Interview (Part 5): Vigil Chime (2017 Nicholl Winner)

My 6-part talk with the writer of the script “Bring Back Girl”.

Today in Part 5, I ask Vigil some questions about the writing craft:

Scott: Congratulations again on winning the Nicholl Writing. I’d like to ask some craft questions.

Vigil: Absolutely.

Scott: How do you come up with story ideas?

Vigil: The stories come to me, alright. It’s like this. This is what I think. If you’re quiet enough, if you’re just quiet, the story will find you. Over the years, the stories have found me. There’s got to be a reason for me to engage the story. They just come to me.

I am bombarded, by the way, by story ideas. I don’t pursue all of them because some of them I designed to derail you from completion which is the catastrophy. I don’t even pay them any mind.

As a story, you have to do a lot to get my attention. They really have to. Consider it like this, this is how I’m able to describe it to you. It is like this. I am the vessel by which they would be told. Every story wants to be told.

The purpose of every story is to be told, to be unveiled to the world. It is in purpose. They need this more than I do. A story wants to be told more than I do. [laughs]

They are anxious about being told, so a story looks for who on Earth would tell it best and not screw it up. If you’re in the wrong hands, you screw up the story. They don’t want that.

They look at people, and they come to you. That is why, for example, I cannot write a Western. I can’t, because they don’t pick me. I wouldn’t know how to present that story well.

The stories that I know how to present, they know that I can, so here they come. They come to me. They kind of knock on my door. “Hello, Vigil.” I say, “Hi.”

They say, “Please, I would like you to write me.” I say, “Why?” They say, “Because I have a lot to say.” I say, “All of you do. That’s what you all say. But tell me what you’re about.” Then the story will start telling me, “Well, I’m about a father and a daughter. The father is stolen, and he has to find her.”

I say, “It’s actually been done before, you know? Haven’t you seen Liam Neeson’s TAKENs? Why are you different?” “I’m going to be set in Nigeria,” it says “Interesting,” I say. “Tell me more.” You see?

The story goes on to say, “Well, I’m going to be an action film.” I say, “Really? I’m interested in that.” Now it’s got my attention. “Oh, really? Action?” “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m an action film.” I say, “In what sense? You know we don’t have the money.”

“I know, I know, I know, I’m very simple. Don’t worry. I’m not going to be too complicated.” “OK, you still have my attention. Start showing me some scenes.” Then I see a father, I see a daughter, I see Lidal. This is just extra…I see Boko Haram. I said, “Hmm, I like that. Are we going to start with Boko Haram?” “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we’re going to start with Boko Haram!”

I said, “That’s interesting. What else is going on in you?” The story, I haven’t touched it. I haven’t started writing. It wants me to, but I won’t. I will not do that. It keeps funneling me with images in no particular order, no particular order.

At this time in the process, this is very bad for me as a human. It means that I can no longer engage with other humans. I can’t. If you and I were lovers, I would ignore you. I’m no longer feeding the child. I’m no longer commiserating with my friends, I am not. The story has my complete attention and all it is showing me are images, images, images, images, images.

At some point, I say, “I’ve seen enough. I’ve seen enough. Let’s start.” The story is delighted. “Yes, yes, yes.” [laughs]

Then when I start the story, because it’s showing me so many images, although in no particular order, my job is to order it. My job is to go in there and have it make sense. That’s my skill.

Then some of the images I don’t see, and I have not seen, true enough. But I’m not worried about that. With 75 percent of the images seen, oh, I’m going to see the other 25 percent. Once in the writing process, I will begin to fill in the holes. This is how my stories come to me.

There are story ideas I’m not touching, like I said. “I’m not going to touch you, because you haven’t shown me enough scenes to start and I don’t trust you. I don’t trust you. I think I’m going to get a block. I can’t finish, because you’re not showing me enough.”

That is how my stories come to me.

I’ve been writing enough now to know the kind of things that gravitate towards me. I write things…They’re quite ordinary. These stories are quite ordinary. But the way they come together is extraordinary. These are ordinary people. These are ordinary lives, really. I mean, it is. There’s no science fiction. There’s nothing supernatural, per se, in these. These are just everyday people.

But what I am able to do in the images that I am shown, I am able to organize things quite extraordinarily fresh. “Oh, wow, that’s interesting how you did that,” the story might say. That’s why I might play around with time in this particular one, “Bring Back Girl.” I played around with time a little, because I thought it would be interesting to unveil the story in this way.

The story may not have delivered itself, these images, to me like that, but I just thought this is the best way to arrange the images that I saw. That’s why I did that. I’m very good at knowing in my stories what works. “This works. This works.”

Scott: Let me ask you a real fundamental screenwriting question. When you’re writing a scene, do you have specific goals in mind?

Vigil: I have to finish the scene before I get up.

Scott: You have to finish it.

Vigil: Uh‑huh. I have to finish the scene.

Scott: Do you set out, “I need to know beginning, middle, and end. I need to know…”

Vigil: No. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the beginning, middle, and end. I’ve seen it, so I write what I see. Now, I remember this, though. “Bring Back Girl” was written in about three weeks. It took me about three weeks to write. I remember what happened at one point.

When I got to Abuja with Boubakah, I know the beginning of that scene, of course. No problem. Got the end. Yeah, I know how, but when I got to there, I said, “How the hell is he going to find this kid?” I remember saying, “How is he actually going to find this kid? Where the hell is she?”

Now, I know where she is. I’ve got her with Tarif and Chichi. I’m like, “OK, how do I connect the father?” I remember that gave me a little headache. It gave me a little headache because remember what I said ‑‑ my story is an action film. It has to be cheaply done. We’re not going to explode anything in Abuja. He’s not going to go through the airport and shoot everybody. No, no, no.

I said, “So now what are we going to do? I know that Fidelis is in there. Fidelis is the key. How is he going to get this?” I remember thinking, “What’s the dad going to do now? What’s he going to do?” I remember that scene, because it gave me a headache of, “How do I extract this information from the bad Fidelis?”

But anyway, it happened. I took about 48 hours off just to think about how I’m going to get to Fidelis, and then that’s what happened. I thought, “OK, yeah, all right. He goes to the market. He gets a wheelbarrow.

Then it’s at night. Where I see it happening is my cousin’s house. That street is so deserted. It’s unbelievable. Literally late at night, you just see this dude in a wheelbarrow.” [laughs] I liked the image. I said, “OK, let’s do that.” That’s how I did it.

Tomorrow in Part 6, Vigil provides advice for writers trying to break into the business.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

Vigil is repped by Elevate Entertainment.

For my interviews with 27 other Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting writers, go here.