It hurts my brain to plan. I've never written a long story like this before. This may explain why I've finished maybe four or five stories, none of them exactly stellar work. Filler's not going to be any good, so back to the notebook. Maybe I can extend the third act or something.

Yeah and if that doesn't work, you can always add in a car chase.

Yeah car chases always work.

It'd be very easy for me to just leave the story as it is, but this is part of the whole Script Frenzy thing. One of the stipulations for the competition is that it has to be 100 pages. It's a personal project in practice, so I'm aware that I could ignore that one, but I know who I am. If I decide I can cut out one regulation I'll end up cutting them all out, and it'll do the usual symuun-project thing of going through a half-dozen different formats and never getting beyond the first page.

The other thing is that I want to see if I'm capable of writing under the conditions I'd be under if I were writing professionally. 100 pages is still a little on the short side for a screenplay, but it's a target. And writing to length has always been the hardest part of writing for me.

Rest assured, I won't compromise the creative vision if I can help it.

Good. I like to hear that.

And I understand professional deadlines suck ass. Sometimes you can bend the rules, though. Just gotta plan that shit out.

Once upon a time I tried to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month for people who think I'm insane). I got about 25,000 words by the deadline, when it was supposed to be 50,000. And do you know what that half-birthed story became (all of about two and a half years later)? My beautiful, 35,000-word, first novel that I ever finished.

(I mean, it's not really 'done' per se. I still have to edit the crap out of it. But the basic framework is there.)


Uh.. I kind of lost track of what I was trying to say. I guess... I understand that structure is good, but you should never compromise creativity for it, and if that means falling short of the requirement, then sometimes that has to happen. Often what you end up with is something that is mostly done and can be tuned and developed at your pace to perfection (or something near it). I personally think word counts and page counts are bullshit, and when you're done writing something, you're done. All you should really worry about are deadlines, because I agree that those can help you get things done. But other limitations are... well, limiting.


Right.

Yeah, I'm starting to realise the part about structures at least. I've realised that Act 2 was mostly dead space, while Act 1 was far too short and Act 3 was real

Yeah, I'm starting to realise the part about structures at least. I've realised that Act 2 was mostly dead space, while Act 1 was far too short and Act 3 was really two distinct movements. Result: To hell with acts and arbitrary lines drawn through it all, I'm just going to tell the damn story.

THAT's the spirit.

I'm gonna write the hell out of this story. It's never gonna know what hit it.

I think I'll finish my game of chess first, though, and maybe have a quick flick through Questionable Content, which seems like it might be quite entertaining. Maybe wait until tomorrow, after I've had a haircut, obviously. But then, ho boy, that story's gonna get written.

If you don't start now I'm going to eat your face.

Hes a man with a lot of important things to do.


Like Poker.

Щлфнб црфе еру агслб ыукшщгыдню Шэь пуеештп Снкшддшс ыскшзе рукую Рудз,

Ш цфы пщштп ещ ьфлу ф сщььуте фищге зкщскфыешщтфешщт иуштп фт фкп ащкьб иге руддб Ш сфтэе умут ыуу црфе Шэь ензштпю Ыщ фзщдщпшуы ащк фтн ензщыю

Црфе шы рфззутштп,

Oh I get it.