Fade Out on Script 6

When I made my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days (which I was nowhere near completing at the end of 1001 days, but I am still working on), I made one of the items to have finished seven feature length first drafts. I'm one closer to my goal of 7 which--illogically so--seems like some magic number. When I hit 7 completely scripts I'll have learned something or mastered something or at least come up with one marketable idea. And in some sense it's true--I've noticed a slow but steady development of good concept and craft with each script. Nearly all of these projects have been documented in some way on this blog, but here's a recap. Cause I'm narcisstic.

1. The 4:05 -- My first script ever, I wrote it while living in England in my semester between my two universities. That sounds very romantic, and it was. I sat in pubs in the middle of the afternoon--drinking soda, mom and dad--writing on yellow legal pads, a hastily scrawled paragraph as an outline. I love this story, probably because it is my own, but it's not a fresh enough take on the coming-of-age romantic dramedy. It placed in the top ten screenplays at the University of Michigan's most prestigious writing competition, warranting some of the harshest comments I've ever received on a piece. I have a soft spot for this story but currently have little intention of revisiting it.

2. Making It -- A very terrible coming of age story. I didn't like it very much even when I was writing it, so if it's ok with you, we'll just acknowledge that this one happened in order to make it count for the tally.

3. Whatever You Ask -- 2007 Script Frenzy project. A romantic comedy with three male protagonists. Because I know so much about the male mind. While I was very excited about the idea when I was gearing up for it, I honestly don't think I've looked at it since I finished it. I have zero desire to revisit it.

4. Collapse/In Memoriam -- I wrote this script for my first screenwriting class. I wrote it for a friend. Since our second screenwriting class as a rewrite class, I took this script through a couple drafts. It might be good. I don't know. I haven't really looked at it since then. It's a story about death, and right now it's just so damn depressing. I'd need to figure out a way to make it more light-hearted without making it a Big Chill rip off (thought that would be a bit fitting). But after the flops that were Making It and Whatever You Ask, this script did good things for me. I again entered the Hopwood Awards and again placed in the top ten, where the comments were not AS mean as they were for The 4:05 [improvement!]. This script also got me into the master screenwriting class, where I wrote--

5. The Garden [Even Angels Swear] -- I can't really call it that, but I wish I could. This script is definitely my passion project script. I wrote it for my master class, had pages workshopped by Tom McCarthy and Pamela Gray, and spent many hours in my professor's office trying to make it work. I finished my third draft of it last summer. It was a shredding rewrite, and a fourth draft is definitely needed. I will get to it--I think I'll always return to this project--but I'm hesitant about how marketable it is. It'd be a big budget movie with strong religious themes and a real cliff hanger ending. I've got to make it phenomenal before anyone takes a risk on that.

6. The Exit Strategy -- Clocking in at 75 pages, this is the first feature length first draft I've completed since graduating in 2009. It's an incredibly personal project, though if I had to pitch it I'd say it's My Best Friend's Wedding meets Tiny Furniture. Meets Forgetting Sarah Marshall meets (500) Days of Summer. I wrapped it last week and am taking a break before diving back in for the rewrite. I have a couple friends who I know would be willing to look at it after I get it to the best I can by myself. And I have secret hopes for this script.

7. Found Footage Story -- My next project. Am I jumping on this bandwagon? Heck yes I am.

I remember after I wrote Whatever You Ask, I had this terrible wave of self doubt. I had written three scripts, and the last two were real bombs. But looking back I can see the gradual improvement [and this isn't counting the numerous ideas, loglines, shorts, first acts, pilots, and tv specs I've banged out]. They say it takes ten years. Or is it ten scripts? A million words?

Whatever it is, I'll get there. Eventually. Cause I just keep on typing.

To be honest, I based Grace off myself

Tomorrow I leave for camp. I am excited. Not combustible excited, because I'm sick and tired from a fun weekend, but the happy, pleased, content excited. It's going to be a challenge and a retreat at the same time.

I am so excited by camp. This is where I used to go as a kid. We live up in the mountains by a lake in cabins or platform tents without electricity. We have campfires and cookouts. I'll be in charge of a group of eight or so girls, I'll be teaching/assisting two activities from crafts to drama to kayaking, I'll have a couple hours of free time to go horseback riding or practicing my archery skills, I'll get to lead my cabin girls in Bible study every day, I'll get to hang out with girls my own age dealing with similar stuff, and I get a cool bird name! I am going to be busy busy busy. The thing I'm going to miss most? Listening to Mat Kearney!

And I'll have limited, practically nonexistent internet access.

