Writing the Short Screenplay

For my screenwriting students --
DUE this week: short screenplay, 1-5 pages
Last week we pitched original story ideas and developed story treatments. Today (Tuesday) we workshopped first drafts. Thursday the screenplay is due.

The evaluation criteria is the same as what we used in our workshop. I'll be looking for:

• Who wants what? and the ironic situation
• Opposition
• The dramatic moment and how that changes the character
• A dimensional main character and a visualization of his or her inner life
• A big idea or theme

Out of this handful of core story assets, a successful short will be strong in at least a couple of ways, and in other ways, possibly not as strong.

(For example, the readers who read my "Party Girls" script today noticed that there isn't much in the way of a big idea--It's based on a fairly small, unprofound, though authentic idea. But the sense I got from my readers is that the irony/character dimension and visualization of inner dynamic tension is strong -- strong enough to make the whole work.)

TIP: If it's fun to write, it's fun to read.

I made it across the quagmire.

I finished my young adult novel GREEN TARA: A Space Adventure! (I'm talking New Year's Eve and not the Thanksgiving completion schedule I'd hoped for, but hey, I squeaked under the 2007 wire well before midnight.)

New Year's Day I celebrated by polishing little mechanical details in the manuscript and grooming the spacing and page breaks.

This morning I asked a handful of readers to examine my baby with their expert editorial eyes.

I feel --

MERRY MERRY HAPPY HAPPY JOYFUL JOYFUL MERRY MERRY HAPPY HAPPY JOYFUL JOYFUL MERRY MERRY HAPPY HAPPY JOYFUL JOYFUL

Is it good enough?

I'm having a heck of a time making any progress on my full-length story GREEN TARA. It's driving me crazy. My deadline's the end of the month and I'm barely out of the starting block. The problem is, I'm writing this draft for someone else to read and evaluate. If this was my first draft, I'd be gleefully blazing through the story because my primary goal would be to simply string together the story and allow the characters some room to emerge and take charge. But in my fourth draft I'm plagued by all those devilish fears. Will it be picked up? Is it good enough?

The antidote to fear--I know from experience--is to get back to basics and trust the process. Here's how it works:

START (Getting bum into chair can be the toughest part.)
1. Plan the energetic drive of the next scene.

2. Write the scene as quickly as possible. (Or, in my case, rewrite.)

3. Keep going without going back.

ON THE NEXT DAY (Get bum into chair.)

• Reread the most recent new scene--NEVER EVER go back to scenes written more than one day before--and edit for clarity and flow and dramatic juice.
• Move on to the next scene - repeating the above process (1-3), except it's easier because we've already gotten past the most difficult part, START.

If the goal is to write one new scene per day, I'm always editing one scene from the previous day and writing one new scene. So the progress is one back, two forward: netting one new scene per day. Unfortunately, I'm really behind, so I'm in the three scenes back, six forward category.

Value of a Deadline

I'm spending time with the greatest motivator of all, a deadline.

I need to turn in a rewrite (2nd draft) of the children's novel I'm writing for Quest Atlantis.

Back later.