scenes

A variety pack of fun-size treats

Maximum Z antagonist, character arc, comedy, community, fantasy, Halloween, movies, notes, polish, protagonist, rewrite, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, subplots, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

Maximum Z acts, antagonist, characters, comedy, determination, fantasy, jokes, momentum, notes, perseverance, persistence, protagonist, rewrite, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, story, The Hobbit, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Focus: forward

Maximum Z action, characters, comedy, determination, draft, editing, perseverance, persistence, plot, plot points, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, spec, theme, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Some good progress on cranking out the first draft of the action-comedy spec this week: reached the end of Act One.

One potential snag – my outline lists this as the p45(ish) plot point. This may be the start of more problems, but I’m not going to worry about it just yet. It’ll be added to the list of “Stuff requiring my attention”.

Primary objective: get the whole thing written.

When I started, I was taking a “just write it and DON’T go back and edit”. Naturally, I did a few little tweaks here and there at the start of each subsequent writing session, but nothing major. Maybe cutting a word or tightening a sentence. That was one rabbit hole in which I did not want to keep digging.

Now is all about completing this draft and then going back to figure out what needs to be fixed, added, cut, moved, etc.

Taking an approach of continuously asking myself “Does this scene advance the plot, theme, and character?” also helps. I may not have consistently solid answers every time, but even some kind of placeholder answer works – for the time being.

Still looking at 2-3 pages per day when possible. Anything more is a bonus.

Let’s ______ go

Maximum Z action, comedy, Deadpool, determination, draft, editing, outlines, pages, polish, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, sequence, spec, subplots, Wolverine, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m currently enjoying my time at Comic-Con in San Diego, so this week’s post is a short one.

The outline for the action-comedy spec is more or less wrapped up – some of the smaller subplots still need figuring out, but the primary storyline and subplots are at about 95 percent, which means…

Time to start on pages.

Going to take a “write it and don’t look back” approach. No editing, no polishing. Just write a scene or sequence, move on to the next one, repeat as needed until “The End”.

Objective: a mostly all-there first draft, which will be much easier to work with than a non-existent one. There’ll be time for all that fixing and tweaking and stuff the next time around.

Bonus – when I feel the need to take a break, I can shift to the continuing work on other projects.

Fingers crossed.

Don’t know why it works, but it does

Maximum Z action, characters, comedy, conflict, determination, encouragement, fantasy, outlines, payoff, perseverance, persistence, rewriting, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, setup, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The last few days have seen some decent progress regarding my action-comedy spec and the rewrite of my fantasy-comedy.

Both are still in the outlining stage, but it’s HOW I’m doing the outlining that seems to be especially helpful.

And also incredibly simple.

I write out the whole story scene by scene, with each scene a brief (i.e. 1-2 very short sentences) description of the scene.

But it goes way beyond what we’re seeing onscreen. Not just what’s happening, but everything below the surface.

This can include, but is not just limited to:

-what’s the conflict?

-does it advance the story, theme, and character?

-is it a good follow-up to the scene before it, and does it effectively lead into the one after it?

-is this where this should happen? (that can be a challenging one)

-does it pay off something that was set up earlier?

Naturally, answering all of these for each scene would take up a lot more space, but since it’s my story, what’s written down acts as a sort of shorthand for me. I know what’s supposed to be there, even if it’s not written out.

Another extremely helpful aspect of all of this is not all the blanks are filled in, so scattered among the scene descriptions are questions to myself in ALL CAPS (makes them easier to spot on a printed version). Most of the time these are seemingly small details but also important to the overall story.

That can be anything from DO THEY HAVE A NAME? to WOULD THIS WORK BETTER IN (EARLIER SCENE)? to TIGHTER!!

Then I print them out and mark them up, making fixes and corrections as I go. So far, each one is about 6 pages, single-spaced.

I don’t remember when I started doing this, but it continues to be a great way for me to figure it all out for each story and help it move along.