outlines

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Maximum Z outlines, rewrite, screenwriting, writing gigs

I’m really proud of how the end of the first half of Act Two developed today. I managed to make my hero more proactive, which was somewhat of a problem in the previous draft.  I like how things are progressing.  Tomorrow – moving beyond the midpoint! Whoo!

-Despite wanting to put it off, I bit the bullet and told my rewrite client what I thought of her script.  And to be honest, it was what needed to be said.  But I wasn’t mean about it.  That benefits nobody.

I focused on the elements I had problems with, most of which are easy to fix with a more solid outline, a better comprehension of what a script should look like, and a general familiarity and knowledge about screenwriting basics.  Armed with those, and the time and effort put into consecutive drafts, this script could show a lot more potential.

A lot of writers trying to break in think they can crank out a draft, maybe one or two rewrites, and it’s perfect. Not so. Even worse, when you try and point what needs to be fixed, some can get very defensive.  How dare I even suggest such a thing?  Then they’ll wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t recognize their genius.

Hopefully this writer won’t curse my existence too much.  Now I’m wondering what the response will be to my comments.

-No Movie of the Moment today. Doing the midday shift cuts into my movie-watching time.  That and it is totally exhausting.

That’s something, I guess

Maximum Z Dreamship, Movie of the Moment, Nicholl Fellowship, outlines, screenwriting, zombies

As I’ve mentioned before, when I do the midday traffic shift, it usually results in some good output.  Something like that happened today.

I’m working my way through the first part of DREAMSHIP’s second act, and was trying to figure out how to approach a sequence from a different perspective. I think I may have reached a solution, so that’s good.

Not so good is a problem just like the one I was having while working on the LUCY outline: what does my antagonist want?  My ScriptQuack comments ask the same thing.  I thought I had an answer to that in previous drafts, but now I’m not so sure.  Once I can figure that out, putting more of this together should be easier – I hope.

I’m doing the midday again tomorrow, and the noon-to-6 shift on Saturday, so here’s hoping those are productive shifts as well.

Movie of the Moment: We started watching THE WALKING DEAD.  Wow.  Great stuff.  I especially like the ever-present feeling of ominous dread.  I’m dating myself, but I like how this is the same station that years ago played nothing but black and white films and their first original series was set in Pittsburgh during the Golden Age of Radio.  My, how times have changed.

There was a trailer for some set-in-space video game or something before it got to the menu page.  It got me thinking: somewhere out there has to be a spec script about zombies in space.  Think about it.  They don’t need air, but that whole vacuum-of-space thing might need a little planning.  The hard part would be to avoid having it come across as too cheesy.

But then again, that could be part of the fun.

Tough, but not impossible

Maximum Z Dreamship, Nicholl Fellowship, outlines, screenwriting

Taking on this rewrite has made me done something I haven’t done in quite a long time.

I am really approaching this with the intent of almost completely starting over from scratch.  The last time something even got near this level of difficulty was when I went through the Chinese restaurant script page-by-page with my then-manager.  But even then the suggestions were “make this funnier” or “tighten this up”.

Using my ScriptQuack notes as a starting point, I’m writing down what scenes I have from a previous draft of DREAMSHIP and changing each one as necessary.  Surprisingly, making those changes may not be as daunting a task as I originally thought.  Still challenging, though.

Hoping to have a more solid first act by week’s end, then once again into the abyss of Act Two.

I have doubts about having a draft I’m satisfied with by the Nicholl deadline, but I’d rather take my time and make this as perfect as possible than rush through it and send in something not good enough.

Finally!

Maximum Z Lucy Steele, outlines, screenwriting

I did it.

After seemingly endless hours slaving away on the thrilling story of a gutsy female train engineer in post-Civil War America, today I got to type those two magic words: “The End.”

Rapture.  And…breathe.

Now I put it aside to focus on rewriting DREAMSHIP for more-than-likely entry into the Nicholl, then on May 2nd, dig out LUCY and start that rewrite.  I’ve already got some ideas on how to improve it.

I really do love doing this, and hope someday I get to do it all the time (with pay and everything!).  That would be definitely be awesome.

I’m feeling pretty good right now.

Not so fast

Maximum Z Lucy Steele, Movie of the Moment, Netflix, outlines, screenwriting

Well, crap.

I got to do exactly zero work today because I was busy doing dad stuff.  Not necessarily that I mind, but I was hoping to get more done on the outline.

I’m going to have to bring my creative hat with me to work tomorrow.

Movie of the Moment: THE SPY NEXT DOOR. Oh, Jackie Chan. The Drunken Master has been reduced to mega-crappy family comedy. But V liked it, and again, that’s the important part.

Also got to finish watching SALT. I liked the first half better.  How exactly would this have been different with planned original lead Tom Cruise?  really glad I did this on Netflix.