Easter Script Frenzy fallout...

Right, well Easter was a bit of a washout in terms of Script Frenzy and writing.

Too much chocolate, not enough writing.

Still life, friends and family came first. They do sometimes.

What I did is lots of re-writing of those first 12, though. It was important stuff, but I'm not going forward.

Must do better...

I still feel as if I haven't quite worked out some of what drives my protag towards her goal (for she is, indeed, a she). I know what she has to learn, and how she has to learn it, and when. I've got the plot, the events, turning points, set pieces, blah, blah, blah. I'm just not sure if what I have as her reason for going on this adventure is enough. In that, if she learns everything she should by the end of they story, then she won't want the goal she set out to achieve at the beginning. But she kinda needs to, story-wise. Otherwise we don't have the big finish. She just walks away, which is not very satisfying for the audience. Now, that's fine if she makes that discovery as she carries out the final task. The prize isn't the prize any more and we love our hero for realizing that and being a better person, etc. But, if she already knows that before getting to the final task? Why even go through with it? She's doing it for herself. She'd just get there and say, "Hey, I'm not that person any more. These things don't matter to me." Great. Our hero's a better person. We love her.

And Act 3 is 2 minutes. With no conflict.

On the other hand, if I change her outward motivation at the beginning of the story, adding something in with much higher stakes, it could drive the story through much better in terms of her goal. She has to get the prize for external reasons. No matter what she learns, she still has to go through with it. Great. Big finish. The problem is, that will give her less choice at the end. If she has to follow the story/goal through, whether she wants the goal anymore or not, then she doesn't get to choose, when what she chooses is what defines the change she has made on the journey. So, maybe we don't love her the same.

I always have this issue. It's logline stuff basically. What does your character want and why? What's stopping them? What's it ABOUT??? That's what I always come back to when I'm writing. That's what I have to solve.

So, I'm faffing about re-writing.

Or I'm processing all this info, ready to charge forward when a spectacularly good idea has presented itself.

You decide.

Happy Easter...

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Marvellous!

Script Frenzy...

As the little box at the side tells you, I spent yesterday "reaquainting" myself with the script and the beatsheet, etc. (I wrote the first 12 pages in December and last fiddled around with them in Feb, so it's been a while). Sounds like an excuse for not doing any new writing, but it was really useful in terms of getting my back into it. Honest! I'm gonna do some more re-writing today and hopefully will add some new pages too.

Script Frenzy-ing…

Like some of you out there, I'm planning on doing Script Frenzy this year. After the news that the Red Planet Prize should be announced in a month, it might be a good way of getting a first draft done before the official announcement. But I'd thought I'd do it a little bit differently.

So, I'm cheating.

Thing is, I've already got the first 10 pages of a script. I wrote them a few months ago but then never finished the script. Other deadlines got in the way, I was useless, blah, blah, blah. So, I thought I'd use Script Frenzy to finish it. Well, write it really. I've only got 10 pages… Also, it's only going to be 90 pages. But that's not cheating. That's my plan. So, there. Before writing the first 10, I also did my logline, treatment, breakdown, beat sheet, etc. That may be cheating too. Don’t care. I’m hoping Script Frenzy will be a good incentive to keep going and get a first draft done by the end of April.

So. 30 days. 80 pages to go. So that's... that’s… complicated.

Damn.

Why didn’t I leave it and then I’d have 90 pages to do? 3 pages a day. Easy. Right. Maybe I’ll do 100. But that's more...

Ok, ok, I’m gonna do about 3 pages a day.

Anyway, anyone else up for it? It starts tomorrow and you can register and create a profile with Script Frenzy here. As their site says, you then just need to…

"1. Tell everyone that you are in the Frenzy.

2. Clear your calendar. (US participants: Get your taxes done now!)

3. Start some wrist exercises."

Right…

They also have lots of "How To…" articles and resources here, so you can procrastinate to your heart’s content.

Question is, how you gonna make sure you stick to your goals? Once you’ve registered on the site you can join forums, get together in groups, find out who’s Script Frenzy-in your area, put bits of script up on the site as you complete it, keep a page counter on your profile there… all of which could help you keep to your aims. Or you can do none of that, and just know that you've made yourself a promise to complete a script by the end of April.

You could also do the challenge with another writer and keep tabs on each other, give feedback as you go, etc. That’s what I’m doing. With Mr Bentley. He’s cheating even more than me… God help us.

Also, just to make things harder, I hereby promise that I will keep a daily counter on here of how I’m doing, as well as an account of how things are going. There. I have to do it now.

Course, I could cheat at that too.

You’ll just have to believe me.