I reached the half-way point of my novel (25,000 words). I can't believe I'm actually keeping up with this successfully. It's not that bad, either (if I do say so).
I reached the half-way point of my novel (25,000 words). I can't believe I'm actually keeping up with this successfully. It's not that bad, either (if I do say so).
Phew. I just wrote quite the emotionally jarring scene for a script. I've had melodrama in scripts, but nothing that would be tough for me to actually watch. Hell, it was pretty tough to write, making sure that it stayed true, and effective.
What's the most emotional scene you have had to write? Did it work? How'd you approach it?
My roommate kept trying to talk to me and I'd shush him off, and he started thinking that something bad happened to me tonight. Heh.
i don't like the beginning. very hard to dip into the current. partly because i don't know what it is. a novel? a short story? an article? fiction? non-fiction? meditative? it's getting better around the fourth or fifth paragraph, and by the end, it's actually quite good.Quoting monolith94 (view post)
It's intended to be the first chapter of a novel.
"Modern weapons can defend freedom, civilization, and life only by annihilating them. Security in military language means the ability to do away with the Earth."
-Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society
Well, I did it. I wrote my stupid novel in a month. Everybody who's never written a novel in a month can eat my dust.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/213338
Man, I wish I could write. Based on the excerpt from your novel, I highly recommend Sartre's Nausea.
I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?
lists and reviews
Thanks. I'll look into that.
I'm pretty sure that excerpt is complete nonsense, though. I spent a lot of time writing about light. I may have been thinking a bit too much like a filmmaker.
Well, you can't expect to write a book in a month and have it make sense. Just writing the damn thing is impressive enough.
I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?
lists and reviews
I'm not sure if others here write a lot of film/TV scripts. And perhaps those of you who do already know of this process, but I thought I'd share it just in case.
In the ScriptWriting program I'm in, something that has helped me a LOT is the idea of doing a couple of ever-expanding treatments before you even consider writing a script.
I found that working with the script for "Awake" - the short story I wrote years ago and have been trying to adapt to the screen ever since - has been very tedious I just haven't known where to start. It's a 3-page story, and I was trying to just jump right in to writing the script, which is a terrible idea.
We learned to take our basic concept and first develop a 2 page treatment. This is a brief outline of all the major events you want to occur in the film. This is pretty much an extended pitch - the type of thing you'd give to a studio exec. who doesn't have the time to read your full script but wants a good idea of your story so that they know you're not just going into the scriptwriting process totally blind.
After that, you develop a 7-10 page treatment (or outline). This goes into greater detail about these main events, and also provides a good look at all the subplots and minor characters you want to include.
After that you do a full outline (also usually about 10 pages) which details every scene.
Only then do you start writing the script.
This has really helped me a lot.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Every script I write ends up being different as far as how I approach it. Sometimes its good doing it that way, but sometimes I like to just write it organically and see where it goes.
This is what I do.
Movie Theater Diary
Hmmm... I think I need to adopt this method for two scripts I'm writing and am totally stuck on.This is what I do.
The reason it rocks is because you just put up all your scene ideas there and you can rearrange it to make it work better. Plus, when you're actually writing and you get bored or uninspired by a where you are, you can just pick one of the other post-its to write a scene around and then check it off.
Movie Theater Diary
By the way, I'm done with that board. Just finished a 120 page screenplay yesterday.ritch:
Movie Theater Diary
Congrats! Any plans to try to sell/produce?By the way, I'm done with that board. Just finished a 120 page screenplay yesterday.
I tried that, but for some reason it didn't work for me. It all felt like it was going with the motions.
Every script I write, I always try to sell. I'm planning to get an agent pretty soon.
After this, I already have to get started on another screenplay that was commissioned to me by an actor friend who managed to secure financing from a small production company.
Movie Theater Diary
Excellent!
Good luck with that. Are we talking about a pretty much guaranteed-to-see-production script, here? Feature-length?
Nothing is ever guranteed for Film Production.Excellent!
Good luck with that. Are we talking about a pretty much guaranteed-to-see-production script, here? Feature-length?
How are you planning to go about getting an agent?
We're learning right now it's pretty much one of the most frustrating processes a writer can face.
It's a catch-22 situation. Agents don't want to touch you until you've sold a script and started to develop a career, but no one will buy your scripts unless you have an agent.
Congrats on finishing the script, by the way.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Yeh, I've definitely learned that this year.
Not sure if you remember but I had that story that was pretty much a "go" for production in England. I had a producer lined up, studio backing, and they were starting to arrange with me when I would fly to England to work on it. They even got in touch with a few actors who were interested in the part.
Then all of a sudden my contact disappeared off the face of the earth, and the studio dropped my project in favor of something else.
My Writing for Broadcast Television teacher put it all in perspective for us, though. He related pitching and trying to sell your ideas to playing video games. In video games you die all the time, but you've got 30 more lives stocked up and you always just pick up where you left off and keep on goin through the game. You have to be able to do the same with pitching - go in expecting to be shut down and not caring if you do. That way you're not totally crushed every time a studio turns down your idea.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Man...we have had such a big string of speakers in our class that are so utterly depressing about the industry, it kind of makes me think nothing is ever going to happen for me.
One guy actually said this to us:
You have two people in a room with a producer and they are pitching their ideas - "Mr. A" has an absolutely brilliant idea and there's a very small chance that it could be bad. "Mr. B" has the stupidest idea anyone has ever heard, but he is Steven Spielberg's nephew. "Mr. B" is the one who will get the job.
I find that very depressing and as I just said, it kind of makes me feel like it's pointless to even try.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
You have to do projects, small ones at first, get them seen somewhere, and make contacts that way. It's a damn long process.
Yeh but that's kind of what he was referring to.
You can't even get small projects done - let alone seen anywhere - unless you're related to/great pals with someone.
It's just so frustrating because I have no connections at all - save for the one in England that fell through.
It really does seem hopeless at times.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Do them yourself. Unless your name is Coppola, that's the best thing you can be doing.
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