I'm doing a remote. Decided not to go into the office today. Sometimes the comfort of having an office means that you can escape it every once in a while. And today I'm escaping. I'm at page 55 of my screenplay and I need to change things up. I needed to change the routine around.
So it's later in the day. I woke up earlier, however. Took some time to just relax a bit. I have been going at hyper speed.
The screenplay is at 55 pages right now. I have a few things to figure out before I proceed. But I feel like I'm in a good place. I told myself (and repeated it back to Tim for accountability) that I was not doing page counts this week. And I'm making good progress so far, let's just say. I'm further along than I thought I would be.
At every little step, I've had something to hang on to.
In Act One, I knew it was about setting up the world and introducing the love story.
So far in Act Two, it has been about using certain seminal movie moments to create scenes and to reflect how the protagonists' perception has changed.
Now everything he loves is about to go. And I think I need to find more complications before I make him a hero again. That's why I'm slowing down. I'm basically making a pit stop to gas up. Refuel, as it were.
Here are some questions I'm asking myself.
- Is this a 90 page screenplay? Or is it 120?
- Related: How long is Act Two?
- Are there more external complications between the break that happens in the middle of Act Two?
- Do I have too much story?
- This is probably true.
- And it probably doesn't matter because I think I just want to overstuff with scenes where I think they should go and then trim back.
- This is all related to Act Two. I think there's a lot of stuffing in this act.
- That's okay.
Right now, those are the things I'm dealing with. Although, I do believe I need to get to the end of this screenplay. I don't have time to stop and start considering all of those things.
I will say that one thing I'm doing differently is helping in a big way and it's making it fun:
Notecards
It's true. I'm nerding out. I love playing around with my note cards. Revising them when I get new ideas for story. Stapling two notecards together when they represent an alternative scene. Ripping notecards in half when I'm discarding them. It's all really great and giving me some thing tactile to work with.
The other thing that's helping is reading this guy's wise words again:
I have to go back and re-read this article every now and again. And it's a good touchstone to remind myself of what on this list I'm doing and what I have given up on. If anyone knows how to multi-task and keep things moving, it's Joss Whedon.
At our creative roundtable over the weekend, I talked about how I like to juggle a lot of projects at once. Not everyone works that way. I like to put down one project and pick up another one. It helps me process the one I'm putting down without obsessing over it. And I can let my mind wander and my subconscious take over. Some people need to work on one thing at a time. That's hard for me when I have a bunch of ideas. When I only have one, then it's easy. But if I have a lot of things in my queue to write, I hop around. But I also have to be really careful about prioritizing. I don't work on two things simultaneously. I do need to have my brain clear for that. I can only focus on one thing at a time. But if I need a break, it's nice to have something else to pick up.
And that can be a book for research on another project.
But I'm starting to operate as a production company. So there are many projects at various stages of development and new ideas that pop into the brain at a time. I was reading that Woody Allen has tons of ideas and they're on scraps of paper. So he might pick something up he thought of years ago and that might become a new screenplay. I'm doing that but with my notecards. I have an accordion file that is index card sized. And the ideas go in there. Right now I have an active file. I think I'm going to have to have a file that's just ideas that moves into the active file once I'm working on something. And of course there's going to be some type of archive at some point. My tarot did say that organization was going to be important for me and productivity and creativity.
All right. I'm typing. I'm warm. I'm fueled up.
Now it's time to hit the road again.
I am grateful for 55 pages in 9 days.
I am grateful for an outline that came together in a week.
I am grateful for a spec script that I wrote in 30 days.
I am grateful for a play I wrote in 35 days, rewrote in a week and had a reading for.
I am grateful for a spec pilot that I outlined and bibled in a week, wrote in a week, and rewrote over two weeks.
I am grateful that I write something every day.
I am grateful that I am learning to take care of my mind, body and soul with equal care.
I am grateful that I am paying attention.
I am grateful that self-employment is working.
I am grateful that I am curating a life for myself that is productive and spiritually fulfilling.
I am grateful that my procrastination is also productive.
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