Veronica

Okay, maybe

Maximum Z adventure, contracts, loglines, outlines, screenwriting, script doctor eric, story, Veronica, writing group

Good meeting with the writing group last night.  I read the first act of LUCY, and got bombarded with questions.  Some I was even prepared for.

When I explained I liked the action aspects (as did some of the members), I wanted to try and expand on Lucy as a character.  They responded with suggestions covering aspects I hadn’t thought of.  Which is how these things usually work for me.

Somebody suggested having the bad guy be connected with Lucy in such a way as to provide a good, solid twist later on in the story.  Maybe.

There were comments about how historically accurate this was supposed to be.  That I’m not too concerned with.  It’s fictional.

Another suggestion was that Lucy needs a sidekick, or else it isn’t believable that she can do all the things I have her doing up to this point.  She’s not superhuman.  I wanted to avoid the idea, but more than one person made a good argument about why it would work.

I gotta admit.  They made some good points.

And since the story takes place in the Civil War era, I had considered putting a character who used to be a slave somewhere in there.  This could work.  But would it fit in the story?  Oh yes.  Quite nicely.

Still haven’t worked out the bounty hunter angle, but I’m getting there.  Slowly, but still getting there.

While I was hoping to start the slight rewrite/moving forward phase today, I had to put on my metaphoric Dad hat and take V to assorted appointments.  So my self-imposed assignment begins tomorrow.

And still looking forward to it.

But I think what was especially nice was as the evening was wrapping up, my friend, the one who I was in the previous group with and we kept the last remnants of said group alive as long as we could, said she really liked what I had so far for LUCY.  That means a lot.

Again, there feels like a ton of potential in this story.  And I plan to make the most of it.

-*Sidenote:  When I originally came up with this idea, I developed the logline for it.  Which has since changed.  Since then, I have submitted said logline to the usual contest.  That’s about four weeks, complete with four straight losses.  So I’m calling it quits.  I’d rather focus on getting LUCY developed and written, rather than worrying about if my logline passes muster.

Besides, I won once, and that’s enough.  I shouldn’t be greedy.  Yeah, it would be nice to win again, but the script is more important.

Words to live by indeed.

Urgh

Maximum Z blog, outlines, screenwriting, Veronica

K left the country today, and with California short of money, V had no school, which meant she was home.  All day.

She did her reading homework, we played Monopoly Junior, we watched some TV (including the Giants winning the World Series – yay!), but what it also meant was I didn’t get any writing done.

And I don’t like that part.  The Dad part I love.  Not writing, I don’t.

But I get the rest of the week, so that should work out okay.

-Movie of the Moment: Season 1 of MODERN FAMILY. Very funny.  I can see why it won the Emmy for Best Comedy.

-I just realized.  This is November, which means I’ve been doing a fairly passable job of keeping this thing going for almost 4 months.  While it was hard in the beginning, I actually look forward to it now.

Next up – more readers!  Somehow.

Dad to the rescue!

Maximum Z adventure, movies, outlines, screenwriting, story, Veronica, writing group

I did hardly any writing today, mostly because my wonderful child was feeling under the weather and stayed home.  Ergo, writin’ was at a minimum.

That’s not to say I didn’t think about plot points for LUCY.  They’re still a work in progress.  Still digging the idea, too.  Although I’m a bit concerned what the writing group will think of it.  But that’s not until Sunday, so I’ll delay my anxiety for now.

I do find these kinds of days to be almost introspective, because when I hit a lull, I tend to surf the internets, and occasionally go back to one of a handful of screenwriting websites/blogs.

One in particular has the ability to be inspiring and oh-so-frustrating at the same time.  And it’s called scriptshadow.

A lot of the scripts there are really impressive; some of them not so much.

But the ones that are, are really well-written.  And that’s intimidating.

I like to think I’d be able to write something of that quality and caliber, but I also know I need to keep working at it.

I also need to remind myself that some of the scripts there are written by established, or at least experienced, writers.  Which I am not on either count.  But again, still working on it.

I liked the sci-fi script I read last week.  Tomorrow I’m checking out the “Green Arrow in a supervillain prison” one, which sounds promising.  The western was overrated. The guy living on his front lawn was okay. The ‘time travel’ thriller was pretty good. The social misfit junior high girl one was also pretty good.

It’s hard to determine what criteria the handful of reviewers use.  Everybody has different standards.

I think they still review one amateur script a month, which is a really good idea.  Twice a month would be better.  I’ve submitted DREAMSHIP twice, but nothing.  The guy behind it all doesn’t seem to care for that genre.  Too bad.

Way back when I may have mentioned something about letting some of the higher-profile bloggers about this one, just to see about getting the word out.  Now that I’ve been doing this for a few months, I’m more comfortable in letting more of the outside world see it.

Movie of the Moment: THE BLUES BROTHERS, but only because it’s on Encore right now.  As much as I love watching it, I’ve got RUNAWAY TRAIN from Netflix and really should watch that instead.  It’s not like Encore won’t show Belushi and Aykroyd again.

I remember seeing the trailer for it when we went to see THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK in the theatre.  The first time.  Can’t get over how thin Aykroyd was – 30 years ago.  God, I’m old.