MARTINET

March 29, 2010

Martinet
\’mär-te-‘net\ n 1: a strict disciplinarian 2: a person who stresses a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods*

I first tried getting into the famed scriptwriting class sophomore year. It was not until my second semester senior year that I finally made it into the class. I was so psyched and couldn’t wait to further my knowledge about a topic that I knew nothing about yet was certain it was something I wanted to implement into my career somehow.
The first day of class, after reading the syllabus, (after a while they all started looking alike), we were introduced to the scriptwriting phenomenon. My professor made it perfectly clear that we could have the best idea in the world but if we pitched it in the incorrect format, we would “have it thrown back in our face.” I was scared yet curious…little did I know…
Our professor turned out to be a format martinet, constantly marking us down due to wrong format. It was discouraging yet it trained our eyes and enabled us to be better at the craft we so desperately wanted to master. We dreaded getting our papers back, yet craved the red marks, proof that we were yearning to do better and that perhaps even though we were not skilled artisans in scriptwriting, we were well on our way…

*second letter “e” is upside down creating sound of “uh”