So a whole shit-storm of life happened over the past couple of weeks including moving apartments and crazy work hours. 

But yesterday I re-outlined Act 1, so I’m back on my grind.

The following is a day-to-day account of my attempt to complete my first feature-length screenplay. Read the other entries here.

At 10:45 pm, I picked up my Xbox 360 controller after a failed attempt at writing. Ten minutes earlier I had been laying chest-down on the bed (my preferred writing position) and felt like succumbing to the wishes of my numb, lifeless eyes. Then a stroke of brilliance - not on the page, unfortunately - came to me. “I need something to wake me up.”

So I started up NBA 2K13. Unlike writing, I never get sleepy playing that. After a 123-111 stomping of the Knicks, I looked at the clock and tried to figure out what to do next? One more game? Write? Sleep?

In previous months, I would’ve started one last game. I would’ve rationalized that it was too late and I was too sleepy to write anything good anyway. But in reality, it would’ve just been procrastination

In fact, I don’t know if my fatigue was ever really a factor in not writing up to that point yesterday. The reality was that I was completely dissatisfied with the previous day’s pages. It was the introduction of both the world and the protagonist. And it sucked. 

It sucked hard.

So as the clock struck midnight, I turned the second game off (that I had started…) and forced myself to write. Forty-five minutes later, I had a damn good opening. As noted yesterday, I know that I shouldn’t be re-writing my first draft as I’m writing it, but without a stronger opening it would’ve been tough to feed off that momentum for the rest of the first act. It’s a fairly mellow first act in many ways, and I didn’t want to resort to using a teaser as those are becoming really overused these days. Rather than throwing something exciting at you from the jump, i want to seduce you with the world from the opening shot. I don’t want your attention by promising some interesting conflict later (the conceit of a teaser). I want to lure you in by stirring your imagination with a setting that disrupts your expectations.

All in all, the second day ended with me fighting against my own fears. And in the end, my fears didn’t win. I got some work done.

Tidbits - interesting notes and thoughts for you to consider

• I love John August’s podcast and blog. He’s the guy who wrote GO, Big Fish, and a bunch of recent Tim Burton stuff. He also has a new screenwriting program called Highland that is hugely helpful. It’s based on a new screenwriting format in which you write your script in plain-text that is then automatically formatted later into proper screenplay format. It’s surprisingly helpful to not SEE the formatting, particularly in a first draft.
• Also, i highly suggest two “screenwriting books” - and I use quotations because they really aren’t - by Karl Iglesias. I’m re-reading and loving “Writing for Emotional Impact.” I discovered him through a recommendation on Amazon and then later heard him on Pilar Alessandra’s On the Page podcast. You can listen to both of his interviews here: Episode 33  |  Episode 289

Today, I start my first official pages for my first feature-length screenplay. It’s called Drifting, hence the title. Today is also the first day of pseudo-live blogging the experience. 

It’s difficult to stop myself from self-editing while writing. I’ve always struggled with that because I’m so prideful of my writing whether it’s read by others or not. I’m obsessed with not sucking. So much so that I often don’t allow myself the liberty of unfiltered writing. It’s something I have to change. That’s why first drafts are called “vomit drafts,” after all.

The whole process has been that way. I’ve essentially been outlining this thing for 6 months. I’ve never been a big fan of outlining, but given my experience writing a couple of short films, I found it helpful to sketch out the stories. Yet, even in those experiences I usually let myself go a bit and then figure out the structure and theme afterward. But it’s easier to let yourself do that when a script is only about 10 pages long. When it’s 100 pages long, you can’t help but think that it would be a pretty massive waste of time to write blind and then refine and rediscover your story afterward. I went into outlining with the intent of saving time. Six months later and I don’t even have 10 pages done. Sometimes planning doesn’t actually help you be more efficient.

Actually, i’m being too harsh and letting the blank pages of Final Draft sway my opinion of the outlining process. It wasn’t a complete waste of time. Because I’m writing a sci-fi film with a pretty “out there” premise, I didn’t really have a grasp on the characters or story. I essentially had an inciting incident…and that’s it. I didn’t even really have a well thought out character list or main character, which is a pretty big problem when you’re writing an ensemble. I went through multiple iterations of the characters that were in the crew (it takes place on a spaceship), but none of them really felt quite right. I also completely changed my mind on the main character about 6 times. 

So the outlining process was pretty productive in helping me think through the premise, characters, and situation. Still, I’m stuck in terms of actual plotting because I don’t have a good sense of the characters until I see and feel them interact on the page, even as roughly drawn as they currently are. As stated, outlining has always been a weakness unless I’ve had something rough to outline from. But because I don’t want to aimlessly write 120 pages, my plan is to now write the first act (which I have pretty well sketched out) and then review it to see what questions I have about the story and characters up to that point so that I can outline the following act. Hopefully, I can then rinse and repeat until I’m done with a first draft.

I think it should work. After all, I’m a far better rewriter than writer.

“The idea of ‘Yojimbo’ is about rivalry when both sides are equally bad…and it is impossible to choose between evils. Myself, I’ve always wanted to somehow stop these senseless battles of bad against bad, but we’re all more or less weak – I’ve never been able to. And that’s why the hero of this picture is different from us. He is able to stand squarely in the middle, and stop the fight. And it is this – him – that I thought of first. That was the beginning of the film in my mind.” 

Akira Kurosawa