I’m sick of seeing the sun rise. That’s not a phrase that is uttered too often. The rising of our local star is one of the most brilliant and inspiring views one can have of our planet. It can sod right off.
The end of the first half of the second act (act 2A, as some call it), is well on it’s way. The idea to give my protagonist a literal series of challenges has carried me through the bit of most scripts that are usually dull. For some reason, when most of the script’s I’ve read at the amateur and/or student level, the writer will get to the end of the first act and of laying out the world of his/her story, explaining everything clearly, then they just never stop. They continue on to page fifty or sixty, just explaining and setting up and explaining and setting up, and then they just stop writing. It doesn’t make for a very compelling story and it ends up an unfinished screenplay on a forgotten dusty shelf. Glad to see I’ve gotten past this bit. Not trying to brag, although I suppose I sort of am. Just feels good, man. I’ve retro-scripted a bit of my outline to include newer elements that I’ve introduced. If this is a lesson in anything, it’s that while an outline should be required, it doesn’t have to be set in stone.
My health is continuing on the decline. My voice is the next to go, strangely enough. I’m not sure if that’s the poor sleeping habits, or if it’s from a bush fire outside of town. We’ll see what becomes of this. Hopefully I can stave off the worst of it with a well earned sleep tonight.
If I could only write for a few hours a day and I had to pick a time to write, it would be right after lunch, or in the afternoon between meals. It would keep me from being hungry (a constant annoyance. Up to two meals today. Wahoo!), and I would be further enough away from having woken up that I wouldn’t necessarily be tired. I also find that large amounts of caffeine, for me at least, work best in the afternoon. Night is a bit depressing (especially when writing a children’s film), and the morning is listless and groggy. Afternoon is definitely the way to go.
Tomorrow I begin to wrap up act 2. The plan is to half it start off with an act reversal, a bit of character building, a plot twist, and a chase. I believe it was David Mamet who made the comment that events in a story should be “Surprising, yet inevitable”. Not really a law that I follow in the strictest sense, but a good rule of thumb to half none the less.
DAILY TALLY:
Pages: 51 (Goal: 51) – 57% complete
Scenes:45
Words: 8623
TOTAL CAFFEINE CONSUMED:
Mountain Dew (12oz): 6
AMP Energy(16oz): 7
Red Bull (8.4oz): 3
PAGES FROM DAY 4. Full of spelling/grammar errors. I will correct these after I finish the draft. Until then, my apologies.
PAGES FROM DAY 4. Full of spelling/grammar errors. I will correct these after I finish the draft. Until then, my apologies.
Just an FYI, cause I enjoy reading about your journey and don't want you to die...
ReplyDeleteYou aren't supposed to consume that much caffeine... #1) It fucks with your health #2) it aggravates your prostate, so you'll have that to deal with in the future and #3) Its a diuretic so you will pass out from lack of water soon.
You are supposed to drink no more than 1 Amp Energy OR Red Bull OR Monster in a day. Maybe 2 but that is pushing the limit of it.
Keep up the good fight, I'm looking forward to reading the final process and your work has inspired me to give writing a script in 7 days a try.. despite having a full time job to deal with.