It's Coming.

Wait for it.

In Rainbows

he second act of my first screenplay came rather easily. The tension and action rose with each page between the characters culminating in a third act finish that I'm proud of. The second act of my second screenplay, 86ed, has stymied me for over a month.

During that time I've had a general idea how the story needed to end, but I didn't know how to get there. That is, till tonight. Tonight I decided to work backwards. If I could decide where I needed the characters and the story to end, I could then draw character and story arcs from the first act to the third.

Knowing where and how everything needs to end also helps me know what I need to establish early on and how to color each rainbow-like arc from first to third act.

Everything But the Oink

here are two skills I wish to have as a cook; first, I want to open any fridge and see what I can make with what's there (similarly, I'd like to dance with any woman I meet, but that's for another post) and second, I'd like to make a meal with as little waste as possible.

Till then, I may as well get it right on paper. There's no reason to have an idea and to make it solely into a novel or a screenplay. That's like buying a pig only to make bacon. Why not develop ideas in length and depth through different forms? Start as a log line. Sprout into a poem. Grow to a song. Develop into a screenplay. Fill out as a novel. Not a bad way to flesh out a thought and expand one's works simultaneously.

The Incredible Shrinking Screenplay

elieve it or not, Any Color You Want has lost 47 pages since the last post without exercise, exorcise, diet or extreme surgical procedure. At 98 pages (approximately 1 hour 40 minutes of screen time), it's ready for the beach. Once I focused on some basic questions (is this scene/character/storyline really important to the major dramatic question? REALLY?) it became clear what could stay and what had to go.

Often I didn't cut characters; I just reassigned bits of dialogue between minor characters to major characters. By keeping my cast small I simultaneously kept conflict up whereas with a large cast conflict dissipated making for a longer and slower read. Now it's a quicker and edgier.

I'll Tell You Why

aking criticism isn't easy, especially after you've worked through several drafts and are simply told to change scenes because. Fortunately, thanks to some solid feedback, I've found it easier to make big changes to ACYW because I was told why to make certain changes.

If I'm a novice and someone with more experience than me tells me to do something, odds on I'm going to listen to them. But if it's a field I think I know a thing or two about, I'm less likely to blindly adhere to their recommendations unless they give me the why. Once I understand their reasoning, I'm more apt to listen and make a change.

In this case I thought I could write Ulysses without ever writing Dubliners or Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man first. Now I see that there's just as much beauty (and challenge) in writing The Dead as there is in Finnegan's Wake. Not only that, but the criticism (and the whys) have steered ACYW closer to where it needs to be; to it's original story, trimmed down to the basics, riding a big idea from beginning to end.

Big Ups

f Any Color You Want ever makes it to the big screen, there will be a lot of folks to thank. Right now I want to thank Ryan Callahan, Michael Eldridge, George Northy and Elizabeth Ventura for their insightful feedback and encouragement. Thanks to them the screenplay is much tighter, focused and professional. Special thanks to Callahan who has already volunteered to read the next draft.

Order More 86ed

rough first draft of my latest screenplay's first act is in the books. I'm having fun with the story and really writing it as I go which is a big change from ACYW.

I can also tell where I've learned from class and can see the improvement that it's made on my screenwriting. I'm able to do more with less.

Looking forward to ramping up the action in Act Two...

All Queued Up

hanks to feedback from a screenwriting classmate, I now have 18 log lines for potential screenplays ready to go. I've also done extended preliminary work (what I call 'pipelining' for whatever reason) on five screenplays - fleshing out characters, subtexts, locations et al. These early notes get me percolating and have lead to longer notes about specific scenes and culminating moments all of which bodes well for nice, tight synopses.

Which of the 18 do you like most? Drop me a line and I'll send 'em over.

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

appy New Year! 2010 was a productive year for the Little Engine, but more than anything 2010 sewed seeds for 2011. While I hope to learn about synopsis letters this week, I've already started to work on new projects.

Namely, I've written draft log lines for about a dozen screenplays and for two of them I've already outlined main characters, sub-characters and their subtexts, what each screenplay's major (and minor) dramatic questions are and potential locations for different scenes. All broad strokes, but steps in the right direction. Tonight I'll work on a third. I've also reached out to folks in my class. Hopefully we can continue critiquing each others' work each week as that proved very helpful.

A friend asked me what my New Year's resolution was. I didn't think twice: To write my ass off. It's alright.