fantasy

Embrace the change

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After a slight delay, work has resumed on the fantasy-comedy rewrite. Averaging about 2-3 scenes for each writing session. If I keep this pace up, I might even wrap it up by the end of the month.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

A significant part of this rewrite is shifting the focus of each scene to make my protagonist more active and have her be the one moving things forward. More than a few times it’s involved having a scene play out from her perspective rather than that of another character. Some of these are proving to quite challenging, so I’m doing what I can.

Also factoring into this is forcing myself to let go of how the scene was before and making whatever changes are needed. This can be kind of tough because I initially think the scene is good enough as is and don’t want to overdo the tinkering.

But if it’s going to get better, some degree of tinkering is needed, if not a necessity.

Once I accepted that and started actually doing it, things got a little easier. And because the new version works better, I’m not missing how it was before. The changes that have been implemented are a better fit overall, so anything from previous drafts is left by the wayside.

I’m trying to be better about approaching the rewrite process so each draft is noticeably different (and stronger) than its predecessor, and not “I’ve rearranged the furniture in a slightly different configuration”.

Further proof that no matter how long you’ve been writing, there’s always something new to learn.

-A friendly reminder that the window to submit your script’s info for The Maximum Z 2026 Script Showcase is open through Thursday Dec 17, so don’t put it off for too long. All the details here.

-I’m putting together a list of movie, TV show, and book recommendations to include in the last episode for 2026 of my podcast The Creative Writing Life. Just one from each category, please. Those can be sent here.

A variety pack of fun-size treats

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Several shorties in one convenient package for today’s day-before-Halloween installment

-The rewrite/polish of the fantasy-comedy continues. Taking it more or less one scene at a time. Several recent sets of notes made a good point about the protagonist needing to be more active than reactive, so that’s part of the current focus. It’s been quite an exercise in figuring out how she can be the one moving things forward in each scene. So far, so good.

An unexpected bonus has been more of how her arc and that of the antagonist are the proverbial “opposite sides of the same coin”. Always nice when I discover how much I’ve inadvertently laid a foundation for this sort of thing.

Biggest challenge now is incorporating the numerous subplots, but I’m confident I can make it work.

– I recently had the opportunity to do my Screenwriting 101 presentation for two separate writing groups. Both were warmly received by the writers in attendance, and I even got to sell a few of my Go Ahead And Ask books. I really enjoy doing this and will look into opportunities to do it at writing conferences.

-If you get the chance to see WILDWOOD on the big screen, do so. It is a truly amazing film, and don’t let the fact that it’s stop-motion animation turn you off. This is definitely one of those “you have to see it in a theater”-type of movies. And it can be a little dark at times, so probably not very suitable for small children.

-Submissions are still open for The Maximum Z 2026 Script Showcase, so don’t wait until the last minute to send in your script’s info.

I’ve quite a challenge ahead

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With the first draft of the action-comedy out of the way, attention now turns to a rewrite of the fantasy-comedy, prompted by a few sets of recently-received and very thorough notes on it.

Each set boiled down to the same points:

-the story works

-good, solid characters

-the jokes hit (but maybe fine-tune them a little)

-biggest takeaway – this doesn’t need a major overhaul or significant rewrite; more reworking most of Act Two and the start of Act Three to put more emphasis on the protagonist and her journey

That sounds like a lot, and I agree.

Fortunately, the notes also included an incredibly helpful suggestion: create a scene map from the start of Act Two to around the middle of Act Three. Then label each scene by the one thing that materially changes. They included a list of six applicable options from which to choose; sort of a “which one best applies here?” It’s a really cool idea.

The scene map is done, so now it’s all about determining the proper label for each scene. I suspect there may also be some revising/overhauling of a few of those as part of the process.

This set of notes also added in the sterling advice of “Ask of every sequence: what becomes impossible to return from after this?” That really resonated for me, and will also add to keeping things moving forward.

Based on a friend’s notes, there should also be a change in how the protagonist goes about achieving her goal and – very important – making her the one driving the action. She needs to be more active than reactive.

This one feels especially challenging, but taking it one scene at a time, along with the potential changes listed above, may be the strongest approach. The biggest hurdle will probably be rewriting scenes to put more of the focus on my protagonist and show how she’s moving things forward, along with the aforementioned change.

It certainly seems that the number of moving parts involved is increasing – for the better.

There were also some very helpful comments about other important components, including emphasizing the “two sides of the same coin” aspect of the protagonist-antagonist connection, and tightening things up to enhance the momentum of the read.

This rewrite really feels like it’s going to be a major one, so time to step up my writing and storytelling skills.

I’ve got dragons to slay. Wish me luck.

Rough week. Yet I carry on.

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If establishing a writing career involves hills and valleys, this week was a valley.

A really long valley. With snakes. And poison ivy.

Among the events worth mentioning…

Being let go from a side gig I’d enjoyed doing and a few more “Not Selected” notifications for my short film on the festival front – including Austin, which I knew was a longshot going in.

Sometimes things just don’t go the way you’d like them to, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Weeks like this can be really tough on one’s motivation. Nothing seems to go right. You feel totally helpless, and maybe a little hopeless.

There are lots of ways to get through this. You just need to figure out which one works best for you.

Some might decide this is the last straw and stop completely. Or opt to hit pause and take a little break.

Or, like yours truly, think that things will (have to?) improve and start working on helping that come to fruition. It ain’t easy, but it’s better than the alternative.

As is my standard M.O., some time was spent wallowing, and then it was back on the proverbial horse to take care of stuff that needed doing, including…

-Got some solid notes on the fantasy-comedy, with more on the way (plus a Zoom call for more in-depth notes).

-Came up with a twist on an older script that would really change things up.

-Passed the halfway point on the action-comedy spec. This “write now, edit later” approach is great.

-A few more festivals to try with the short film. Hoping in the end it gets into at least one or two. Fingers crossed.

I sincerely hope I don’t have another week like this, but there most likely will be. Probably more than once.

When that happens, I’ll muddle through to the best of my ability, then get right back into the thick of it.

Here’s hoping the number of hills in my future outweigh the number of valleys.

Sidetracked, but in a good way (x2)

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Much as I’d like to give a status/progress update on the first draft of the action-comedy spec, I can’t because there ain’t one. I didn’t work on it at all this week.

But what I did work on fulfilled one of my goals for 2026: a quick polish on my western.

While many readers have enjoyed it, more than a few said it was uneven in tone. Parts of it were a hard R, while others were more PG/PG-13. Since I’m going for a wider range of audience, I’m leaning more into the latter.

(This could also contribute to the script’s lack of success in the big contests, but that’s another issue)

One batch of comments had suggestions of more creative ways of having those scenes play out. It didn’t require as much overhauling as I thought. So I hit PAUSE on the action-comedy and dove in.

Wrapped it up a few days later with the page count still the same. Waiting to hear back from a reader.

Work was going to resume on the action-comedy, but I decided this might be the perfect opportunity to check off another 2026 goal: a light rewrite/polish on the fantasy-comedy. Figure once I got that out of the way, I could dedicate the rest of the year to the action-comedy.

Earlier this year I’d written out a brief scene-by-scene outline that hopefully addresses that which needs to be fixed. Armed with that and 3 previous drafts, I’ve been slowly working my way through it. Currently around p65, with a good chance I can wrap it up in the next week or so.

Once that’s done, it’s all about the action-comedy. With how these two rewrite/polishes have gone, feeling pretty confident about how that’ll go.