Script Frenzy: Writing Like the Wind

Because I'm more than slightly insane, I present a running journal of the mad dash to the finish line. Two days. A half finished script. 20k is just the beginning. All aboard the crazy train.

I've gone over all my notes, maps, and outlines and brought them up to date. Prep work is amazingly important for this kind of thing. I want to keep my character names and geography straight. And not, say, switch between CHEVALIER and CAVALIER halfway through the script. It's little things like that which make me a pro.

Just a bit of polishing here. I'm pretty happy with my beginning. It's a bit of a slow burn to start off, a bit of a misdirection as to what people can expect from the rest of the running time and I've contemplated dropping it and starting when the story action does, but I think it works. First, people walk into a fantasy story expecting nations to rise and fall, kings to be made, princesses to be rescued and the whole ball of wax, I start off looking like I'm going to be doing that and then shifting gears to something a lot more grimmy and personal. That's, you know, my kind of art all over – play with expectations, make like you're giving them what they think they want, then give them what they need. Second, I'm using it to set up the world and its rules and I think that's an important necessary step so that the audience knows what's going on – I'm all for in media res but this isn't Star Wars or Middle Earth where some basic knowledge can be assumed, and outside of page after page of thudalicious exposition, I can't figure out another way to cram this information in.

If I'm going to get this script done, I really have to start writing less here...

Ugh, that's a lot of narration. Ho hum.

I'm not even looking at the word count. What matters is putting a check mark next to those scenes. We're about getting done, not getting to the finish line here. And I'm really, really behind there.

Well, a couple more complete scenes done. Revising this first act took longer than I thought. At this rate, I'm never going to get done.

Despair at the empty word count. Break time.


And I'm back and feel much better now. Got some food, got some sugar in the bloodstream.


In case it's not obvious, I'm going through my whole script, retyping it, starting at the very beginning, and working my way forward. I'm trying to revise and plug gaps as I go so, basically, I'm planning on rewriting the whole thing. In two days. Because I'm insane, that's why. No, I'm really insane.


Put up a new excerpt at my Frenzy profile. It's not exactly the best (And had to get a bit wacky with the formating but the auto-formating was making the narration and action blend together too much.). There's a bit a little later on that I think is much more effective and effectively done but that isn't quite done at the moment. There's a few clunky bits where I've waved my hands and hope to get back to later - at the moment, we're moving on before we get too bogged down in revision. But what I've put up is a good example of what I've been working on. It's not exactly the first scene in the movie but it's close to it. And it shows what I've been trying to do with narration juxtaposed with imagery at the moment - probably not the best idea in a script but, hey, it's my movie and that's what my mind's camera sees - while establishing some background information.


You know, a quick estimate and I think I'm up to around 4~5k already today (Going by my languid pace of about 1k an hour and accounting for the fact that scripts just tend to take longer to write than, say, this.). The way I'm retyping some scenes and rewriting others on the fly makes it a bit hard to judge. But I'm not even done with the first Act yet. I'm starting to worry that I'm going to go long. Really long. Oh well, this is a first draft and things can always be condensed later on, I just want to tell the story I want to tell. And that'll take as long as it takes.


Hmm. I rewrote a scene but I'm not sure if I actually improved it or just made things more confusing. It's the sort of thing that probably winds up on the cutting room floor, I think, in favor of just moving the story forward because it's really just about establishing character - I could do it a lot quicker, I think. The characters were really telling me they wouldn't act that way and I'm having to fight them to get back on track with the plot.

I'm ready to spike Act One. I don't even want to think about the word count but it's a lot. That sounds impressive but it's also the smallest of the Acts so there's a long way to go here. Still, maybe a quarter of the way there.

Back from supper. Going to keep this train rolling well into the night here.

There's so much to talk about like the crazy Supreme Court rulings – I actually wanted to mention them last night but I also wanted to, you know, not go insane from sleep deprivation. And SiCKO which I'm hoping to see just on Sunday. Oh, and technological utopias. The draft and trade fallouts. The Tigers – my mother ent to a game the other night and I've been meaning to try and spin that into a post. But, nope, we're frenzied tonight (And, when you get right down to it, probably going to take a break. I guestimate I've written over 15k already today. I wouldn't, you know, count on much out of me on Sunday, is what I'm saying.).

Quick update, we're through with Act One which is about where I thought we'd be at this point. I figured if I could make it through Act I today and Act II tonight and early tomorrow then I'd be able to knock out Act III and cruise to the finish line. It's going to leave me tired, drained, and if I was smart it wouldn't have come to this but, you know, viva la Frenzy. I'm not done yet and there's a chance I could be. I don't just want to take it. I have to take it.

A quick review of what I've gone through so far and I think I've figured out why that scene I was talking about earlier bothered me. I overplayed my hand. I amped up the drama which is generally speaking a good thing but it's a case where I really needed to play things subtle. Early in the movie you don't want things going into histrionics and when you need your characters to do something it's a bad idea to give them a reason not to. I think I could go back and correct it – and hack about a thousand or more words out of it – but even though this is a fifth or sixth draft at this point, we're still in the “whatever you do, don't edit” mindset. I can fix it next week or next month or never, but we're not filming this, we're just trying to get it written at the moment. The scene, as is, gets me where I need to be, it's just not doing it as well as I'd like. But that'll do for now.

Act Two. AKA the jangled mess in the middle where I'm not sure how everything connects. (whimpers)

Back from supper. Going to keep this train rolling well into the night here.

There's so much to talk about like the crazy Supreme Court rulings – I actually wanted to mention them last night but I also wanted to, you know, not go insane from sleep deprivation. And SiCKO which I'm hoping to see just on Sunday. Oh, and technological utopias. The draft and trade fallouts. The Tigers – my mother ent to a game the other night and I've been meaning to try and spin that into a post. But, nope, we're frenzied tonight (And, when you get right down to it, probably going to take a break. I guestimate I've written over 15k already today. I wouldn't, you know, count on much out of me on Sunday, is what I'm saying.).

Quick update, we're through with Act One which is about where I thought we'd be at this point. I figured if I could make it through Act I today and Act II tonight and early tomorrow then I'd be able to knock out Act III and cruise to the finish line. It's going to leave me tired, drained, and if I was smart it wouldn't have come to this but, you know, viva la Frenzy. I'm not done yet and there's a chance I could be. I don't just want to take it. I have to take it.

Figured out why that scene I was talking about earlier bothered me. I overplayed my hand. I amped up the drama which is generally speaking a good thing but it's a case where I really needed to play things subtle. Early in the movie you don't want things going into histrionics and when you need your characters to do something it's a bad idea to give them a reason not to. I think I could go back and correct it – and hack about a thousand or more words out of it – but even though this is a fifth or sixth draft at this point, we're still in the “whatever you do, don't edit” mindset. I can fix it next week or next month or never, but we're not filming this, we're just trying to get it written at the moment. The scene, as is, gets me where I need to be, it's just not doing it as well as I'd like. But that'll do for now.

Act Two. AKA the jangled mess in the middle where I'm not sure how everything connects. (whimpers)