JMS on Writing
Volume 15

[Poster complains that too much of the story has been rushed in the effort to finish the show at the end of season four, should season five not be picked up.]

Understand that you over-estimate the power of fandom in the current TV market.

For starters the studios have gotten used to letter writing campaigns by SF fans, and no longer give it the same weight they used to.

If WB decides to drop year 5, it will be an internal business decision, and will not be subject to appeal. About one-third of all new shows presented at NATPE this year to the stations either aren't going or are in serious trouble because WB, UPN and FOX are grabbing more nights of committed programming at local stations...in simple terms: there is no room at the inn.

That's the single biggest obstacle right now to WB renewing the show, I'm told. That the market has changed, and the stations either have other commitments, or are tempted by new, highly-promoted shows, as opposed to a fifth year of a show they know.

I've had to make adjustments to cover my bets in either direction; if I did what you describe, and there ended up not being a year 5, the story would not have an ending, and the thing would be pointless. It's not a matter of "sticking to one's guns." It's a matter of protecting the fans, and the story, because I have no control whatsoever over what's going to be decided shortly. Neither do the fans. It ain't the same world as when ST was saved for one more season. We've been told, point-blank, that WB *wants* to do the show next year, because they're making a LOT of money on it...but if there's no room for the show at enough stations to make it viable, they won't be able to do it. (And they can't take it to cable, we found out this week, because the PTEN contract for the show expressly forbids it).

I've isolated the threads that would go into a year 5; if we get year 5, I'll pull the triggers on that, and we'll do those stories. If not, those threads will go into the sequel. Either way, we're covered...because I can't ask fans to stick around for 4 or 5 years of a show, and not achieve resolution. It would be thoughtless and cruel.

jms

"Have you ever considered directing?"

With great trepidation, and at the urging of Warner Bros., I've decided to direct one episode this season...not because I have any particular ambition to be a director, but because I think it will help me become a better writer by more fully understanding that side of the camera. Given how massively busy I am already, this decision will almost certainly be called as evidence in any sanity trial that might take place in future.

jms

"Do you always write the ending first?"

No, because the exact *shape* of the ending never come clear to me until after I've written all the material preceding. I *know* where it's going, I have a fairly clear vision whenever I write a script of where I want it to end, but I don't actually write it first, no. Mark Twain said, "You should never write a story until you have finished it to your satisfaction." So yeah, you do have to know it.

jms

When I introduce a new character, I just kinda see a sense of the character in my head, an outline...if you take off your glasses, and you're nearsighted, that will give you some sense of it. When an actor comes in and hits it, the character goes into sharp focus.

jms

[ Summary: Asks JMS which of his B5 characters is his favorite. ]

I'd be hard to pick an absolute favorite; I like all of them, for various reasons, and at various times. If you put a gun to my head, I'd say it was probably either Delenn or Londo, because of the many shades to their characters. They're like crystals, they change color and texture depending on how the light shines through them.

jms

[Referring to Joe's ongoing feud with the SFWA, poster questions how they, as professional writers, would admit they didn't know how to read a script.]

That's one of the things about scripts...lots of people (and I'm generalizing this beyond SFWA) like to pretend that a script is somehow vastly different than any other kind of writing, often because they have an agenda (including the notion that you have to pay $450 per session for a consultant to teach you how to read it), but fundamentally...a story is a story is a story. Dialogue is dialogue. Only the margins vary.

jms

[ Summary: A defender of SFWA's policies regarding screen writers adds to the discussion. ]

"It's a looooooong jump from that to saying that SFWA 'doesn't consider screenwriters real writers.'"

Ah.

So, I take it that the letters that appeared in the SFWA Journal from SFWA members stating essentially that point did not actually exist in our universe, having instead filtered over via some spatial rift from the Bizarro Universe version of SFWA...(which would frankly be redundent).

jms

For those who know that one of my chief mentors as a writer was (and is) Norman Corwin...who was also one of the main inspirations to such other writers as Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Charles Kuralt, Stan Freberg and others, here's your chance to actually experience some of it.

A number of his radio dramas (and some scripts) have just been made available via The Mind's Eye. They include performances by such folks as Jimmy Stewart, Vincent Price, Ray Bradbury, Elsa Lanchester, William Shatner, Edward G. Robinson, Lionel Barrymore, Orson Welles, Jill Eikenberry, Groucho Marx, Robert Benchley and others.

You can get a catalog from 1-800-411-MIND, or from their website at www.lodestone-media.com.

jms

"Have you ever had any problems writing a part for an actor you admire?"

Not really, since in 99% of all cases the program, whatever it is, is cast *after* I turn in the script.

"Have you ever been star struck?"

When we had Paul Williams, and Michael York...yeah, definitely. And I turned all fanboy, had Paul autograph 2 of my CDs for "Phantom of the Paradise," and had York sign my laserdisk of "Cabaret."

"How do you deal with writing for people you greatly admire?"

See above. It's usually after the fact. In any event, I just write the character, not the actor.

jms

[ Summary: About Delenn changing from male to female and then having a romance with Sheridan/Sinclair, this poster asks: "Do you think you could have pulled it off?" ]

I could've pulled it off. Ve haff vays....

jms

[ Summary: "Joe, all I'm saying here is that individual members of SFWA can only speak for themselves, not for the organization." He then elaborates with examples. ]

But, see, Mike, there's the contradiction...when you talk about SFWA being tolerant and inviting, you're generalizing from the individuals to the group. But when I do the same, you say, "No, no, those are just the individuals." When enough individuals say something, it becomes a group opinion, and hence an organizational opinion.

