

And this:

In the end, it’s not being popular or “Hollywood” or critically panned that makes a movie suck.

It’s an audience saying “that movie sucked” that makes a movie suck. Nothing else.

All of this from a brilliant blog called The Arful Writer, by a man named Craig Mazin, an experienced screenwriter whose latest credit is on "Scary Movie 4." No, Craig Mazin does not think "Scary Movie 4" should win him an Oscar. He does not see himself as writing "Chinatown." He just thinks "Scary Movie 4" has an audience, and he also thinks it's funny. The same way romance writers continually protest that they are not trying to write War and Peace - they are just trying to deliver stories to their audience that will be loved.

The difference is that Mazin thinks that Hollywood has it right - that the equation of popularity to quality is the correct one. There are a lot of people who will agree. After all, who's to say that an art movie is good if no one saw or enjoyed it? Who's to assume it must be good for the same reason? In the art vs. popularity debate, Mazin is firmly on the popularity side.

I'm skeptical, up here in chilly Canada. I'm not sure I'm with him. But it's interesting to read the view from the Hollywood hills.