Day 1: Since it's been a while, I gathered my latest script and notes and spent time reviewing the last direction and plans I was working on. Not time for much else with the busy family weekend.
Creative Time: 20mins in the late evening.
Day 2: I tried to build on those plans from yesterday. I managed to work a little during a short lunch window. My focus was going through the step by step outline for building a script that I created for myself. I finally check a few steps off. I finished the notes section and step 0, but I previously kept hitting a wall during the end of step 1. I got through that today, which I think will help me get through this wall I've been hitting.
Creative Time: 25mins, during lunch
Day 3: Now that I've finally found my go-to work spaces during lunch near my new day job, I feel like I can focus on script. I wrote a big chunk of notes and checked off the boxes for steps 2 and 3. I need to finish about 47 steps before I will be done the script draft but I'll keep noting where I am. The outline forces me to constantly reevaluate what the most important elements of the script and to test a few different avenues of outlines. Right now, I've divided the script into 8 sequences and then once I get through a few different iterations of that process, I will break those each into at least 8 new scenes. This will get me to roughly 64 scenes by the end of this project, with a speed draft done. By doing things like this, I realized that certain sequences didn't have enough conflict or I added conflict to areas where I hadn't thought of it. And overall, this script building outline is always through the lense of the original story. I also think that once I get to the point of having a speed draft, I'm pretty good at the editing and reorganizing part of the writing process.
Creative Time: 50mins, during lunch
Day 4: I've been having fun diving into this script segments. I've spend so much time in the past writing out full sections and abandoning them, so I can appreciate the benefits of revisions in very short outline form before diving too far into any one thing. I know I will make changes later too but I think this helps me see which scenes make the most sense in advance. I once again recommend the coffee break screenwriter by Pilar Alessandro. I've taken her revision and reworking ideas and put most of them as well as some of my own goals to create the checklist I mentioned in the last post. Its been helpful. I completed steps 4, 5, and 6 today. Each early step is a a rewrite with a specific concept or purpose in mind. My favorite revelation(s) from these steps was a unforeseen conflict in which a plate of food because the enemy and the object of desire at the same time.
Creative Time: 45mins, during lunch break; 30mins, late at night
Day 5: I zoomed through step 7. Step 7 was the first step where you go through the story outline from the perspective of the antagonist or supporting character. I found it hard to focus on all those characters at once, so I broke out step 7 in a few parts, 71, 7b, 7c, etc. for the main antagonist as well as supporting characters and even season characters that may not have a huge presence now but will come into play later. My favorite revelation(s) from this step was that I found a physical moment in the story for Simo and his son Cal to have a conversation about Cals mother, who is not in the picture. I knew I wanted that seen but it felt out of place in many places I was trying to put it. I realized that Simo and Cal have a scene in DC and that the car ride there would be a solid uninterrupted moment for a personal, if not a bit awkward, conversation
Creative Time: 20mins, before work; 50mins, during my lunch break, 20mins, after work
Day 6: Got through steps 8-11. I enjoyed most of these steps but realized that I had a hard time with the structural rewrite step. I feel like the genera order of events is pretty good the way I'm imagining and moving things around doesn't feel right. This is one of those steps that is hard to understand in outline form. I think its one of those steps that will be easier when I at least have the scene outlines, because I will have more material and it will be easier to mix things up and move them around.
Creative Time: 45mins, during lunch
Day 7: I made it to the scene outline. This is not the speed draft writing, but it is the outline of the 8 or more scenes I envision that need to happen in each sequence. This is where I am going back to my original notes as well as my rewrite notes and trying to find the right scenes for each sequence, starting with Act 1a. I found that while I thought I had an idea that was big enough to fill the first half of act 1, I'm struggling to fill in some gaps. I've been making this notes all over a printout and I may need to take the time to transfer them back to my computer because I have some things I need to see more cleanly and other formatting things that are easier to do on a computer.
Creative Time: 30mins, during nap time.
CONCEPT UPDATES/CHANGES: I feel good about where things are headed. Still not so sure about how long this will take but I'm pushing now. I haven't had a week at or above 7 hours, so I would really like to step that up and I think I need to if I want to actually finish this thing.
PICTURES/NOTES: Pics of script notes TBD.
THIS WEEK RUNNING TIME: 5.58 hours
TOTAL RUNNING TIME(SO FAR): 16.83 hours