Basically, you're saying that if the action is *positive*, it's SFWA the organization speaking...if the action is *negative*, it's just the members talking, thus giving the group deniability.

You can't have it both ways, Mike.

jms

[ Summary: "But I much prefer to limit that accounting to what SFWA does 'officially,' and put the actions of individuals on their individual accounts." ]

Okay, Mike...so the organization speaks for itself. Over on GEnie, George Martin came in, and speaking as Vice President for SFWA, speaking for the *group*, said, of my statement to disqualify myself from future Nebulas to show that this isn't part of a vested interest on my part but rather the principle, "Don't you have enough awards, Joe?" When another fan reminded him of my statement given above, he said, "You cannot disqualify yourself from a Nebula, and I suspect Joe knew that." (Which I didn't.) In essense he first questions my motives and my ethics, then assaults my honesty, as his way of dealing with my raising the issue. (I then made it plain that I will not accept any Nebula in future, regardless, if that's what it takes, though I think most people knowing you don't want one will tend to discourage voting in that area.)

So now what is this, George speaking as George, or George speaking for SFWA the organization? Because when he came in he sure as heck made it clear that he was speaking in his capacity as VP.

Sorry, Mike, but the organization acts as its members act, and speaks as its members speaks, and George's intemperate reaction, to immediately and gratuitously go for the personal attack rather than discussing the issue, when I had never said a WORD about any one person in this discussion, just shows again why many are afraid to pursue this issue any more. They're tired of the petty, personal attacks, and so am I, from many of the members AND the organization and its spokespersons. Because an organization doesn't exist as some kind of Platonic ideal, outside reality (though in this I sometimes wonder if SFWA is outside reality). It says in the Bible, "You shall know them by their works." An organization is known by what it does, and what it says, through its members. So you can try and divorce the two all you want, but they're the same thing.

jms

[Poster comments on Jodi Foster's claim at the 97 Oscars that most writers were agnostic.]

It's not my experience that most writers in town are agnostic, but I don't get around as much as Jodi (no sarcasm intended; she's done a wide range of work). I wouldn't agree, though that doesn't make it untrue, just that my experience doesn't reflect that.

jms

[ Summary: Asks if the raven and the dove in Sheridan's dream were a reference to the story of the Flood in the Bible. ]

That was not the specific intended message, no....

jms

[ Summary: About the raven and the dove, this poster asks if there was a specific message intended. ]

Not a message as such, but more an image, a mood that gives subtext to some stuff that happens later.

jms

"But seriously, what kind of responses do you expect to see in this newsgroup the week following the last episode?"

In a way you're kind of asking the wrong person, as I'm inside the fishbowl and can't see the show the way anyone outside can see it.  The only gauge I have is the reaction the script got around the stage when people on the crew and cast read it.  (With a note attached explaining the possibility of airing it as 522 or 422, but that either way thsi would end up the story.)

Pretty much everybody cried.  I came home to a message on my machine from Mira, who was almost unable to speak, and another from Claudia who said she was honored and proud to be a part of this, and the script had made her cry.  Bruce, Richard, big beefy guys on the crew...all said the same thing.  And there I have to concur; I lost is several times as I was writing it, due to the content; there's one scene in particular...you'll know it when you see it...that put me away for an hour when I finished writing it.

But here's the thing...*every single person* who cried at the script, ended it feeling that it was not a sad script in the end, or a down ending...that it left them feeling proud, and tall, and *positive*...that life goes on...that it was a reaffirmation of life itself, on its most primal level.  They felt good about the ending.  And that was a great relief for me, because I was trying something *very* difficult from a writing perspective, and at first blush it looks as if I've pulled it off. (Now I get to go in as director and *totally* screw it up.)

Only one fan has read the script...someone whose opinion I trust.  Because I was curious about the reaction from that side of the screen.  And the reaction was *exactly* the same.

So how do I think people will react?

I think a lot of people will cry.

But by the end of it, I think it will come around, and be all right...and mainly, that people will then look back at the whole story, through all these long years, and say, "It was a good story."  And close the cover, and put it on the shelf with the other books that will be reread again down the years, and turn off the lights, and go to bed feeling that the time was well spent.

Which is the most any writer can ever ask for.  To tell a tale worth telling  To make people cry.  To make people laugh.  And even, once in a while, make them think about things, and see the world just a little differently than when they began.

And then they can centerpunch me on the freeway, or throw a plane at me, and I won't even mind.  Because everything I set out to prove, I proved. Everything I set out to say, I said. 

I've carried this story like a hermit crab carries its shell for five long years, counting the pilot.  It's been an *awfully* long and difficult road, and no one will ever really know just how hard this show was to make.  Nor should they, because it isn't the difficulty that makes the story, the *story* makes the story.  But one way or another, aired as 522 or 422, when it airs the burden is off at last.  Then it no longer belongs to me.  It belongs to you.  As should be.

And, in the end, I think you'll be pleased.

jms