Day 182: Six Months into the Journey
I’ve reached the halfway point of this yearlong journey, a major milestone. On one hand, I’ve made major progress, but on the other, I thought I would be further along than this. Much further. Part of my disappointment lies in the fact that in the first two months I was between jobs, so I had lots of opportunity to write. In November, I attempted NaNoWriMo, but starting a new gig hampered that effort. December brought the holiday break and considerable down time as I visited
Day 181: First Feedback
I received my first feedback on the script Come Ups and it seems to be a mixed bag at best. The reader is a close friend and very experienced writer in his own right. The feeling I got from his comments was that he was being polite, critical without being harsh. Not a particularly good sign. He did say the genre is not his favorite. He doesn’t care stories where everyone dies in violent fashion. Oops! That’s okay, as long as the story still flows and I’ve hit all the right dr
Day 178: The Action Kicks In at Rewrites
I was back at Rewrites Workshop with another 10 pages of Come Ups tonight, and the reader’s desire for action was answered. We read through Shep and Reydel’s first confrontation and the deteriorating situation with Angel who is holding Grady’s family hostage. There was great tension building as Reydel hunts through the house for Shep who is trying to stay just ahead of him. Grady breaks out of his bindings and everything is set for an explosive climax. Unfortunately, that’s w
Day 174: The Script is Complete. . .For Now
I have finished what I hope to be the last rewrites on the script Come Ups. This is, of course, every screenwriter’s folly. Whenever you think it’s done, another round of rewrites pops up, and you find yourself thinking, ‘Why didn’t I think of that before?' Additions to the script include a new car chase with Tyler and a complete rewrite of the first confrontation between Shep and Reydel. This last section was a tough one for me. The original scene worked incredibly well and
Day 171: Rewrites Workshop
Day 171: Rewrites Workshop I took another 10 pages of Come Ups into the Rewrites Workshop tonight. The reaction was mostly positive with the only negative comment being that everyone was ready for some high stake action to happen. That is about to happen in the script, but it is interesting to note that was considerable anticipation from the readers. This could be a good sign that they are engaged and looking forward to the next developments or it could be that they are getti
Day 164: Workshop Discussions
Another great read at the Rewrites Writer's Workshop held at the Farmer's Market in Los Angeles. This is a fairly small group of writers with only about 7 - 9 people showing up each week. The group has about 40 people altogether - according to their Meetup Page - and there are new faces each week, so there seems to be a good turnover in writers each week. This allows for more varied opinions on your work. Unlike Tuesdays at 9, this group does offer feedback on each script rea
Day 163: Smoothing Out The Wrinkles
The issues with the top of the second structure seem to have been resolved. Utilizing the press conference as its own scene seems to have helped dramatically. I have taken some of the comments about that scene from two weeks ago and applied them. The scene is snappier and more character driven. It feels more organic and part of the same universe now. I'll find out tomorrow night when I take those pages in review. If all goes well, I'll be on to the second half of the second a
