Wednesday, April 02, 2008

The Writing Week part 13


Another week, more... progress? Change, for sure.

I feel like I'm echoing LoKor's recent post about departures. I was out of the City over the weekend to attend a going away party for a friend, whom I won't see for 27 months. Then, I came back to the city, only to attend another going-away party tonight. Change seems to be in the air.

I also feel it in my bones. I'm not sure whether I'm deluding myself or not, but I feel like something should and very well might happen soon. I have a number of projects to work on, all in varying degree of completion. I have another that I really feel compelled to start working on soon. I'm not sure whether it's a play or a screenplay, to be honest. It feels like a play, but there's a moment at the end, the moment that the entire project revolves around, that screams film. I don't know how it would be done and truly felt if it was done on stage. It would lose what I feel to be the most important, most meaningful moment of the entire piece.

So, I think I'll try it as a script. Just for a change, though, I won't show it to or discuss it with the rest of The League until it's done. I'm not sure that's wisest, but even I don't really know what it is now, so how can I ask them to? I need to figure it out. I can't be told. But I am intimidate by it. Like many of my ideas, this one is about a character's inner struggle and personality changes. I tend not to me the most successful with drawn out reveals and character arcs. Yet, that's often what I write. Maybe I've been doing big action scripts recently, because I can hide in the explosions. If the character work isn't happening, I can just blow something up. But not in this project. Not at all. I'm scared, but if it works, I'll have reached another peak in my climb to the peak of my writing ability.

As far as the re-write is coming along, well... it is. Things really aren't changing that much. Well, let me rephrase that: they are and they aren't. The changes themselves seem small to me, but their impact rings much louder. It's amazing how a little tweak here and a little thing there can really add meaning - or change it completely. Perhaps the differences really aren't as big as I'm imagining. I'll have to re-read the script to see. But at the moment, I feel as though I can make the much needed corrections and improvements without seriously altering the structure of the script at all. I could be wrong, but if I'm not, I'll have produced a much stronger second draft with nearly 90% of the first draft intact.

Maybe that's impossible.

If I'm wrong, I'll just have to change it again.

Back From Paradise


I've actually been back from my visit to the Bahamas for a while, but this would be my first post since soaking up some rays. I was a little concerned for a moment that all the great food and chill island vibes would melt away the crusty shell of New York determination that I've been building over the past few months. I was wrong. Still writing, and with tan lines to boot. I expect to finish the script for my first ever feel good sports movie this week. One small step forward in my quest to delve into every genre. I don't write off of an outline often, but so far I'm finding that it's probably worthwhile with this script. The sports movie genre always strikes me as one of the simplest, formulaic genres out there, but it's actually been kind of difficult to nail. I'd much rather be writing about ninjas in the Iga province of 14th century Japan, but there's something refreshing about having a fun script that could be made for 100k at it's cheapest. I just threw that number out there. I'm not sure what industry professionals would suggest, but I could probably make the movie for $1000 and a 20 lb bag of rice. Who needs lighting? The techs just make things complicated with all their funny terms. Sound? I just need a kick ass rock soundtrack over all the game action. Actors? I'll just find people who like rice. I got a good feeling about this one.