Don’t know why it works, but it does

Maximum Z action, characters, comedy, conflict, determination, encouragement, fantasy, outlines, payoff, perseverance, persistence, rewriting, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, setup, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The last few days have seen some decent progress regarding my action-comedy spec and the rewrite of my fantasy-comedy.

Both are still in the outlining stage, but it’s HOW I’m doing the outlining that seems to be especially helpful.

And also incredibly simple.

I write out the whole story scene by scene, with each scene a brief (i.e. 1-2 very short sentences) description of the scene.

But it goes way beyond what we’re seeing onscreen. Not just what’s happening, but everything below the surface.

This can include, but is not just limited to:

-what’s the conflict?

-does it advance the story, theme, and character?

-is it a good follow-up to the scene before it, and does it effectively lead into the one after it?

-is this where this should happen? (that can be a challenging one)

-does it pay off something that was set up earlier?

Naturally, answering all of these for each scene would take up a lot more space, but since it’s my story, what’s written down acts as a sort of shorthand for me. I know what’s supposed to be there, even if it’s not written out.

Another extremely helpful aspect of all of this is not all the blanks are filled in, so scattered among the scene descriptions are questions to myself in ALL CAPS (makes them easier to spot on a printed version). Most of the time these are seemingly small details but also important to the overall story.

That can be anything from DO THEY HAVE A NAME? to WOULD THIS WORK BETTER IN (EARLIER SCENE)? to TIGHTER!!

Then I print them out and mark them up, making fixes and corrections as I go. So far, each one is about 6 pages, single-spaced.

I don’t remember when I started doing this, but it continues to be a great way for me to figure it all out for each story and help it move along.

From the archives: Knew this wasn’t going to be easy

Maximum Z action, comedy, determination, disappointment, fantasy, frustration, outlines, perseverance, persistence, screenplay, screenwriting, script, short films, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Allow me to offer up a literary amuse bouche before moving on to this week’s hearty entree.

Some good progress on the rewrite of the fantasy-comedy – about halfway through the outline. Taking the “write it out one scene summarization at a time” approach. It includes lots of notes to myself, significant editing, and some rearranging/inserting of scenes from multiple previous drafts.

Decided to do the same for the action-comedy outline. Quite eye-opening, and what feels like a pretty good foundation. Still a ton of work to do, but off to a good start.

Looking forward to the ongoing work on both.

But let’s switch gears and focus on what this post is all about. WordPress has added a feature that shows you posts that appeared on the same date in the past. Since this blog has been around since 2009, something pops up just about every day. Such as it was with this one from July 3, 2020 (everybody remember the fun that was lockdown?), and everything in it still rings true.

Also of note: I mention the idea of writing – and potentially making – shorts. Nice to see that part actually came true.

Enjoy.

Many, many years ago, while attending the Screenwriting Expo in the City of Angels, one of the seminars I went to featured an “industry professional” as a speaker. I put that term in quotes because I couldn’t tell you who it was or what they did. Maybe a writer-producer or something like that. It was good enough for the folks running the Expo.

There were probably 20 or 25 of us in the audience. This guy walked to the front of the room, and the first thing he said was, if you’ll pardon my paraphrasing:

“I don’t know who any of you are, how experienced you are, or how may scripts you’ve written, but I can guarantee that just about all of you will fail at this.”

Well, ain’t that an encouraging lead-in. Everything he said after that is pretty much a blur, because I found it to be…

Shocking? Most definitely.

Disheartening? Pretty much.

Accurate? Maybe. But he was speaking from his experience. No doubt he’d seen an endless stream of writers come through, give it their all, and despite their efforts, subsequently crash and burn.

It’s easy to overlook the fact that this was well before you could make a movie with your phone and a laptop. Resources and DIY filmmaking opportunities were much more limited than they are now.

His comments really struck a nerve. Is this what I, along with everybody else in the room, should think? Were we just wasting our time? Were our chances THAT small? Should we just give up and go home?

I couldn’t speak for anybody else, but I had a little more faith in myself than he did.

Like I said, I forgot everything after his opening – the sooner I got him out of my head the better – and gradually replaced it with a few thoughts of my own:

-Yes, this is a HUGE mountain to climb, let alone get to the top. Is that intimidating? Hell yes. Is it going to stop me from trying? Hell no. Much as it sucks, it’s better to try and fail than to give up entirely, so I’ll keep trying. As long as it takes.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll continue to do so: I really like doing this, and even though I’ve endured my fair share of disappointments, I keep going – because I like the process of writing.

It’s taken me a long time to develop my skills just to get to this level, and I know there’s  room to keep improving. The challenge to myself and my writing abilities is one most welcome.

-Do I have a chance of eventually being able to call myself a professional writer? Hard to say. Some might say I already am, but that might be an individual matter of perspective. For me, until I see my name onscreen accompanied by “Story By…” or “Screenplay By…”, it doesn’t apply. my efforts will continue undaunted, unabated and undeterred.

Count me among the writers who are content to just be working. Sure, a huge paycheck would be great, but I’m also cool with writing a low-budget horror, or taking on an assignment, or doing an uncredited rewrite. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WORK. The more I get to do it, the more I’ll enjoy it.

-For a long time, it was always “I need to find that somebody who says ‘yes’; somebody to open that door for me”, and to a certain extent, that still rings true. Getting representation, meeting with REAL industry people, and so forth.

