The Presuppositions of Screenwriting

When you presuppose, you make an ass out of “u” and “me”

It’s funny the things that we assume, or presuppose, just to get any work done.

One of the major things that we assume–a “presupposition,” if you will—is that people will be affected or influenced by our writing.

After all, if that isn’t the case, what are we even trying to do as writers?

Once we reach a good enough standard of writing, that will certainly be the case. With enough technique, style, and flair we could probably make drying paint sound appealing. This is exactly what companies know, and why they pay the big bucks to copywriters to make their boring-ass products or services sound entertaining.

Hey, that said, copywriting is a great gig if you can stomach shoveling destructive, consumerist horseshit all day. I’m saying that jealously because I basically can’t do something I don’t believe in, even though sometimes I could really use the money.

What matters, though, is emotion. Some speck of true feeling is necessary to make sure that the work resonates with the reader on an emotional level.

We then begin to wonder, O those bleeding hearts among us, whether influence or any other effect on the reader is actually manipulative. To which I say, fucking obviously.

It’s a bit like denying that any food is actually some sort of drug. Think about it: anything that we ingest, down to water, has some sort of effect on our bodies, often even a notable one. Put it this way: Heinz Baked Beans may not be Schedule 1, but that does not make them less of a musical fruit.

Similarly, anything that we ingest intellectually will affect us whether we like it or not. It’s the same reason that musicians end up aping others even if they aren’t trying; cf. kd lang’s writing credit on the Rolling Stones’ “Anybody Seen My Baby.”

To believe that we aren’t influenced by the media that we consume is actually to throw the power of the writer under the bus. It is obvious that words matter and words influence others. Striking up an emotion in another is our line of work! Stirring emotion is specifically what a poet is attempting to do. Writing trades in pushing people’s emotional buttons.

Does that make it manipulative? Well, in short, YES.

However, it depends on what one means by that. It’s akin to saying that writing fiction is lying. On a certain level it definitely is.

However, to insist on this point rather than grasp the greater beauty of the medium of fiction frankly seems ludicrous. Particularly if you’re on this site in the first place.

So let’s just admit that we’re trying to affect and influence people. The world will be a lot easier for us once we do that. The next thing that we have to worry about is whether we’re doing so in service of the story, the characters, a deeper philosophical message, or we just want to convince you that if your toilet paper had puppies on it your ass would be cleaner.

That’s up to you to decide.

rowan