I got Whatever You Ask up to 13K. Not done. I can work on it some a little on the way up to camp tomorrow, but it's not going to hit 20K tonight like I had hoped. There's still a chance for it. Some times writers have to choose between having time to write and having a life. As that old knight guy said in The Last Crusade, "You have chosen wisely."

I've finally seen some *good* movies lately. Marie Antoinette, Say Anything, and the Departed are all vastly different and very good movies. Watching Say Anything after Four Weddings and a Funeral, I noticed a very crucial element - I fell in love with John Cusack in Say Anything. I didn't feel very many warm and fuzzies for Hugh Grant - and he's beautiful and has a British accent. You think it would be automatic for a writer, to create not only a sympathetic character but one that the audience can love. But I didn't root for Grant like I rooted for Cusack. And that made all the difference.

I'm watching Supernanny. Funny the way it reminds me of au pairing, especially Jo with her British accent. I've decided that with my experiences with children, if I don't get a job in the industry when I go to LA, I sure as heck will be able to get a job in child care.

Have a great summer, everyone!

Stay up late and share secrets

Tonight was the most ridiculous night of work at my temp job. I've decided, finally, that there's gotta be a story in there somewhere. There has to be.

I've solved a dilemma that arose from watching the customers at my temp job. Children like hover around their parents at the register and when said parent is not looking, slip a brightly colored little item into the huge pile their parents are not watching. I can never really tell whether or not parents didn't see it or if they're just letting it slide, so I've started asking. I have yet to see a kid, though, whose eyes do not bulge when they come near the register, so I've started to figure out ways to not let my kids get that irritating that they are constantly pulling on my clothes to buy them something that will just make them even more energetic and disruptive. I think the clear solution is - never let them know what's inside those bright wrappers. Never eat candy in front of my kids, never give it to them straight from the package, keep it secret from them for until they can read the darn labels themselves. As long as they don't know what's in those little red and orange packages, they can't want them, right?

Wrote another thousand words today for Script Frenzy. I feel like I'm writing in circles, slowly building, but still rehashing the same themes, the same scenes. It's time to bump it up a notch. I'm going to give them a few more pages to let them play nice before I tear it all down. There needs to be more CONFLICT, gosh darn it.

I saw Four Weddings and a Funeral the other night. This movie is supposed to be like one of the classic Romantic Comedies, a gem in the genre.

I really didn't like it.

Billy Mernit criticizes Elizabethtown for the fact that in a romantic comedy, you should be able to see the attraction between the two people, why they should be together, and he never understood why Kirsten Dunst fell for and chased after Orlando Bloom. Um, hello, gorgeous, need I say more? But anyway, I felt this was the very same problem in Four Weddings, even more so. Andie and Hugh don't have a real conversation on screen until after they've slept together for the second time. What? And can we talk about what a commitment-phobe Andie was? I may spend time dancing the line, but you can believe that the next time I commit, you won't find me flirting with an old fling at his wedding ceremony after separating from my husband of less than a year. This just disturbs me. Sure, there were a few cute quotes, and the friendship dynamics in the story were interesting, but the main romantic plot? Not interested. Did not find that relationship engaging or, well, sympathetic, really, at all! Still have Say Anything to watch, by the same writer/director so criticized by the honorable and wise Mr. Mernit (whose book I looked for and failed to find today), another gem of the genre, and one I would be watching now if it wasn't already pretty late...

'Tis the Season to Enter Contests --

The Nicholl deadline's long past, Austin just closed at the beginning of the month (though they might have a later date, I'm not sure), I think Disney's Fellowship closes the first of July, and the Screenwriting Expo's first deadline is July 1st. I'm looking at entering The 4:05 and Daffodil or the divorce party short to the Expo. I think I'm definitely going to submit a short because there aren't many contests for shorts. Daffodil needs to be shortened a few pages, though.

I don't like MySpace. It's slow, chaotic, and people put up crappy music that interrupts whatever I'm listening to already. Which is currently Mat Kearney. Have I mentioned how much I love him? I think I'm going to dance with him at my wedding - to him, I mean. To his music.

