Choosing a subject for your writing: CAM-GIRL

    

     It is the first problem every writer faces; no, not how will I ever get my great American novel published, but having to pick a subject for your story.  I have three criteria that I base this decision on for my work; Marketability, Originality and Strength.

     MARKETABILITY: The harsh reality is unless you are already and established writer with a strong fan base, novels do not sell themselves, just as screenplays do not sprout wings and land into the hands of producers.  Every aspect will require a lot of hard work from the writer, that is why it is best to feel confident about the marketability of your idea before you write the first word.

- Who is your audience?

- Does this story feel like it could appeal to people of many walks of life?

- Would this story be relevant to an international audience?

These are the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself.  It is possible and ideal to write a novel or screenplay that would win the interest of a small, niche group as well as a wide range of people.   It all comes down to the subject.

     Cam-Girl, my first produced screenplay and the novel adaptation Box Cutter Killer is about a single mother who works as a web cam stripper and is pushed to the limit when a stalker invades her life.   Thriller or Horror films tend to do well even when produced on lower budgets and as the saying goes; sex sells.  This was a highly marketable idea for a movie that could be produced on a low budget; that is why with Cam-Girl my writing finally started getting noticed and eventually produced and picked up by a distributor.

     ORIGINALITY: Has your story already been told?  If the subject has been explored in other work you could tell your story from a different point of view or write it in a genre that would make it original.  For example, Warm Bodies is a horror-love story told from the perspective of a male zombie who is torn between true love and a hunger for brains.  Of course there is Shaun of The Dead, the most successful horror-comedy to ever hit theaters.  

     Just look at how often Macbeth has been remade in countless original film adaptations; Akira Kurosawa made his with samurai’s and set it in Japan with Throne Of Blood.  Roman Polanski made his distinctly European version and Scotland,PA told the story of Macbeth with a hamburger stand as the main location.  

     Figuring out if your story is original or not requires that you do the research.  Do a search online for books or movies about your subject.  I make it my job to watch thousands of movies, all kinds of movies.  That is how I knew writing the screenplay for Cam-Girl in 2009 was a good idea.  Web cam stripping was a fairly new profession at that time and I found the subject interesting.  I thought of a story that would be a good fit for a protagonist who was a cam girl, then I was off and running.  Most importantly, there were no other films on that subject; there were many movies about strippers, but not cam girls.

     STRENGTH: This third criteria can sometimes be overlooked by writers and it never should be.  Write for your strengths.  Can you relate to your subject, story or protagonist in a personal way?  If so great, write about that and express yourself through the story. Maybe you have other comfort zones; like a style of writing you know is your strong suit.  Take the best selling author Chuck Palahniuk for example.  Fight Club, Invisible Monsters, and Damned all center around interesting iconoclasts, outsiders who live on the outskirts of society.  It could be due to radical political views, sexual orientation or going from immense wealth then into the depths of Hell, but all of his narrators have something that sets them apart.

     Are you great at writing dialogue?  If so pick stories that are character driven.  Aaron Sorkin, KevinSmith, Quentin Tarantino and David Mamet have based their careers on the strength of their dialogue.  Novelist Hubert Selby Jr. has a gift for writing street people, he cuts through his narrative with authentic slang dialogue in his novels such as Requiem For A Dream and Last Exit To Brooklyn.

     
     Since I wrote a few screenplays before Cam-Girl I knew character and dialogue were what I am best at.  Cam-Girl and Box Cutter Killer have their moments of action an suspense but they are largely character driven pieces that are full of hard hitting lines of dialogue.  The movie has some humorous and introspective voice over which is something I always enjoyed writing and made Cam-Girl easier to adapt into a novel.  I hope this has helped to inspire some ideas for your writing.  Anyone can enjoy a well told story, all you have to do is write it.