draft

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

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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

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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.

First step taken

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After some delays, I returned to the outline for the new action-comedy spec. Still a ways to go, but I’d forgotten how much stuff I’d come up with. There’s a lot to work with.

Despite the overall incompleteness, I decided to try something a little different. Something I’d never consider doing at this stage.

I started on pages. Just to see how it read, what could potentially stay, what could be cut, etc.

Since this would be considered the vomit draft, this is all about getting stuff down on the page and focusing forward, rather than writing, going back and rewriting, and so on and so on.

Full disclosure – one day after the first two pages, I thought of ways to improve them and did a little tweaking. I like how it turned out, but am sticking with a “head down, keep writing” approach.

I may even go so far by writing what I already have in the outline, stop at a certain point and finish the outline, or possibly (gasp!) taking a total pantser approach and just write and see what happens.

But that’s not something to worry about right now. I’m just enjoying the writing, as it should be.

Not perfect. Just written.

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Some decent progress this week on two of my three big projects for this year.

The one that really resonates is the continuing work on the outline for the new action-comedy spec. Came up with a few more scenes and sequences, while the laborious task looms of fitting them all together in the most effective way.

But something became very obvious while working on one sequence:

Too much effort was going into the details of the scene, and not enough on “what’s the point of this scene?” I was creating more work for myself than necessary, trying to get everything right the first time out.

Silly writer. That’s what rewrites are for!

One of the most important parts of the first draft is just to get the damned thing written. There’ll be lots of work down the road, so why stress about something that’ll most likely be changed in one way or another?

This has really helped my frame of mind. There’s still a ways to go, but the road feels a little smoother.

On top of that, while taking a few breaks along the way by watching some personal favorite films, I noticed how so many scenes really adhere to the “get in late, make the point, move on to the next one.”

I’m going to try and apply that to how I put scenes in the outline together, and then refine it even more as I move on to actual pages.

There’s always something new to learn, and this is no exception.

-Crowdfunding for post-production of my short film SHECKY continues! We’re at 73%, with just under a month to go. Hope you can chip in – and take your pick from some sweet tier rewards!

Even just a few steps is still good

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It’s the onset of a holiday weekend here in the US, so file this post under “short, but relevant”.

The good news is I hit the midpoint for the outline of my current spec. The not-so-good news is that I’m still figuring out the rest of Act Two and most of Act Three. Plot points (such as they are) are in place, and the filling in between them continues.

Daunting as that may be, I’m just happy to have gotten this far. Current mindset is “just get it written and fine-tune it later.”

I know I’ll figure things out, but count on lots of ruminating in my near future.

Speaking of which…

As if by divine intervention by the writing gods, a friend posted online that the upcoming month is being labeled “Spectember” in that a writer could complete a spec script by month’s end. Pretty certain I couldn’t complete an actual spec, but the outline? That’s a definite possibility – or as mighty close as I can get.

Enjoyment levels and overall excitement for this project remain strong and steady, which always help.