I noted in a previous post that I was looking forward to going back to school this fall – as a student. I enrolled in a for-credit on-line screenwriting class at the local community college. Although I have written articles, books, columns, lab manuals, and radio pieces, screenwriting was a writing form I knew little about. I recognized that I had to take the course for a grade, to keep me motivated. And the on-line delivery was important, given my travel plans during the course, other commitments, and my interest in not commuting 30 minutes in each direction, across town, to get to the campus.
And I learned so much in this screenwriting class. Who knew that screenplays have a rigid template in which they must be written? That character development takes so much work? That the plot points in a screenplay follow a specific formula, including the inciting incident, the dramatic question, the midpoint, the crisis point, the reversal recognition, and the climax? And that these events are organized in a timeline in which one page of the screenplay equals one minute of running time for a film?
My grade for the course has not been posted yet, but I’m pretty sure I earned an A. Most of the points I lost on individual assignments were formatting problems, like writing an action paragraph that exceeded five lines or not including enough description of one character’s reaction to another character’s lines. In spite of those issues, I earned enough extra credit points that I feel fairly secure about my grade. (The final grade shouldn’t matter, but it does. I have worked in an academic environment for decades. I think wanting to be an A student is in my blood, if not my DNA.)
I worked hard not to be That Student. You know, the one who reminds the instructor to give homework or who points out that a web link to supplementary reading material isn’t working. Sometimes, I couldn’t stop myself, but I tried to resist.
I don’t know where this new knowledge will take me. (I tried to sign up for Screenwriting II, but the college cancelled it due to low enrollment, so I’ll try again next semester.) I know that I watch movies differently than before I took this class. I am far more aware when I use the passive voice, and I work harder than ever before to use an active voice in both writing and speaking. I pay more careful attention to how people actually speak, especially when they don’t know I’m listening. I am seeing and hearing the world around me in new ways.
And isn’t that what learning is all about?
On Leadership 