But in the meantime, there’s absolutely nothing stopping me from making my own stuff. For the past few months, I’ve been dabbling with writing short scripts. Five to 10 pages, a handful of characters, one to two locations. Something that presents not only my writing skills, but also that I know how to tell a story in the most visual way possible.

Added bonus – a ridiculously short production time. It could be made over a few days (or a long weekend) with a minimal crew.

Feedback and notes from writing colleagues who’ve also made their own short films have been helpful and encouraging.

All of this, of course, will be a little more feasible once society slowly returns to “normal”. Until then, I’ve got plenty of time to prepare. Why not start creating our own opportunities?

-As much as I dream about all of these great things happening, I’m also a realist. I know that the journey to achieve this kind of success is a very, very long and tortuous one. Disappointment abounds.

I’ve no intention of giving up, no matter how frustrating things get. And there will be A LOT of frustration.

This is what I want to do, and despite all the negatives, I still enjoy doing it.

Thus the soldiering forward continues. Shoulder to the grindstone and all that…

Circling back to the first go-round

Maximum Z comedy, contests, determination, draft, fantasy, notes, perseverance, persistence, rewrite, running, screenplay, screenwriting, script, subplots, Wallace & Gromit , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

My current project is rewriting/revising my fantasy-comedy (animation-optional). It has undergone numerous drafts, along with multiple revisions and variations on both the primary storyline and several subplots.

There have been a handful of the latter which have been particular tricky to figure out the best approach. Something just wasn’t clicking, so I took my usual approach to finding a solution and stepped away from my laptop, put on my running shoes, and hit the road.

While my feet pounded the pavement, the next hour and seven minutes heavily involved coming up with possible alternatives to how the story reads now. A few possibilities presented themselves, but nothing to make me stop short and proclaim “That’s it!”

So I took another usual approach, that of taking a step back for a more of a “big picture”.

Silly as it sounds, I’d forgotten that one of those earlier drafts had some decent contest success (not that that’s my goal), so I dug up that one to give it a read.

A large percentage of that script remains in the most recent one, but especially close attention was paid to “what drives your protagonist”. More than a few readers had similar things to say about that. My hope is that fleshing that out a bit more will have the desired effect and reinforce the whole story.

There are a few other subplots that also need work, but this was one of the big ones.

This kind of approach will be the strategy for this latest draft. The last thing I want to do is over-complicate things, and I’m fairly confident that doing this will help keep things simple.

Nicely done, me from the past

Maximum Z character arc, determination, draft, editing, feedback, notes, outlines, perseverance, persistence, rewrite, screenplay, screenwriting, script, strategy, subplots, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Having (for the most part) completed the outline for the action-comedy, attention has shifted to revising/rewriting another script.

I’m not sure the last time I’d worked on it – maybe March?, but I opened the pages and was pleasantly surprised how many changes had already been made. There are still some rough spots, including figuring out the best moment to have a key part of the story take place. Weighing my options on that one.

But it was very reassuring to see how much work had already been put into this before switching to another project, and not at all surprising. This has happened before.

I’d also forgotten how much work overall had been done for the new draft, including questions about potential subplots and character arcs. This helps lighten the load – albeit just slightly. Looking over some of the notes I got on the previous draft, a few sticking points remain that need addressing.

There were also some suggestions from readers that didn’t mesh with what I was going for, or felt like they wanted things to go in a different direction than what I was intending. I weigh the merit of what’s being said, and then decide if there’s something in there worth salvaging.

Whenever I start a rewrite, I try not to put a limit how much time I’m allowing to get it finished. Many times it’s longer than I’d like or expect, but this time feels a little different. I suspect once things get started and more pieces fall into place, the shorter the time to get to the finish line.

Figuring out all these solutions won’t be easy, but I’m confident it will happen. Hopefully sooner than later.

First hard part’s out of the way

Maximum Z action, comedy, determination, development, editing, encouragement, outlines, output, perseverance, persistence, progress, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, sequence, spec, storyline, subplots, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bit of a breakthrough for the action-comedy spec this week – I wrapped up the outline.

It’s done, but not totally done.

It still needs a ton of work, especially regarding the development/placement of several subplots, but the primary storyline is there, ready to be hammered into better shape.

Despite it all, I’m thrilled to have gotten here. There were many times over the past few months I’d get concerned (read: stressing out on a regular basis) I’d never figure things out.

But I stuck to it and eventually did, and am very happy with it.

Skimming through the whole thing in its current state, there are probably a lot of scenes and sequences that’ll get trimmed, cut, or drastically revised, but that’s expected. And that’s not even taking into account the aforementioned subplots.

I’ve written before about my astonishment at how other writers are almost assembly line-like regarding their output. It’s just not something I’m capable of, and the slow, slow progress for this latest project is just another example of that.

But I also realize that when somebody reads one of my scripts, they definitely remember that it’s mine – the story, the characters, the voice. If my taking the time to do that for each script means a smaller output than others, that’s fine by me. Same conditions apply this time around.

I was wavering between diving right back into this one or shifting to one of my two rewrites. I think I’m leaning towards the latter. I haven’t done as much with those two the last couple of months, so it’s probably better to let the new one simmer and work on those.

Then when I’m ready to jump back into this one, it’ll be with a mostly-all-there outline (and most likely a lot of “This is better than I remember” and “I don’t remember writing this”).