Just a week late but I am a winner!!
50,700 words in 28 days. too many spelling mistakes to count. Am taking a week or two off to clear my head then I'll start the spell checking and then I'll read it start to finish. then, in the new year, the rewrite starts. I've set myself the deadline of being finished completely by June 1st 2009
Friday 5 December 2008
Thursday 6 November 2008
11000 words and counting
Have been nervous for a while about how my Nano would cope with being off for a few days. I deliberately squeezed in more than the minimum words on Saturday and Sunday last week to allow for the fact that yesterday was my wifes birthday so Tuesday night I had to bake a cake then last night I wanted to spend time with her rather than neglecting her, tapping away all on my lonesome up in the computer room. After a marathon session this evening, I feel inspired again.
On Saturday, when I started the novel, words werent coming very quickly at all but my prose was witty. Since then, I've realised I just didnt have the time to imbibe each scene with the humour and pathos that they deserved. I've really resigned myself now that this story is nothing more than a rough draft. and a very rough one at that. it serves no other purpose than to get the story out of my head and allow me to spot plot holes and bash things into shape.
There's still a few surprises of course. Characters do things you hadn't planned and a few new ideas have materialised out of the ether. I'm hoping to get a good blitz at it this weekend and, after churning out 3500 words with no problem this evening, it would be nice to see another 10k by Sunday night...
On Saturday, when I started the novel, words werent coming very quickly at all but my prose was witty. Since then, I've realised I just didnt have the time to imbibe each scene with the humour and pathos that they deserved. I've really resigned myself now that this story is nothing more than a rough draft. and a very rough one at that. it serves no other purpose than to get the story out of my head and allow me to spot plot holes and bash things into shape.
There's still a few surprises of course. Characters do things you hadn't planned and a few new ideas have materialised out of the ether. I'm hoping to get a good blitz at it this weekend and, after churning out 3500 words with no problem this evening, it would be nice to see another 10k by Sunday night...
Monday 20 October 2008
Update
Well that took a while but I've changed tact and now am writing it as a novel (for now at least) I'm going to try to do it start to finish in 30 days as part of NaNoWriMo for the duration of November. I'll update here more once things get going.
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Book 1: Chapter 1
A lot of the script is still completely up in the air, but there's a few things I'm very definite on. I know that I want the story to be set in Glasgow and I know what songs I want playing at the very start and the very end hypothetically, should the movie ever be made. I've got a rough idea of the overall story arc and have ideas for about half of the individual scenes.
What remains to be seen is whether I manage to imbue the prose with the wit and warmth that I know it needs. I'm guilty of allowing myself to daydream wildly and imagine the huge success that it would be if the film is made and is a hit, but I still need to actually put pen to paper and write something, just to get things moving. (same goes for the blog)
The next step is to write down a list of every scene I have in mind and rearrange it into some semblance of order. From that, I can either start writing scenes in order, one at a time from start to finish, or else start on some of the key scenes hoping that if I get them right, the rest will just fall into place.
Once I have the whole script written, I intend to choose definite locations of scenes and make up a story board using photo backgrounds and hand drawn 'actors' laid on top. Might even do a read through at that point and string the whole movie into a slide show, Who knows?
There's a long way to go and, as always happens, real life is getting in the way too much right now. I want this enough to find the time though.
Next time, I'll give a rough overview of the story and hopefully have the story structure nailed down...
What remains to be seen is whether I manage to imbue the prose with the wit and warmth that I know it needs. I'm guilty of allowing myself to daydream wildly and imagine the huge success that it would be if the film is made and is a hit, but I still need to actually put pen to paper and write something, just to get things moving. (same goes for the blog)
The next step is to write down a list of every scene I have in mind and rearrange it into some semblance of order. From that, I can either start writing scenes in order, one at a time from start to finish, or else start on some of the key scenes hoping that if I get them right, the rest will just fall into place.
Once I have the whole script written, I intend to choose definite locations of scenes and make up a story board using photo backgrounds and hand drawn 'actors' laid on top. Might even do a read through at that point and string the whole movie into a slide show, Who knows?
There's a long way to go and, as always happens, real life is getting in the way too much right now. I want this enough to find the time though.
Next time, I'll give a rough overview of the story and hopefully have the story structure nailed down...
Friday 28 December 2007
Prologue
" Wi' tippeny, we fear nae evil;
Wi' usquabae, we'll face the devil!
The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle.
But Maggie stood, right sair astonish'd,
Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd,
She ventured forward on the light;
And, wow! Tam saw an unco sight"
Tam O'Shanter - Robert Burns
I'm going to write a screenplay.
About Death.
