Eric Ernst
Writer

As mentioned in my previous post, writing A Monster in the Attic has been a very different experience than with anything I had written previously. Monster is the first project that I have worked on with another writer, same with Danny.

The concept for Monster first began as a short film in the summer of 2004. Danny was considering it as his thesis project for his BFA, but it soon became apparent that the story could not be fully realized in a short film. From there, Danny started to develop it into a feature length script.

As Danny wrote the initial script, he would often have me read it for notes and feedback. This continued for a while, until we reached a point where we realized that we would be better off writing it together, as our writing strengths were complimentary.

This presented an interesting challenge for both of us. How do you work with a writing partner that is 3 time zones away? Normally we would be in the same room, hashing it out as we went. But in this case, we weren’t even in the same state.

Luckily, the skeleton for Monster was already there, which made our work easier for us. It allowed us to look at the film in smaller parts – sequences and scenes – and work on those instead of making the story up as we went along. We could take each scene and made sure it worked as best it could, both on its own and in the story as a whole.

The majority of our script conversations took place, as mentioned in Erica’s post, using the iChat program. This allows us to still work face to face even though we aren’t in the same room together. Although this is not ideal, it is sometimes beneficial, as two writers, passionate as they may be for the project, can often have very different ideas of how things can play out, and having that distance has kept us from killing each other.

Just kidding. But having a writing partner is a relationship, and like all others, has its high points and lows. However, it does teach you at least one very useful skill: compromise.

Writing A Monster in the Attic with Danny has been an experience that I’ll never forget. It’s improved me so much as a writer and its been really wonderful working with someone with so much vision and passion for his work. I can’t wait for you all to see the final product.

Until next time,

Eric