Month: April 2026

Start with the ending, work backwards

Maximum Z action, comedy, determination, draft, editing, ideas, outlines, perseverance, persistence, rewriting, screenplay, screenwriting, script, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Working on actual pages for the action-comedy spec has been quite an experience.

Up until a few days ago, I was writing only what I had for each scene in the outline, focusing primarily on “what’s the conflict here?” and “does this move things forward?”

However, two things kept nagging at me.

The first was that I got to what the outline lists as around page 40 or so, meaning just a few more pages to that page 45 twist. Except it’s actually on page 30, so more fitting for an end of the first act.

That leaves me with two choices: stick to the outline as it’s written, or come up with additional scenes to flesh things out. The most likely plan of action is to adhere to the former, work my way through the whole thing, then go back and apply the latter.

But that leads me to the second issue: I haven’t finalized exactly what the ending is. Maybe a more appropriate phrase would be “I have a few ideas for what it could be, but haven’t fully decided”.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t go into this with no ending. It’s just a little vague, and solidifying it would probably be the best course of action.

As much as I would love to keep moving forward with pages, there may be a short pause while I figure out what all of this is working up towards and then reverse engineer my way back to where I am now, or possibly even all the way back to the beginning.

This is still a first draft, so anything and everything is worth trying. There’s one idea in particular that’s especially appealing, so I might tinker around with that and see what happens. Setups and payoffs are already being considered.

Also important to keep in mind – the ending has to really emphasize/showcase my protagonist’s arc, and how she’s changed. Everything she endures over the course of the whole story has to come to the perfect conclusion. Challenging, but not impossible.

I was looking through all the notes I’ve been jotting down for this story, and there are a lot more than I remember. Some I don’t even remember writing, so it’s very cool to have all this material from which I can pick and choose what works best and where it could potentially factor into the story.

It may even be time to break out the index cards, and that’s saying something.

From the archives: Active, not reactive – OR – C’mon, do something!

Maximum Z action, characters, comedy, draft, protagonist, screenplay, screenwriting, script, spec, writing , , , , , , , , ,
Never has a call to action been more necessary

One of the things I’ve noticed as I work my way forward with the first draft of the action-comedy spec is that my protagonist isn’t doing as much as she needs to – especially in terms of moving things forward. Again – first draft, so lots of work in the days ahead.

But that detail about the protagonist still applies, and is just one item on an ever-growing list of “Stuff to fix in the second draft”.

I suspected I’d written about this before, so I had to go all the way back to March 2014 to find a short but concise post about dealing with a passive protagonist.

Enjoy.

As you work your way through your latest draft, among the numerous questions to keep in mind is “Is my main character the one driving things forward?”

It’s a common complaint: a protagonist who is too passive. How do you make sure they aren’t?

Start with this: Do they make things happen or just react to them?

Your story is about this character going through some ordeal as they try to achieve their goal. Are they taking the steps needed and doing what they have to in order to do that?

Their normal routine has most likely been drastically altered. How are they reacting to all these changes while trying to get things back to normal?

How does the character factor into each scene? Are they having some kind of impact? Does the outcome of each scene depend on them? Does what they do here get them closer to reaching their goal?

A scene can be about them even if they’re not part of it. Maybe it’s the other characters’ reactions or the ramifications of what they’ve done.

You don’t want a main character who just sits around, waiting for things to happen. Get them out there and throw them right into the thick of it.

Action first, comedy second

Maximum Z action, characters, comedy, determination, draft, editing, jokes, perseverance, persistence, plot, rewriting, screenplay, screenwriting, script, spec, story, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Another shorty today, but one worth mentioning.

Current progress on pages for the action-comedy spec averaging about 2-3 a day, which is pretty good. The first act is just about wrapped up. This is more of a “just it get written” draft.

This isn’t to say there haven’t been moments of going back and making little changes here and there. That’s actually happened quite a bit.

The focus now is more on how each scene advances the plot, story and characters, and not as much on “is it funny?” or “what’s the joke here?” It’s actually kind of refreshing to not have to worry about it . Some scenes are even totally lacking comedic elements and are there for the purpose of moving things forward.

That’s what the next draft will be about, undoubtedly involving a lot of “how can this be funny/funnier?” I find it easier to apply comedy into an action-oriented scene than the other way around.

I’m enjoying it so far, and it’ll be very interesting to see how this plays out.