I've seen a bunch of movies recently (trying to get in as many as I can before I go live in the mountains without electricity for a couple of months). My family and I watched Night at the Museum the other night. It was amazing! I haven't heard my dad laugh at a movie like that for a while. And sometimes, yeah, he was just laughing at the absurdity of it, but it was really funny. The opening was a little weak, though, because the relationships in the movie were very cliched. My dad pointed that out in the first ten minutes, a divorced family with a flawed father and responsible boyfriend/second husband and a kid caught in the middle. But about twenty minutes after that, you realize why the cliched family dynamic works, because that's not why you came to see the movie. You came to see all the cool and ridiculous things that happen to Ben Stiller when the museum gets out of control at night. You didn't want a family drama anyway. And sure, while it's not necessarily the wisest choice of the writers - it seems a little lazy - it gives Ben Stiller's character all the right motivations to do the things he does. And, like I said, the reason you can get away with it is that it's not why you came to the movie in the first place. I wish I had heard good things about this movie when it was out in theatres. I would have gone to see it.

My friend and I were talking about screenwriting (more like I roped him into giving me a detailed and thorough analysis of my writing to satisfy the writerly neurosis I have developed recently), and we talked about why I want to write and what I want my stories to be about and what purpose I want them to serve. I think it's super important for a writer to decide what purpose she wants her stories to serve. Focused writing makes all the difference. And of course, the stories that serve their purpose are "good stories," stories that connect with people communicate. I was reading my new issue of Creative Screenwriting and found this quote in an interview with screenwriter Nicholas Meyer. He says that when someone once asked him what makes a good story, he replied, "A good story is where, once I've told it to you, you understood why I wanted to tell it to you." I'm not sure if there's anything else I can add to that. I'm not a big outliner or prewriter, but I think it's important for writers to go into their stories knowing what issue they're examining or what question they're raising or what they want to communicate. Know your story's purpose, know what you want to communicate to your reader, and dedicate your work to that, and I can't imagine that you'll end up with anything but a "good story."

I haven't done any work on Whatever You Ask yet today because I had to work my temp job (if you *really* want to be well known, work at a place where everyone shops. Today I was helping a customer, and he said, "Didn't I see you on R----- Road on Thursday?" Now, I walk down there a lot on my way to Dunkin Donuts, so I said it was very possible. He continued, "Yeah, you were wearing a white skirt." A little creepy, but I try not to get too concerned. I'll have to get used to it when I'm rich and famous no? Oh, and if anyone was wondering, it was that white skirt that I managed to spill orange juice all over. The stain came out, and I have been very careful around liquids whenever wearing it now). Um, anyway, Whatever You Ask - I might not write anything, either, because I still have letters to write tonight. I haven't heard from my GI yet, which doesn't really bother me because he's, you know, in the middle of a war, but I'm starting to wonder if he exists. Of course, that gave me a wonderful idea for a story...

Oooh, We're Halfway There

Hit 10,000 words today. 'Nuff said.

Time in the Joint

"So what's a pretty girl like you doing in a joint like this?"

Now, I know my temp job sucks, but I didn't think it was all that bad. Some people who stop by are really friendly. I was stocking stuff the other day, and a man comes down the aisle and says, "I just wanted to say hi!" I say, "Well, hi!" and as he walks off, I mouth, Who the crap is that. Some of the friendliest people. And a really cool old Scottish guy who will up open like a sweetheart if you get him to talk.

Have I mentioned how much I love Mat Kearney? He's pretty much amazing.

I broke 8,000 words tonight on Whatever You Ask. I'm ahead of the game if I had the whole month, but there's the whole trying to finish before May 14th thing. I've managed to mentally plot more of Act II out, though, which is helpful. Act II isn't so much of a hassle to write if you do have a midpoint that you're trying to build the story too. Then it's not just about complications. It's about plot and development and all that sort of good stuff.

I'm just thinking about a lot of stuff, really. And it's not really about writing, but it's coming out in my writing. That's sorta cool.

How to listen to U2 on a broken shuffle

My iPod wasn't working today. I have a shuffle, so it won't even tell me what's wrong. I ran errands and such today, walking of course, and my iPod stopped working after a while. So when I started walking back and, in frustration, did what I do to technology that's trying to revolt - I shook it. And that worked! Amazing.

Today was a positively beautiful day.

I didn't write again on Whatever You Ask yesterday after I posted. Because I'm lazy. Today I wrote 1200 words, though, so I made up for it, I think. Finished Act I. Act II will be difficult, getting those complications rolling, but hopefully once started it will go along, er, smoothly.

I caught an episode of On the Lot finally. I'd only heard things before tonight, mostly that it wasn't really very filmmaker realistic. Tonight they showcased 5 of 15 after they had five days to write, shoot, and edit their own shorts. They weren't too bad. Better than I could do in five days. My favourite one, for anyone who saw it, was the baker musical. But seriously, my first thought was, Oh my gosh Carrie Fisher looks so old!

I met her once, you know. Got to shake her hand. Stood in line three hours to do so, but I was star struck like I said I never would be.

