“Thank you for asking. Actually I’d say rather well, I’m managing on average 2 pages a day….”
“Only two..!? Crikey at that rate you won’t be finished by 2012 let alone next year.”
To answer my critic...
Let me say straight off it’s gratifying to be asked and please don’t ever stop. The fact is I’ve never written a movie script before so I cannot draw from previous experience. What I should have said is that my two pages translate into about four or even six pages when properly ‘script’ formatted. Now does that sound better?
Perhaps this is still too little? I’m not rushing since my target to complete is by spring. Something I believe is achievable – at least by my calculation.
If I am being slow then it must be down to my need for the words to come from a genuine sense of feeling for the characters. Their situation up until the point where I need to continue writing and where I know they and the story is heading. As a result I am performing what some believe is a cardinal script writing sin… before I start I re-read my script and nearly always from the beginning.
Whilst some writers abhor re-reads, at least from the view point that they invoke mini re-writes - improvements here, changes there – I haven’t felt the need to make alterations. Its not that my work is immune to improvements and fixes, it’s simply because I want to finish the script – to get the words out of me and onto paper. Constant tweaking is in my mind a risk and would certainly move completion to the summer. When I’m done, good and satisfied, I will turn my attention to polishing the script – something I plan to spend a couple of weeks on.
Is this the correct way for writing a (movie) script? Am I about to land myself a stinker or is it simply down to what best suits the writer? In any case, when all is said and done the proof will be for others to judge.
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