What's it take to get a 227 page, 1st draft of a script down to an acceptable 120 pages or less coherent, well-disciplined story? Work. Lots of hard work. Because after you writer a 227 monstrosity, from an initial first blush look, that rough rock can look like glacier that's insurmountable.
Luckily, I have face this conundrum before. So don't worry you are in the hands of a proven master. E.C. Henry -- or didn't you know!? Self-professed, pretentious-as-all-fuck, pre-pro screenwriter. But always willing to sharing his ever evolving theories on life and writing. And today is no different. Only today we're exploring where ol' E.C. is right now, and that's in process of editing down a 227 page first draft of a teen comedy hybrid that E.C. Henry is currently engaged in.
Luckily I have a track record of handling such tasks. Really, I do. And that's no b.s. Back when I completed my first draft of "A King's for God's People?" that story came in weighing over 275 pages! A glacier of a story, if ever there was one. BUT by the time I was finished with it, I had it under 120 pages. So this task can be done. I can do it. I've done it before.
Lots of hard work? Yes. But I did it. And now I'm looking at doing it again, only this time in a teen comedy hybrid, package.
Thankfully, I'm one of those "dogged" screenwriter. The kind that NEVER gives up. The kind that keeps fighting, keeps digging away that pesky snow and debris, in hopes of finding my characters, finding my story, finding my sanity!
I don't want my work to be for nothing. I want to find something good. Something memorable. Something I can look back at and be proud off.
A 1st draft is a place to start. So keep digging E.C., keep digging.
What I'm really looking for right now is for my main protagonist to emerge. Yeah, I kida know who he is. But for a story to work you really need a protagonist that works. Someone who's likable. Someone who is distinctive. Someone whom a star actor or actress would like to play.
And by my own admission, this is part of screenwriting that I'm not very good at.
Still, soldier on. 'Cuz that's just who I am. I am a writer who finishes what he starts out to do. IF God gives me the time and life, I will give back the dogged determination to see where this story takes me. Hopefully after all my chiseling, digging, and brushing the debris away I'll end up with something like this:
Pie in the sky? You'll never end up with anything even remotely as cool as Mr. Rushmore from any of your editing. Fuck you! Fuck you, I say again! I'm a lot better writer than you think! Sure, I have areas that I need to patch up, but I CAN create functional stories with compelling characters. Though I'm far from being funny in real-life conversations, and can't tell a joke to save my life. Somehow, someway, I can write and graft in comedy into my writing. I'm a living joke after all. So it's so much of a stretch that I write comedy. I just think of myself, and what a joke I am, and somehow the comedy leaches it's way onto the written page.
Now, when facing a Herculean task of editing down a large story, one needs to have a game plan. And I do! But what one also needs to be open for is making further discoveries while chiseling down the bulk.
So I keep chip, chip, chipping along. The 1st draft has given me a plethora of scenes to evaluate. What can I remove? Where can pages be shaved off, YET I retain enough of the story to keep it coherent, as one of the real dangers in bulk, mass page cutting editing is the danger of cutting to much and making the story hard to follow.
Game plan wise, I'm toggling back-and-forth from editing the 1st-to-2nd draft, then incorporating those changes in a revised outline. Why go back to the outline? Simple. You hafta get you beats right; you hafta get the story logic and structure down. No sense killing yourself with extensive line editing until you have the structure right.
YES, structure does matter; your story needs to go somewhere and be building up to a satisfactoryclimax that will deliver the desired affect on an audience. NO, I'm not a "slave" to structure, but I do believe in the three act structure, and in having an Act I and II break-point. Then along the way you need good plot points to keep the story going. It's like rough stone, that needs to be chipped away at to find the inner story that lies within. Unless you are divinely inspired, first drafts are rough. And they are meant to be rough. They are meant to be mined. They are meant to be explored. They are meant to give author a place from which to dig to find the latter gem, which is a masterpiece.
Won't get into too many of the specifics, because I'm a showman, and IF you ever read a story of mine I wan't you to experience it without me previously giving too much away, which spoils the level of surprise. But what I'm looking at doing is minimizing the hybrid element of this story. One positive is that I think I've good a good romance between the leads of this teen comedy, and that needs to be more focal as the draft process continues.
I've also got WAY too many secondary characters in this story. Looking at cutting most of them and focusing more the screentime on my leads. As for the hybrid element, now that I know what's going on, I'm going to try to hide it some more, and give it less screen time, and explain less of it in further drafts. A good story will leave space for the reader to fill in the blanks. People aren't stupid. A good story lets them fill in the blanks without telling them everything.
Any idea when you'll be done with your masterpiece, Shakespeare?
Yeah, jackass, I'm hoping for the end of February. Yes, that'll mean over a year I ONLY completed 1 script, but 1 is better than none! And maybe after I'm done with the extensive re-write, I'll start working on my next and next after that script too. YES, I do have my eyes on what I'll be doing after this, and YES I'm also considering the prospect of going back to an epic fantasy novel that I wrote many years ago. It's like over 900 pages, close to 1,000. And, yes, I'm kind of proud of how long it is. Long and good (I hope) Think "Lord of the Rings" with a coming-0f-age twist -- with three fully developed love stories in the mix. My opus? Only time will tell, but my mom and aunt LOVE that story, and that means a lot. Over the years I've written some rather dark tales, and would like -- desperately -- to write something more up-beat and positive.
I fear I may have too dark a soul to write the epic fantasy story. I don't know what it is, but like the Guns and Roses old record, I fear I have an "appetite for (self) destruction." I need to start praying more. Deepen my relationship to Jesus. Left to my own devises I'm headed for a fall. Just wish I had some friends to keep me going. That's one of the reason I started this blog to begin with. Too bad I'm such an odd bird, and that people don't connect with me. 93 post, with only 13 responses don't lie; I am the plague. The stinkin', rotten, Bubonic plaque -- as pertains to friends and friendship. Will spend New Years Eve alone in my room -- again! Totally sucks. But what-chya gunna do when you're the Bubonic plaque of friendship. Been doing waaayto much drinking lately. God willing, I'm not going to have any more alcohol for a long time. I've found alcohol makes you somewhat happy in the short run, but then leaves you feeling sick and depressed -- sometimes for several days afterwards. Alcohol is a false oasis for people with fledgling social lives.
Wish I had more friends. I know if I did, I'd have less trouble with the bottle, and be less prone to my natural, self-destructive ways -- if I could land me some good friends. Friends that I could relate too. Friends that are passionate about the things I'm passionate about. Rare to find such people. God knows, I've tried.
So I soldier on. With glaciers to traveled. Stories to molded and conformed. Lots to do. Hopefully 2013 will bring new adventures into my life. New friends too. Wherever you are, on the journey of your own life, I wish you nothing but God's best. Hoping and praying that your life is a happy and content one, and that in your heart of heart you feel like one of these people in this final image that I will leave you as we leave 2012 and enter 2013: