Reading · in it for the plot

Hi friends,

How are you today?
I’m enjoying the rain, finally coming back after weeks of draught. Pour a cup of tea because today I’d like to dive into one of my favourite writers: Emma Thompson.

While many know her as part of the Harry Potter league of incredible actors, her talents are versatility in acting as well as screenwriting.

Emma made history as the only person to have won an Academy Award for Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay), Sense and Sensibility and for Best Actress, Howard’s End. In June of 2018, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

She also had a secret hand in developing the script for Pride and Prejudice 2005, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s dive into one of my favourite writers.

Dear Emma, if you by any chance in this online sphere seeing this, thank you for your incredible work. And If we ever happen to be in the same room, I apologise in advance for my many questions as I wouldn’t be able to resist the opportunity to pick your brain.

If you haven’t seen me before, HELLO! I’m so excited to e-meet you.

I’m Elin, passionate about everything storytelling. With a degree in journalism and BA film, here we unpack the story behind our favourite films and books and deep dive into how we can write our own.

In 2014 BAFTA and BFI held a screenwriters lecture series with Thompson being one of the speakers.

It included a physical demonstration of her writing process; pearls of wisdom shared with the filmmaker attendees; and an anecdote about how a period sketch she wrote featuring a Victorian-era virgin encountering a penis led to her penning Sense And Sensibility. Joe Utichi

Emma has always given me the impression of being open and grounded, and I think few things explains this as well as this lecture. It’s described that she pulled out a yoga mat, sitting barefoot at a tiny writing desk and walking on and off stage, to showcase the normal day to day that goes on in her process.

Throughout the lecture, she goes into stories, revealing details of her process and I want to highlight a few that’s stayed with me.

In 1988, Thompson wrote and starred in a comedy sketch program about a woman meeting a Vietnamese immigrant at an art gallery.

…perhaps the most important thing I ever did because it was such a massive failure.

Thompson reflects on it’s failure by saying that some of it was good and some of it was bad, mentioning her choice to not include a laugh track but also the political topics included.

“And I remember getting reviews like, “This is very man-hating, this is very…” And I thought, “Well I love men, I’m just writing about what it’s like here for me. That’s all I’m doing, and if that’s how it’s striking you that’s really bizarre.” So it was a very violent experience..”

Thompson plays a Victorian virgin trying to explain to her mother about a small, hairless pink mouse a man had just shown her. “Yep, it’s a sketch about a willy,”

“And it was, oh it was a terrible experience, and I tell the story with great purpose, because I think if you can’t fail like that you can’t do this job.”

But it led to her most famous piece of screenwriting, the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense And Sensibility, which she says came to her because of that sketch. They had showed the sketch series in America, and her friend Lindsay Doran had watched it and had said “That’s the woman I want to adapt a Jane Austen novel.’ Go figure.”

This was Thompson first adaptation, but she speaks off the advice she was given to dramatize the entire book and work from there. “Adaptation is both distillation and an imaginative invention that you have to use to create your own skeleton. I wrote the first draft and it was about 600-pages long.”

One of the details that’s stayed with me since I learned about it, is that Thompson always writes longhand, with Sense and Sensibility having 17 drafts.

“If you keep rewriting by hand you will rewrite it naturally,” she said. “On screen you can been fooled into thinking it’s good.” The drafts get less messy as she goes on, as ideas crystallise.”

There’s interesting studies around the benefits of writing by hand and what the difference is compared to typing. A study from NIH (National Library of Medicine) showcased that handwriting strengthens memory and learning through the “encoding effect”, as the effort of forming letters improves retention and comprehension of the material and vocabulary.

Wright, the director of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, mentioned in an interview that he and screenwriter Deborah Moggach approached Thompson for assistance with the dialogue.

“And I went round to her house, very nervous, with my little briefcase, and we walked up onto Hampstead Heath onto a hill. And she said, ‘Sit down, take out your notebook and take notes.’”

It’s like I can see it. Wright on a bench and Thompson improvising scenes.
“And I remember her just coming out with those lines and me scribbling them down,” he said. “And her ending with, ‘Don’t judge me, Lizzy, don’t you dare judge me.’”

In the film, Elizabeth learns that her close friend Charlotte Lucas has accepted a marriage proposal from Mr Collins, who Elizabeth just have denied a proposal from. Defending her decision and explaining that not all can afford to be picky, Charlotte tells Elizabeth: “I’m 27 years old. I’ve no money and no prospects. I’m already a burden to my parents, and I’m frightened.”

Wright says in the interview that he ended up “almost crying” at what Thompson had come up with, and said that the scene continues to resonate with viewers because “there’s a truth to it all”.

There is a line in Last Christmas that stayed with me, and it might surprise you that it’s not the big speech at the end. “I think the whole being special is overrated. I think just to be a human beingc is hard. You know, really hard.”

While being incredibly grounded and reassuring, it also captures Emma’s curiosity, quirkiness and grounded realism as a writer. It’s not overly polish, or blatantly obvious. It’s not theatrically philosophical but it has thought and depth.

It dosen’t overstay it’s welcome, but it dosen’t leave you hanging as a one worded text reply.

I find myself going back to her work, whenever I need a pick me up, or inspiration for my own work.

Have you tried writing by hand? Curios to hear in the comments.

Emma Thompson is a writing genius, and a lot of it is not credited enough

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