Don't Move Until You See It

I finally finished my 2nd draft outline, and I only had to look like a sucker for two and a half months! Yeah it took way too much time, but I'm finally at a point where I like the story choices I've made and am reasonably confident that I can deliver a 2nd draft that is under 130 pages. My first draft had over 80 pages of actual football action, so I feel that getting the page count down won't be a such a herculean task.

So why did it take do long to get this outline finished? Well it took a few weeks to just create an outline from my first draft. Then I started to cut and sculpt working at my own pace instead of frenetically writing towards some arbitrary deadline. The result, I hope, is a well designed story that will result in a script I can be proud of.

For now Evil Tom has run off to Australia (with the rest of the criminals*). I will soon reenter drafting mode. This time I’ll pay a little more attention to the words and try to produce something I can show to my peeps out there. You know who you are. My hopes are to have something to show within the month of September, but you never know how it will go. I will keep a log of my time and see if it takes me more or less time than the first draft did.

With my next script, I hope to cut these times down (mostly the non-writing/outlining/dreaming times). My problem is that it isn’t easy for me to see the story, for it to solidify in my mind while in the outlining, story forming process. I suspect this is why most young writers hasten to FADE IN. They need something tangible to work with because a bulleted list on a page just doesn’t cut it. I think that after a few more scripts the story will become more concrete during the outlining process, cutting down the time to FADE IN and reducing the chances that I’ll have too much story for a conventional 100 to 120 page script.

See you in a few.


* I kid. Australians are a nice and wholesome people, at least that is what I’ve been told to say by the Australian Tourist Council lest someone cuts me while I slumber. Don’t fuck with the ATC.