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It is common wisdom that those who aspire to a particular career should first learn the craft of their chosen profession, and only then make their own contributions.

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David Manson thought differently. In his pursuit of a writing career, he chose to rely on his own “talent” and “inspiration.”  Early success as a documentary writer seemed to justify such autonomy. A lack of subsequent glories led him - belatedly - to a more mature approach, and to the creation of truly valuable works.  

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Part Two. A Most Belated Maturity...

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From the beginning, the ultimate ambition of David Manson was to write film screenplays. Long years of under-achievement at least left him plenty of time for watching movies, and in 2010 he received screenplay credit for Changing the Subject - an offbeat 45-minute comedy filmed and financed by a sweet and loyal friend. 

 

Changing the Subject gained a midnight showing at Stratford Picture House, and the experience rekindled the writer's ambitions. For the first time, David saw his words performed as opposed to just narrated. Newly inspired, he set about writing a feature-length comedy film, but Not in the Script would prove beyond the finances of anyone, regardless of sweetness.

 

Much more significantly, in late 2010, David decided he should learn what it was he was actually trying to do. Only then, at the gates of middle-age, did he begin a serious study of the screenwriting art. In doing so, he opened up - at last - a new and fulfilling chapter of his own narrative tale.

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By July 2012, he had read and absorbed the works of McKee, Mackendrick, Trottier, Field and others familiar to screenwriters worldwide. Now, he felt ready to write his first fully crafted work. But what to write? The answer came surely from God.

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As described elsewhere, the material for The Revelation of Abraham was itself revealed to David over one extraordinary summer weekend. Eleven months later, after a sustained effort unknown since his documentary days, the script was complete. All 142 pages. Surely the finest creation of an underwhelming career.

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But not yet good enough. In two established contests for speculative screenplays, the great religious epic made no impression. Nor did a subsequent script about a party of twenty-something stoners which revealed more about the writer's kinky sexual proclivities than it did any flair for contemporary drama.

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Still, David Manson felt he was on the right track at last. He continued to study the art of screenwriting, and he embraced the Jungian ideas of story as expressed by such writers as Christopher Booker, Christopher Vogler and Jordan Peterson, amongst others. 

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Had David embarked upon his own hero’s journey? Had he finally got past his own internal gatekeepers? Whatever his mythos, he was confident enough to conceive a trilogy of scripts set in medieval times and commit to a full eighteen months of prior research, beginning in late 2014.

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Even when he realised that his grand original conception was not going to work fully, he still had enough material to finish How Simon de Montfort Succeeded in the spring of 2018. He then combined existing ideas with additional research to create a brand new prequel story, and the final draft of How Richard of Cornwall Did Fail duly followed in 2020.

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Now The Revelation of Abraham came back into the picture, as David returned to its 142 pages and made another big creative call. His original script was not big enough.

 

He was serious now. For sure, the draft of 2013 conveyed the divinely-inspired tale in all its holy glory. But because of the 150-page limit of screenplay competitions, the story as presented was over-compressed and impossible to read quickly. There were also deficiencies of style and technique perhaps forgivable in a first fully-crafted work. The revised draft of early 2021 corrects these shortcomings and offers a fast-moving script for the three-hour epic which The Revelation of Abraham was always meant to be.

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All that remained was for David to set up a website so that others might appreciate his long-gestated mature works, and perhaps even reward him for the experience. And a still-obscure British writer hopes for high rewards indeed should any of his screenplays now interest the producers of commercial feature films. But whatever the judgement of the world might be, the creator of the three historical dramas showcased here is certain of one thing, at least.

 

All of the Scripts by David Manson tell stories a great deal more interesting than his own...

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