I'm trying to get into Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola's writing community. You review others' scripts so that they'll review yours. I just don't know. From the batch they sent me, none of the loglines are that appealing, and the one I'm reading now is, well, not slow going, but not engaging either.

Finished watching Sideways. It didn't necessarily redeem itself after I picked it up again, but the story definitely improved. If it could have held that tone and style throughout the entire film, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.

I got my paperwork for my camp job sent off today. It's not that I'm not doing things here, I'm working and writing and spending time with friends and family. I just have too much time. Things would be easier with a license. I really should work on that...

Did I mention that it was a gorgeous day?

985 area code? Who's that?

I didn't hit 5,000 words yesterday like I said I would. You know why? Because I'm lazy. Because writing is work, and last night I didn't feel like doing anymore. But I just hit 5,008 this morning, and I'll probably plug a couple more hundred away before the end of the day.

I saw Catch and Release the other day with my best friends. As a flick, it's decent. My friends would disagree because they found the romantic plot underdeveloped and, well, sorta wrong. And really, I would have to agree with them. Susannah Grant also wrote Erin Brockovich, which is a far superior movie, but I think her writing skills were once again validated by Catch and Release. Because when I thought about the romantic plot I had to agree with my two friends about its shortcomings, but that only happened when I seriously turned my attention to it. Maybe there was just enough going on in the movie (or too much, if there wasn't enough time to develop the romance), but I was engaged enough to not notice the fact that Jennifer Garner and "Fritz" (okay, better name than that please? What is this, the Von Trapp family?) rarely talked or had any reason for any romantic interest. Suspension of disbelief. I'm still not quite sure how Susannah Grant did it, but she got me to enjoy the story enough to let it slide that the romance was a little contrived, unrealistic, and pretty much superficial. Which is funny, because I'm not sure if my two non-film student friends would agree.

I'm in the semi-middle of watching Sideways, as I had to put it on hold about 2/3 of the way through yesterday. At least I hope I'm at least 2/3 of the way through. Optimistically I only have 10-15 minutes left. The thing is, I'm all for stories about men in mid-life crisi and conflicts with present and past marriages and yes, especially about writers, but I am so bored. I think what they did with the wine motif is amazing and intelligent. I really like that part. There just seems to be very little movement in the story, and honestly, one of the main characters is a real jerk. I know we're not supposed to like him, there's no way he could have been written like that and we're supposed to like him, but he's one of the main characters, come on. The two main guys get in the same argument over and over and over again, the one guy that we like is slowly descending into an awful pit of depression, and the other one's a complete jerk. Maybe the ending will redeem the movie, but right now I just feel disappointed. The wine motif was so great. Couldn't they have come up with an equally great movie?

"I think the first duty of all art, including fiction of any kind, is to entertain. That is to say, to hold interest. No matter how worthy the message of something, if it's dull, you're just not communicating." - Poul Anderson

On the to do list today? Fill out all my paperwork for my camp job - which I'm super excited about!

Ka-Pow!

When I was younger, I wanted to take karate lessons. You know how some little girls wanted to be poofy dresses and some girls wanted to wear overalls and play baseball with the boys? Basically, I wanted to be the butt-kicking princess. I forget why, but my parents didn't want me to take karate lessons. Maybe they knew how dangerous I could be... Well, I came back from a break at college, and the boys were taking karate lessons - with dad! Let me tell you, I've been ruminating on gender theories for a couple of weeks now, and there will be a post about it.

I really thought I was getting over some of my more clumsy attributes, but an orange juice and a white skirt would disagree.

I finished the divorce party short. It needs quite a lot of help, still, but the rough is done. My friends suggested a happy ending, and I thought about it, I really did, but with the themes of second thoughts and consequences just wouldn't work as well then. Sorry, girls. Two days of work on Whatever You Ask has brought me up to a word count of 4703, and I'm pretty determined to aim for 5000 before I go to sleep. Friends did just come on, but I think it's a rerun. Well, obviously it's a rerun...

Only a week and a half of my temp job left, yay! I've been seeing our shopping carts in all the weirdest places.

I'm about ready to finish Act I of Whatever You Ask, so those extra 300 words should roll easily. I was worried about falling into cliches in Act I, but I've managed to either reasonably disguise them when they appear. My dialog hasn't been as snappy as I had hoped, and I'm not nailing the playa character quite so well. Is that because I haven't met enough guys who actually can flirt well or because I'm not so good at playing the game myself anymore? I'd like to say it's the former, but I'm not sure I even care.

