Ok, I’m not gonna lie…
I didn’t end up with a feature film script. BUT… I do have something that can be a short film. Or a number of episdoes for a web series.
So what’s a girl to do? Keep writing. And writing. And writing. The lesson I’ve learned is that I will have those days where I can’t for the life of me write pages and pages of stories. But I know that there will be days where my hand will try its best to keep up with my head on writing everything down. I’ve decided not to force it. I’ll see where this takes me …
So what now? I’ll still give myself a deadline for this one story I really really really want to start filming asap! I’ve got my actors and all I need now is this script (then I can go worry about production afterwards haha). I’m giving myself a month to finish this. I’ll reward myself something nice if I can finish it before Feb 28th!
Yesterday, another idea for a story popped in my head. A very random premise. I couldn’t stop laughing at the thought of it because it just seemed so ridiculous! So then I started to get this feeling of Oh, I really wanna write this!. It’s just too weird of an idea to just let go of and not explore further. And I couldn’t keep a straight face as these scenes played in my head and who knows if it’s something that will end up being filmed in the future… but I really wanted to write all that commotion running around my mind. I wanted to make sure it gets on paper before I forgot about it, before I lost all the excitement and enthusiasm I had over it.
So last night, instead of writing scenes for the original idea I had for (25) Days of Scriptwriting, I wrote some for this new story. And to my surprise … what I had in my head didn’t exactly translate as accurately as I wanted it to on paper. But it never does though, right? Isn’t that the challenge of writing? Struggling to convey exactly what you envisioned onto paper and hoping something magical easily comes out of it?
So now, I have a decision to make. Do I continue with my original idea from now until Feb 1st? Or do I take this new idea that I’m a bit more excited about and work on that? (Sigh)
Thought I’d write an update: I’ve written four scenes so far.
I definitely experienced some sort of writer’s block during the first two days. I absolutely couldn’t write a thing (or so I thought). Anything I thought of didn’t make it on paper because I thought it was crap (thanks, self-doubt).
Oh, and I couldn’t see my characters at all. I knew who they were and yet they weren’t as clear to me as before. It’s as if they didn’t feel like showing up, or that they were lazy and they decided to take the day off.
But for some reason, once I started watching some tv shows … my mind started buzzing and I all of a sudden found myself writing again! Maybe I needed some tv to wake me up? It’s a little amusing because throughout my entire life, I always used the phrase “I need to watch tv” with my friends and it was our joke. Who would’ve thought there was more to it than that?
I am loving Mary’s blog! When I’m slacking off with my writing, reading one of her posts can give me a quick reminder to wake myself up and get back to writing.
To begin the new year, she created a little project for herself called Writing a Movie in 25 Days, which she took from a book she’s reading by Viki King. Mary is generously sharing her plan online and will be writing about her progress on her blog. The first 4 days is spent on prep work and is then followed by 21 days of writing.
I’m truly inspired with this project so I think I’ll have to give this a go, too! I’m calling mine 25 Days of Scriptwriting and I’ve made a slight alteration for myself. I’ll still keep the first 4 days open for prep work, but since I’ve kind of already have something to work with, I’m going to try and get some writing done on those first 4 days as well. So starting tomorrow… this project will begin! Here’s my plan:
- January 8-11: Prep + Write
- January 12-February 1: Write, write write!
If I can stick with this (which I better!), I should have a decent script to work with by next month. Which sounds just lovely. But I know it’s gonna take some blood, sweat and tears from my part (considering the writer’s mess I’ve been in the past few months). I’ll be sure to make notes in future blog posts of all the frustrations, conundrums, eureka moments and whatever else I’ll encounter during this process.
Anyone else interested in this? If you decide to take this little writing project for yourself, let me know – I’d love to hear from you!
