I think I have a pretty decent story going. One of the best I've come up with so far. It has a beginning, middle and end. And I really know the end. I owe this to Syd Field's book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. He recommends getting the ending figured out first. His reasoning is that if you know where the story is going, you will have a much stronger beginning and an easier time with the middle. Thank you Syd.
I've also renamed and fleshed out several of the characters. There is still work to be done on the antagonists and the middle bits. But I think it's coming together. I plan to do some more outline tonight. Even if I don't, I think I have enough of the beginning and the rest to write my three (or more) pages tomorrow.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Counting Down
It's Wednesday, May 30. Depending on how you count, there's either 1 or 2 days left until the frenzy begins. There are two nights between now and Friday, but only one full day. It's time to get serious.
I did come up with some more plot ideas, including an ending this morning. Unfortunately, its all in my head and I'd better get it written down before it's gone. That's my task for tonight.
I've also been doing some figuring. If a two hour screenplay is either 20,000 words or 120 pages, that's 667 words a day or 4 pages per day. That doesn't seem too bad after the 1500 words per day that NaNoWriMo inflicts on a body. But it's also true that I'll probably be more productive on weekends (I hope) and I'd like to shoot a little beyond the bare minimum.
Therefore, I am going to attempt to write three (3) pages on every weekday. That should be about 500 words. On weekends, I plan to write seven (7) pages each day, which should be 1170 words. With four-and-a-half weekends in the month, this should net me over 21,000 words and about 125 pages. That's still a slim margin, but if I beat my minimums every so often (and don't miss them too often), I should have even more pad.
What fun. I can hardly wait.
I did come up with some more plot ideas, including an ending this morning. Unfortunately, its all in my head and I'd better get it written down before it's gone. That's my task for tonight.
I've also been doing some figuring. If a two hour screenplay is either 20,000 words or 120 pages, that's 667 words a day or 4 pages per day. That doesn't seem too bad after the 1500 words per day that NaNoWriMo inflicts on a body. But it's also true that I'll probably be more productive on weekends (I hope) and I'd like to shoot a little beyond the bare minimum.
Therefore, I am going to attempt to write three (3) pages on every weekday. That should be about 500 words. On weekends, I plan to write seven (7) pages each day, which should be 1170 words. With four-and-a-half weekends in the month, this should net me over 21,000 words and about 125 pages. That's still a slim margin, but if I beat my minimums every so often (and don't miss them too often), I should have even more pad.
What fun. I can hardly wait.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Seven days to go
Script Frenzy starts a week from tomorrow!
I had decided some time ago to participate in Script Frenzy when it came along. I thought for sure I'd be (close to) finished with a rewrite of my NaNoWriMo book by now. I have made significant progress on that project. But it's far from being done. Oh, well. I'm not going to let that stand in the way of trying something else new.
The other thing that I put off almost too long was coming up with the story idea for the script. I've been casually thinking about it for months. But did not have anything solid. The one or two concepts or situations that I came up with really didn't gel correctly. This left me feeling a little anxious. This was exacerbated when I listened to an audio book on scriptwriting that recommended brainstorming a couple of dozen (!) ideas before settling on one. Who has time for that? (when you're not a full-time writer)
Thankfully, an idea came to me this morning that I'm liking more and more. It combines the road trip concept that I was hoping for, along with the treasure hunt concept, and it will be set in present day and will be a comedy. I think those all (except maybe the comedy) will help it to be easier to write and, if it turns out to actually be funny, it might even be marketable.
So, I'm not sharing details yet. With a week to go, the whole concept may change again. But at least now I feel like I may have a fighting chance of writing that first draft of a screenplay in June. Yay.
I had decided some time ago to participate in Script Frenzy when it came along. I thought for sure I'd be (close to) finished with a rewrite of my NaNoWriMo book by now. I have made significant progress on that project. But it's far from being done. Oh, well. I'm not going to let that stand in the way of trying something else new.
The other thing that I put off almost too long was coming up with the story idea for the script. I've been casually thinking about it for months. But did not have anything solid. The one or two concepts or situations that I came up with really didn't gel correctly. This left me feeling a little anxious. This was exacerbated when I listened to an audio book on scriptwriting that recommended brainstorming a couple of dozen (!) ideas before settling on one. Who has time for that? (when you're not a full-time writer)
Thankfully, an idea came to me this morning that I'm liking more and more. It combines the road trip concept that I was hoping for, along with the treasure hunt concept, and it will be set in present day and will be a comedy. I think those all (except maybe the comedy) will help it to be easier to write and, if it turns out to actually be funny, it might even be marketable.
So, I'm not sharing details yet. With a week to go, the whole concept may change again. But at least now I feel like I may have a fighting chance of writing that first draft of a screenplay in June. Yay.
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