Number of times I've listened to Joshua Radin/Jack's Mannequin/Mat Kearney songs I've listened to over again? Who's bothering to keep track?

Floods, Pirates, and Screenplays

I didn't start Script Frenzy on June 1st. I'm a big procrastinator like that. I'll blame it on my hectic schedule yesterday. I had an eye doctor appointment for my contacts (which, PS, are the most frustrating things in the world when they won't stick in your bloody eye. I'm quite used to being able to do the things I want, and when something like a little piece of flexible plastic defies me, I am not a happy person. Yes, that is strange.), took my brothers see Pirates 3 for their birthdays (it was better than the second but not as good as the first. Still very enjoyable, and I almost cried like three times. I don't even know why), went out to eat with the family and did a little shopping before going over to one of my friends' houses for the night.

We were sitting in the movie theatre watching the previews when the trailer for Evan Almighty, a modern recontextualization of Noah, came on. My older younger brother and I were finding some of the references and jokes pretty funny, but when the trailer ended with clips of the flood and the credits, my younger younger brother said loudly, "That is so unrealistic." I tried to shush him, because, I don't know, he's not used to movie theatres and is purposely talking loudly to be heard. He goes on to say, ignoring me, "God said He would never again destroy the earth by a flood." At which point I think I forgot that I was in a movie theatre and died laughing. Isn't there some quote about comedy just being the truth said at the right moment?

I haven't finished the divorce party short yet, but today I *did* start Whatever You Ask, my Current Draft for Script Frenzy. Right now I'm at 1905 words, and I'm sure I'll get to 2000 by the end of the day because I'm a little OCD like that. If I keep that up, I can totally finish before the middle of the month. Which is the goal. The opening went a little better than I had hoped. I was afraid I was going to resort to using a cliche to set up the relationship between my main guy and his girlfriend, but I managed to twist the cliche I consciously used. So it's a compromise. I have to be careful to make sure I don't start adding purple prose to my stage directions and descriptions. I know quality is of secondary importance in these NaNo style events, but I want this Current Draft to be better than Making It. Though I doubt that will be hard. So progress is good. I really need to discipline myself to shut off the internet when I'm working though. Huge distraction, and I'm a professional procrastinator.

Thanks for everyone who gave me a boost of encouragement over the past couple of days. I really needed it. : )

"I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper."
-- Steve Martin

You know where I want to go? I want to go to that ice hotel in like Greenland or Norway or where ever. That would be pretty much awesome.

the Frenzy

Ever November for the past four years I've participated in National Novel Writing Month. It's just sort of a given now. I'm already entertaining ideas for this year's, whether I'll have fun with a ridiculous concept or try to write a serious novel this year. In June, the same people are sponsoring Script Frenzy, the same concept in script format. I already have an idea, some notes, and even a title (though I had to go with my second choice because my first one's already been used several times) - Whatever You Ask. I'm excited because my three main characters are all guys, and we all know the challenges in point of view and characterization that's going to present.

Someone posted a thread on the Script Frenzy forums called "Writers for Real." Now, that already is a ridiculously pretentious title because it's belittling to the rest of the community, I feel, but I went ahead and posted about my writerly plans. It's a little amusing because of the handful of people who've posted, most of us are just still *training* to be writers for real. But one person posted about how if you Google search Script Frenzy you'll find a lot of people knocking and degrading it. We have to deal with that in NaNo, too, but I went ahead and Googled Script Frenzy to see for myself what people were saying.

I only found one really negative collection of comments, but even then I was surprised by the vindictiveness with which these people attacked SF and the writers participating in it. All these accusations that it's a bad environment, that you'll turn out crap just to meet the deadline, that it's too chaotic and unplanned. One person even said that it harms the creative process. You know what the creative process is? It's sticking your butt in a chair and writing.

I would say that what these people don't realize is that the one month restraint is for your first draft only, not your prewriting or rewriting, so you have plenty of time to craft characters and structure and rewrite all your mistakes later. I would say that plenty of the participants in Script Frenzy already know script format or use the resources offered to learn it before it starts. I would say that plenty of successful movies had a first draft written in one month or less. I would say that some people don't need a lot of prewriting time. I would say that writing is a craft you learn by doing, so let people practice they way they want. I would say that for as many different writers there are, there are different ways of approaching "the creative process."

But I think that by the fact that people would attack the plot generator on the home page of Script Frenzy just shows that they have no sense of humor. They're taking themselves way too seriously. These are the kinds of pretentious writers that I complained about before - they drive me crazy! Writing is writing is writing. So leave others in peace when they do it.

"Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed." - Ray Bradbury