Scriptwriting for Runaways

I finally have the time to sit down with my scripts again and I must say: It's MY pleasure! It's actually quite difficult to put into words how ecstatic I am, but I am. For those of you who haven't fallen in love with writing yet: I have no clue as to how this could've happened. Creating an idea from scratch, brainstorming the hell out of it and puzzling it together is pretty much one of my favorite things in the world. It's like solving a complicated case while bungee jumping - nothing gets my brain cells going or satisfies me as much as THIS!

I would even go as far as stating 'writing has the ability to keep you sane' because it challenges your logic and helps you understand the human condition (which we can all use on a daily basis). It took me a while to discover the written word yet now I can't imagine living without it. Especially after realizing how many times I read a script as an actress and knew exactly what could've made it even better. It drove me crazy - so I needed to give it a try... My first attempts weren't good that's for sure. But everything needs time so I studied patiently. No script writing book was safe- neither were any of my writer friends.

Scripts on a plane

First successes with my short films followed. I was hooked! The beauty about it is that whether it's a recreation of a magical moment you experienced, sharing your most traumatic event or coming up with an inspiring dialog- it's a blessing. The beautiful interactions, challenges and highlights of our relationships in writing; hopefully to be seen by an audience one day! It's therapeutic and a service at the same time.

What's even more important is the empowerment that comes with your original project; your own vision. Something that, being a performer with much time in between projects, is vital to our confidence. My creations are my anker in a rough sea (which - suprise! - happens a lot in the entertainment industry). Whenever difficulties occur or someone struggles to make his vision a reality: My own projects are always waiting for me.

Not all the projects will or can even go somewhere, but every single one of the ones I've been involved in taught me something new. So I never felt like it was a waste of time. Therefore it's adviced to work on as many as your time allows. It can get a little confusing of course, but it certainly takes the pressure off of having to make the current script a hit. Stories have to breathe, grow in their own time. I've been writing a few of my scripts for years now - knowing it's not their turn yet!

One of the projects that instantly caught my attention is now called "Crosscuts". Claus Völker, my writing partner, approached me with a lose idea of a catchy story and fascinating characters in 2009 which grew to an epic wonderful action-thriller. Taking a long time finding the right structure, it is now ready for a final draft. The writing became more and more complex to a point when we had to stop the process to get funding for further rewrites (which we're trying to get as we speak).

So we decided to team up with the amazing Nancy Quan who helped us building a website for this purpose. The page has a first synopsis of the story, a brief rundown of our main characters as well as the cities we'll shoot in, and first insights in our research (mood shots). I'm very excited to here within launch it and hope to get you all excited about it!

The page is: www.crosscuts-movie.com/

Your ThrillerNista