Posted by tommy2towels at sdn-ap-005dcwashp2542.dialsprint.net on January 24, 2003 at 23:30:04:
Kevin,
I have a few writing questions for you, and as a writer that I respect, I thought you could help me out. First of all, this is by no means a request for you to read, handle, and frankly be in the same room with anything I have written. Well save for this post, which I hope I'm not putting my ass up in the fucking air over.
I believe that you should establish yourself by your own means, like you did with Clerks. Anyway, I just turned 18, and I just finished my first script, which was not actually a screenplay, but a one-act play that my High School produced last year.
The reason I'm requesting your sage like, or at least to me, sage like advice, is that people have said my writing shows many parallels to yours, with my use of movie references ...etc., and therefore you'd be the best person to ask about my problem.
I know condescending film critics have shit all over Tarantino's scripts (and I'm not sure if they've done the same to yours [Clerks through Jay and Bob, Jersey Girl's winning a fucking Oscar]) saying that he couldn't write a film without alluding to the works of others.I'm struggling with my next script, because I don't know whether to continue on this pattern or not.
I guess my question is, should I continue to rely on the minutia of pop culture in my writing (which Is what I know and what I'm good at), or should I try to expand my writing to appeal to a larger audience.
Always a View Askew Fanboy (who gets laid on a usual basis),
2towels