A WRITER’S VOICE: ‘Adaptation’ – The Rhythm of Rewriting
Jacob Krueger discusses how in ‘Adaptation,’ Charlie Kaufman was able to focus on one pure idea and what his process can teach us about rewriting and adapting our own screenplays.
Rewriting does not stop. There is always something that can be changed. There is always something that can be added. But what we're really doing with rewriting is we're trying to “whittle it down,” just like Charlie Kaufman’s character does in Adaptation.
We're trying to whittle down our screenplays to make them focus most deeply upon the one true thing that most matters to us. We whittle it down so that we can remove the elements that are distractions from that one thing. We whittle it down to allow ourselves to focus and to allow our audience to experience the purity of that one idea.
But that does not mean your script has to be simple.
In this podcast, I'll discuss how Charlie Kaufman was able to focus on that one pure idea and what his process can teach us about rewriting and adapting our own screenplays.
Click the image below to play the podcast or click here.
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The founder of Jacob Krueger Studio, Jacob has worked with all kinds of writers, from Academy and Tony Award Winners, to young writers picking up the pen for the first time. His writing includes The Matthew Shepard Story, for which he won the Writers Guild of America Paul Selvin Award and was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Screenplay. To follow Jacob’s blog or learn more about his Screenwriting Workshops, Online Classes, and International Retreats please visit WriteYourScreenplay.com.