Script Frenzy launches in a little less than 8 hours. Let's see how I'm situated to begin the process, shall we?
Basic plot synopsis. Check.
Outline. Not done.
All characters named. Uh, maybe I'll do that tonight?
Locations finalized. Sort of.
Sick daughter well again. I hope so. I called Christopher this afternoon, and he said Edythe's doing better than yesterday, and she doesn't seem to have the fever that's been plaguing her for the past week. So that's good.
Home remodeling projects from the great flood of December finished. Almost. There are still some pieces of wall missing in the bathroom. I need to paint the other half of the shower room tonight. Aaaaaand there's that whole plastering thing going on in the WC, with the dust and the yeah, it's going great.
Caught up on other home projects so I can focus on this. No.
Etsy shop up and running. No. Will have to wait until Script Frenzy is over, I fear. Plus, that will give me more time to obsess over my items being Not Good Enough.
Read other screenplays for sense of style and structure. I read one during lunch today, that counts, right?
Script-formatting software downloaded onto computer. No. And Christopher's in class tonight, so I guess that will have to wait until tomorrow night.
A sense of confidence that this project will be less crappy than the last one. Definitely not.
A sense that I'm going to charge ahead anyway. YES!
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Work It Out
Having a sick baby is no fun. I feel like she's been sick every other week this year. But it is spring now, and surely the warm breezes will abolish those germs, right?
Tonight she had a fever of 101, for the second day in a row. I'd had her cooped up in the house all day, so I took her for a walk tonight to show her the trees blooming in the neighborhood. And while we walked, I worked out my plot for Script Frenzy. This is a pretty good tool, actually. I kept talking to her, trying to tell her the story in a way that made sense and was compelling, and that act of relating it through the spoken rather than written word seemed to make a big difference to me. Fortunately, she doesn't have the vocabulary for criticism or embarrassment yet.
After she went to bed I jotted it all down, so I don't forget what brilliant thoughts/incoherent ramblings I just had. There are still some plot points I'm trying to work out, and I may change my mind about all this tomorrow, but tonight I'm pretty excited about it.
Tonight she had a fever of 101, for the second day in a row. I'd had her cooped up in the house all day, so I took her for a walk tonight to show her the trees blooming in the neighborhood. And while we walked, I worked out my plot for Script Frenzy. This is a pretty good tool, actually. I kept talking to her, trying to tell her the story in a way that made sense and was compelling, and that act of relating it through the spoken rather than written word seemed to make a big difference to me. Fortunately, she doesn't have the vocabulary for criticism or embarrassment yet.
After she went to bed I jotted it all down, so I don't forget what brilliant thoughts/incoherent ramblings I just had. There are still some plot points I'm trying to work out, and I may change my mind about all this tomorrow, but tonight I'm pretty excited about it.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Kvetching
Writing blog entries is like screaming into the darkness. Does anyone hear me? No one? Someone creepy? Some snarky troll? I don’t tend to get a lot of feedback on here, obviously, although a few people comment via e-mail. (Thanks, Aunt!) But for the most part, I put ideas out, and get nothing back. Which perhaps would be a good analogy for the process of trying to get published, although in that case one usually gets a rejection letter, at least.
It’s also kind of odd, writing about the writing process, because so much of it is private. It’s one thing to talk about a daily wordcount, as a way of holding myself accountable. It’s another to talk about my process in-depth.
But Script Frenzy begins in a week, so I’m guessing that soon I’ll be posting up a storm. I’m developing an idea that I’m excited about, and creating an ever-increasing and detailed plot summary. I think I’ll write a screenplay this time. And if, somewhere far down the road, someone crafts a pair of million-dollar shoes for my big feet, you can bet I’ll wear them.
It’s also kind of odd, writing about the writing process, because so much of it is private. It’s one thing to talk about a daily wordcount, as a way of holding myself accountable. It’s another to talk about my process in-depth.
But Script Frenzy begins in a week, so I’m guessing that soon I’ll be posting up a storm. I’m developing an idea that I’m excited about, and creating an ever-increasing and detailed plot summary. I think I’ll write a screenplay this time. And if, somewhere far down the road, someone crafts a pair of million-dollar shoes for my big feet, you can bet I’ll wear them.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Hello Again
Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. I really haven't felt like sitting in front of a computer lately. I do enough of that at work. I've been seeing my family, repairing my house, and designing items for my soon-to-open etsy shop. So I've been creative, just not in the writerly way that I report here.
But spring is in the air, and a young lady's thoughts turn to dark theatres and Script Frenzy. I went to sign up today, but lo and behold, I had already registered and forgotten about it. Oops.
So now I'm signed up, with a password I remember and everything. I'm trying to settle on an idea now, so I can do my research before I start. I think this process will be a little easier for me than diving into writing a novel for the first time. It just feels more familiar, from all those years in theatre, working on various aspects of script development. But we'll see what I think a month or two from now, right?
But spring is in the air, and a young lady's thoughts turn to dark theatres and Script Frenzy. I went to sign up today, but lo and behold, I had already registered and forgotten about it. Oops.
