The Writing Week (Vol. 5) part 233 - The Challenge Continues

June 18 marked the start of our 30 day screenplay challenge over here at the League. As of Monday, I was 30 pages into my demon thriller script, just having crossed the bridge between Acts One and Two. Today, I'm on 49, cresting toward the midpoint and realizing a few pivotal things about the script. 


For one, though I understood his comment months ago, I don't think I quite saw it the way he did. When I showed my manager an earlier version of the outline, he told me that thought the demon  portions of the script were really engaging and unique, the sections that dealt with humans were a little more hackneyed and thus slowed the momentum. I could see where he was coming from theoretically, but it wasn't until I began writing twelve days ago that I actually saw that in practice. I won't lie - the human scenes strike even me as more dull than the rest, but because Im not quite half way through the script yet and the days are counting down, I don't have time to go back and address that yet.


Also, while I normally like to write as compactly as possible, I'm noticing that this draft is already shaping up to be one of the longer ones I've produced in a while. Granted, that's not a problem, especially given that it's a first draft, but I'd be surprised if it weighs in anywhere under 115 pages. On the one hand, it's great to know that I'll be able to cut a lot upon the first read-through of it. On the other, it makes me wonder if maybe I've stacked too much in the first half, particularly in the first part of Act Two. I've written it so that there's a lot that needs to happen and I'm discovering more as I go. Though I generally love to have a tight outline before I begin writing, I didn't have that luxury with this script, so perhaps that's partly to account for the longer draft. THen again, I also don't have time to censure myself too much as I fly through the draft, so I'm putting a ton of crap down on the page that I know will have to go - especially dialogue. 


The final and somewhat expected, though not to this degree, result of the challenge has been that I haven't had time for my other projects at all really. We're talking about turning the post-Apocalyptic spec into a graphic novel, which will require me to change a few things and get some edits going. I've had time to be on the calls and do some minor research, but I have yet to really begin thinking about the story changes. Same with the sci-fi collaboration I'm working on. I'm disappointed with how much I've set that aside and I need to get back on it, since my partner is going out of town toward the end o next week and I want to get him a new outline before he leaves. 


So, lots to do, but it's great to be busy. Now if only I had 30 hours in my day...