Dear Syd Field

“The hardest thing about writing is knowing what to write.” – Syd Field

Dear Syd Field,

A few years into living in Cleveland, while walking around downtown with Statler neighbor and friend Sonia Bacchus, we saw some odd things go down. After discussing the dark options of what could happen on such a chaotic early evening, she turned to me and said, “And you write that story.”

So I turned to another Statler neighbor and friend Evan Lieberman, who instructed, “You must read Screenplay by Syd Field.”  And I did.

Not only did I learn a completely new writing format, but my script, called Cleveland, became a passport into a completely new creative career that included a life-altering West-Coast trip to CineStory where I met some incredible pros. One of these pros, Barri Evins, has, for the past four years, been my writing coach, pushing me way further and harder in the craft than any other  human being.

Just six months after the CineStory trip, I received yet another pivotal call, this one from a key decision maker who invited me to apply at Tri-C to teach Art of Story. And, so, I spent the next nearly four years, among other things teaching hundreds of future filmmakers; good people who view the world a certain way, a pure way, an original way. Their youth, energy and passion further propelled me to be better and more honest, as a teacher and as a writer.

Whether in Art of Story or in the online Screenwriting class, Screenplay served as the steady and stable guiding post and the prerequisite reading to Robert McKee’s complex and sophisticated Story. It’s not that Screenplay is simple material. But what Field managed to accomplish was to take a not so simple format and then break it down into manageable steps so that aspiring writers can break it all down to three acts, two plot points and one compelling script.

I no longer teach at Tri-C and I don’t know if anything will happen with my Cleveland script. But, because of this book, and all the subsequent events, everything changed and now, anything is possible.

Rest in peace, Mr. Field. And thank you for advancing the plot of this ever-evolving character.

Images: My copy of Syd Field’s, Screenplay