So now I'm signed up, with a password I remember and everything. I'm trying to settle on an idea now, so I can do my research before I start. I think this process will be a little easier for me than diving into writing a novel for the first time. It just feels more familiar, from all those years in theatre, working on various aspects of script development. But we'll see what I think a month or two from now, right?
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Boring
I'm here to report that I have nothing to report. At least on the writing front.
On the home front, we recently returned from an eventful trip to New England. It was fun to visit our family, but we're still fighting colds, ear infections, and such-alike as a result.
We're also dealing with some major home issues at the moment; our upstairs neighbor's washing machine broke mere hours before we were scheduled to leave for said trip, leaving us with no power, no water, no clean clothes, and several inches of water on the floor. Thank goodness my parents were able to facilitate some of the clean-up while we were gone, or there would have been no trip (or we would have come back to a seriously moldy condo). As it is, we have a cement slab for a floor and holes in the walls and ceiling. And apparently our flooring isn't being manufactured anymore, so we may have to re-floor the whole place. The jury's still out on whether our insurance will pay for this, or just for what's already been removed. The joys of homeownership!
All this is to say, I haven't been doing much writing lately, and don't have anything new to report.
On the home front, we recently returned from an eventful trip to New England. It was fun to visit our family, but we're still fighting colds, ear infections, and such-alike as a result.
We're also dealing with some major home issues at the moment; our upstairs neighbor's washing machine broke mere hours before we were scheduled to leave for said trip, leaving us with no power, no water, no clean clothes, and several inches of water on the floor. Thank goodness my parents were able to facilitate some of the clean-up while we were gone, or there would have been no trip (or we would have come back to a seriously moldy condo). As it is, we have a cement slab for a floor and holes in the walls and ceiling. And apparently our flooring isn't being manufactured anymore, so we may have to re-floor the whole place. The jury's still out on whether our insurance will pay for this, or just for what's already been removed. The joys of homeownership!
All this is to say, I haven't been doing much writing lately, and don't have anything new to report.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Onward
My current project is actually an old project, a play I've been working on for several years in fits and starts. I love the source material, a sprawling and delicately wrought 19th-century novel. But the beautiful language is also my hang-up. How can I turn 720 pages of novel into about 120 pages of script? My inclination is always to make the dialogue more terse, and in many ways, it needs to be. But how can I keep the flavor of the original? How much of the dialogue should be the original author's words, and how much should be my own?
I'm working from the following basic outline:
120 pages total, 3 acts.
Act 1, pages 1-29. BIG EVENT occurs on page 30, heralding the beginning of
Act 2, pages 30-89, with another BIG EVENT on page 90, beginning
Act 3, pages 90-120.
And there should also be plot shifts at pages 10, 30, 50, and 75.
See, I like this kind of structure, although it's very different from how I approached the novel this fall. My past stabs at this play have involved poring over pages of dialogue and trying to write scenes, but without any sense of overall structure. I think I got up to 45 pages of dialogue from 200 pages of novel, and I wasn't even into the really meaty parts. I think there will be some dropping of sub-plots, some tightening of focus. We shall see. It's fun to have a new project, at least.
I'm working from the following basic outline:
120 pages total, 3 acts.
Act 1, pages 1-29. BIG EVENT occurs on page 30, heralding the beginning of
Act 2, pages 30-89, with another BIG EVENT on page 90, beginning
Act 3, pages 90-120.
And there should also be plot shifts at pages 10, 30, 50, and 75.
See, I like this kind of structure, although it's very different from how I approached the novel this fall. My past stabs at this play have involved poring over pages of dialogue and trying to write scenes, but without any sense of overall structure. I think I got up to 45 pages of dialogue from 200 pages of novel, and I wasn't even into the really meaty parts. I think there will be some dropping of sub-plots, some tightening of focus. We shall see. It's fun to have a new project, at least.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Miracle of Miracles
In a rush to finish our 1,000 Christmas projects, I was linking from the Christmas letter on our family website to lots of pictures we took this year. And of course I got sucked in to lo
oking at ALL the pictures, the ones of me hugely pregnant this time last year, and of Edythe when she was born. It’s such a miraculous concept, this baby business. Yes, I understand the biological, but there’s a wondrous component that defies complete comprehension. I will never forget the feeling I had when Edythe was born, and the nurse placed her on my chest. We were one, and then we were two. It’s the most ordinary, everyday occurrence, and yet the most amazing experience of my life.
The Christmas story has new meaning for me this year. God chose to send His Son in this ordinary, humble, and miraculous way. He didn’t appear on the palace steps in a puff of smoke, all bedazzled and heralded by a brass band. He was born, the same way any of us were born, or the animals in the stable were born. It’s so normal, and yet so incredible a way to begin.
So many miracles, great and small, surround us. My Christmas wish for you, dear reader, is that you are given the gift of realization of life as you live it; that you are blessed with the senses to experience the world, and a heart open enough to really feel it.
Merry Christmas.
Love,
Ruby
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