Alex & Emma Page #2
Less forthright.
Mr. Sheldon, didn't you expect
would immediately find out
that you weren't a law office?
I owe some guys $100,000
and I got to get it to them in 30 days.
The only way I can do that
is by finishing my next book...
and the only way I can do that
is by dictating it to a stenographer.
- How much do you have left?
- All of it.
- You want to dictate an entire book to me?
- That's right.
- In 30 days?
- Correct.
I get $15 an hour, and I expect to be paid
at the conclusion of each day.
And I'd really like to do that,
but unfortunately, I can't.
At the end of each week.
At the end of the job.
I get paid when I turn in the manuscript.
What happens if you don't finish
in 30 days?
I'll finish in 30 days.
But if you don't finish in 30 days,
then what happens?
I get killed.
I forgot my scarf.
Mr. Sheldon, I forgot my scarf.
What's your book about?
It's the story of a man
who's frightened of commitment...
yet so desperately in love with a woman
he's afraid it might kill him.
It's a comedy.
- Does it kill him?
- You'll have to read the book.
- What are you doing?
- I want to see if he dies.
You can't read the end first.
- Then tell me how it ends.
- You have to read the book.
This is how I read books.
If I like the ending, I'll like getting to it.
If I don't like the ending
then I know not to waste my time.
See? Now I want to read this.
What's your new book about?
It's about the powerlessness
of being in love...
and how it devours the insides of a person
like a deadly virus.
- Another comedy?
- Yeah.
Will you have another fit
if I ask you how it ends?
I don't know how it ends.
How can you write a story
if you don't know how it ends?
Because I know the characters,
and they tell me where the story goes.
Interesting.
- You're going to do it?
- Yes.
Great!
Read me back what we've got so far.
The summer of Adam Shipley's
sabbatical from Andover.
Maybe if you add a year, you know.
The summer of Adam Shipley's sabbatical
from Andover was in...
And then any four-digit number
gets you a complete sentence.
Yeah, but not a particularly good one.
How about...
The summer of Adam Shipley's sabbatical
What's that noise?
- What noise?
- That high-pitched ringing sound.
Kind of like...
I think I may be getting a brain tumor
because that's one of the early signs.
Okay. How about you shorten it?
Adam Shipley took a sabbatical. Period.
No, see, look. You want the first sentence
to set the tone...
to grab the reader
and take him into the story.
"Call me Ishmael." Right?
"It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times."
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"Alex & Emma" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/alex_%2526_emma_2415>.
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