Saturday, November 17, 2007

STRIKE

Be back soon! (let's all hope)

STARTING ROUGH DRAFT

I had to make the decision of doing a rough draft first. I wanted to go straight to first draft but my deadline is very tight. I can't blame it all on the deadline, though. I've had this story in my head for so long I thought I could just sit down and it would pour out of me. No such luck. The moment I wrote FADE IN all of my ideas FADED OUT.

My rough draft will be just cranking out the story. Sort of a more detailed step in between treatment and script. Some people call it a scriptment. There may be no jokes and there may not even be any dialogue in some scenes. For example if there is an action sequence that I have not figured out then I will just write the basic beats of the sequence out and move on. The goal is to get eveything out as quick as I can. Besides, no one will be reading this draft but me and my story editor. Sometimes this stream of consciousness writing can be good. If you don't stop to fuss over the details you don't have time to second guess your instincts and you might just come up with a couple of gems. Then, with my remaining time, I can go back through and (re)write the first draft. I can more easily bide my time this way. And believe me, I can lament over a single line of dialogue for days so doing it this way is probably for the best. It's always easier to rework words on a page than sitting there staring at a blank one.

I hope to have this "draft" done by Christmas. That'll give me roughly 5 weeks left to turn in the first draft.

Wish me luck!
Chris