When I wanted to be a Screenwriter

Arghhhh! This morning cry😢

It's Saturday and I planned to sleep till 7 a.m. but the noise from outside is saying no to my plans. It’s 5 a.m. and I’m hearing:

"We are saying thank you, Jesus"

Ha! People don’t have conscience o! I just want to sleep and someone is shouting outside by 5am!

Why this loud megaphone this early morning?

The woman outside has finished singing and is now shouting her lungs out that God should get ready for the souls that she is about to win. By 5am?

You sef pity God.

As if on cue, while I’m still trying to adjust my ear to this sound that have woken me up from my deepest slumber, I immediately hear another noise. Someone is setting up mic in the next street. Then, I hear:

"Testing the mic, 1, 2, 3"

Please, what's going on?

The man clears his throat and taps the mic:

"Kpom! kpom!"

This PA system is louder than the woman's, “Praise the Lord!” He echoes twice.

Ha! I guess there’s no sleep for me again.

It’s just like a juxtaposition of chaos.

Well, since I’m wide awake. Let me fill you in with a short story of my failed journey of being a screen writer.

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I can't remember the particular age I started writing, I do know that as soon as I could make good sentences, my sister started urging me to write. She has always been a lover of words, fascinated by how powerful they can be. She experiments with new words to grow her grammar, she writes — so, yes, I looked up to her.

Because why not? She was too good.

The goal was simple and clear: to be a published writer. But sometimes, when that goal seemed too far and unattainable, she encouraged me to tear out ‘rough’ books, cut them into small sizes and use gum to bind the pages together so that it can look like the books I read in school then.

But something changed when I turned 11– I became fixated on something else. I started spending all my free time —every 9p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends watching Filipino movies (like Tayong Dalawa (The Two of Us) and Marimar on MyTV but that wasn't enough. Soon, I resorted to buying and borrowing from friends - Mara and Clara was the beginning of that experience.

I remember sneaking out of the house with my siblings to look for stores that have the movies we wanted.

We didn’t mind the long distance.

We suffered. That place was too far.

But despite the troubles, those movies made me realize something: I didn't just want to be a book author. I wanted to be a screenwriter.

This time, I bought an 80-leaves notebook and started my own movie. It was the best feeling ever. I could see my characters floating on the pages of my books. I loved the life I had given to them.

My sister started hers too.

It was raining screenwriting!

This time, I bought an 80-leaves notebook and started my own movie. It was the best feeling ever. I could see my characters floating on the pages of my books. I loved the life I had given to them.

My sister soon started hers too.

It was raining screenwriting!

But after completing Season 3 of my own movie, thoughts set in. I looked at the four 80-leaves notebooks stained with my ink and asked my sister,

"How can these characters actually come to life?"

"Is this a total waste of time?"

"Which of our friends can actually play this role?"

"Does he have a white shirt for this scene?"

"Where are we going to stay and act the movie?"

"How can we get all the food that I have written about in this book? Or should we totally erase food from the movie?"

"It's three seasons," my sister said. "Definitely not possible!"

"Which cars can we use? Which school? Which...?"

screams in overthinking

Maybe that birthed overthinking for both of us.

Then, one day, my sister came home with a big solution.

"I heard we can actually sell the script!" She said.

We didn't have any phone to verify all these, and I couldn’t tell my mum about this because I felt she will never approve. C’mon! This isn’t writing a book, it’s a movie.

But that wasn't the big problem. The big problem was that I didn't even want to sell it. It was like my biggest treasure at the time.

And when my not-so-big sister saw reasons with me, we decided not to sell it.

As if we even could. Hehehe.

We decided to think of other solutions. And it came—if we want to make the movie a success, we needed star actors and actresses. Famous people.

No, that did not stop us.

Define determination again.

I went to school the next day and begged my friend to bring her phone the next day so we could use it for browsing.

That day, my friend showed up, and we spent hours and hours looking for a celebrity's phone number on Google.

But they said everything can be gotten from Google.

Covers my face.

We spent hours and hours looking for Ini Edo's and Uche Jombo's phone numbers on Google. We searched and searched until our eyes started begging for relief.

I have never been that disappointed.

Now, how can I make my script come to life?

Oh God!

But wait!

Just imagine if I had gotten her phone number or chatted her up.

My God! What would I have said?

How did I expect her to celebrate and immediately want to be an actor in my script?

Guess we were more than a little delusional.