Not death, as in dying (although, that features), but as in Death, the character. You know?, old skeletal bald guy in a black robe with a scythe, playing chess on a Swedish beach? THAT guy. The Grim Reaper!
About a year ago, (probably early march 2007), as is my normal habit, I was listening to (the highly recommended) Mark Kermodes film review podcast on the long drive to work.
In that particular episode, he was discussing 'A Guide To Recognising Your Saints'. I was only half listening but picked up very vaguely what it was about and that it starred Robert Downie Junior.
Somehow, I got an image in my head (I have no idea where from) that his character would be dressed in scruffy jeans, converse and an old 2nd hand suit jacket with a hoodie underneath and he was wearing the hood up.
That night, I had a dream (you know the ones where you're watching a movie but somehow are also in it?) whereby I was in a movie that starred Robert Downie Junior exactly as I had imagined him, but he was playing Death. The hoodie was his modern spin on the robe and he was carrying a 'book of life'.
The dream had an original twist on the usual 'Death' story. One which I'm not quite ready to disclose publically yet, but it was one of those ideas where, upon awakening, I convinced myself it was too good an idea to have just been dreamed up and must already exist.
I tried to put it out my mind but it kept nagging away. Over time, I realised that it really didn't seem to be an idea I had seen elsewhere. The dream was basically the entire 5-10 minute opening scene to the film, almost exactly as it still stands in my mind a year later. At the back of my mind the story gradually evolved into a more robust structure. So I started making notes and having ideas and scribbling down the basic structure and it's reached a point now where I think there's enough to make a pretty good screenplay.
So that's you up to speed. One of my main resolutions for 2008 is to have a complete screenplay written by the end of the year and this blog will chart my progress. I intend to set more rigid deadlines soon but for now, december 31st 2008 is the absolute deadline.
I decided to blog it since, even if no one ever reads this, I'm putting it in public so someone 'might' which will maybe make me more likely to stick with it.
It will be a few weeks before I have anything new to post here but I just wanted to get the blog set up as a home for any thoughts I have. I don't intend to publish the screenplay publically for now so I don't know if there will be much to post or if this will be very interesting to read but we shall see...
Wi' usquabae, we'll face the devil!
The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,
Fair play, he car'd na deils a boddle.
But Maggie stood, right sair astonish'd,
Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd,
She ventured forward on the light;
And, wow! Tam saw an unco sight"
Tam O'Shanter - Robert Burns
I'm going to write a screenplay.
About Death.
Not death, as in dying (although, that features), but as in Death, the character. You know?, old skeletal bald guy in a black robe with a scythe, playing chess on a Swedish beach? THAT guy. The Grim Reaper!
About a year ago, (probably early march 2007), as is my normal habit, I was listening to (the highly recommended) Mark Kermodes film review podcast on the long drive to work.
In that particular episode, he was discussing 'A Guide To Recognising Your Saints'. I was only half listening but picked up very vaguely what it was about and that it starred Robert Downie Junior.
Somehow, I got an image in my head (I have no idea where from) that his character would be dressed in scruffy jeans, converse and an old 2nd hand suit jacket with a hoodie underneath and he was wearing the hood up.
That night, I had a dream (you know the ones where you're watching a movie but somehow are also in it?) whereby I was in a movie that starred Robert Downie Junior exactly as I had imagined him, but he was playing Death. The hoodie was his modern spin on the robe and he was carrying a 'book of life'.
The dream had an original twist on the usual 'Death' story. One which I'm not quite ready to disclose publically yet, but it was one of those ideas where, upon awakening, I convinced myself it was too good an idea to have just been dreamed up and must already exist.
I tried to put it out my mind but it kept nagging away. Over time, I realised that it really didn't seem to be an idea I had seen elsewhere. The dream was basically the entire 5-10 minute opening scene to the film, almost exactly as it still stands in my mind a year later. At the back of my mind the story gradually evolved into a more robust structure. So I started making notes and having ideas and scribbling down the basic structure and it's reached a point now where I think there's enough to make a pretty good screenplay.
So that's you up to speed. One of my main resolutions for 2008 is to have a complete screenplay written by the end of the year and this blog will chart my progress. I intend to set more rigid deadlines soon but for now, december 31st 2008 is the absolute deadline.
I decided to blog it since, even if no one ever reads this, I'm putting it in public so someone 'might' which will maybe make me more likely to stick with it.
It will be a few weeks before I have anything new to post here but I just wanted to get the blog set up as a home for any thoughts I have. I don't intend to publish the screenplay publically for now so I don't know if there will be much to post or if this will be very interesting to read but we shall see...
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