Last Monday, though, all that changed. Typically, I can average four to five pages in an hour long writing session. On Monday, I scraped together about two and a half. And I don't think they are particularly good. I could tell I was a bit rusty. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all brought evening commitments that kept me from the pages again. Finally, I was able to sit down on Friday and get back to it. I ended the weekend with 15 pages, which I felt a lot more positively about.
If you've ever been in a writing slump or gone through a long developmental process with material, then you know exactly how good it feels to finally start producing something again. In my desire to get this draft done so that I can go back and revise it - I know it will need another pass - I'm resisting any temptation to tweak scenes and dialogue before I move forward into the next beat. There's a lot that I'm not content with, but I feel like getting the foundation laid is what I most need to do now. Especially for the first act.
This is an interesting project for me in that it's somewhat top-heavy. There's a lot of very crucial, detail-oriented character development in act one that sets up the entire rest of the script. More than in other projects I've worked on and seen, the bulk of character information is going to come from the first 30 pages, and it has to be strong enough to carry through the balance of the script. I'm quite aware that I haven't hit some of the necessary beats correctly yet, but I want to get all of act one written before taking another look at those weaker links.
Despite knowing that some parts aren't great, the feeling of actively working on something new is. Hopefully, I'll be able to bring the pages to the group soon. If I can get the first draft of act one out, then touch it up, within another week or week and a half, I'll be thrilled. This amount of up front character work is a bit new for me, but I like the challenge. Fingers crossed I'm up to it.
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