garmana::blog

So I wrote a screenplay

You may have noticed the Script Frenzy winner's logo in the right hand column of the site (unless you're using an RSS reader). What is that, you ask? Script Frenzy is a "contest" that challenged writers and wannabes to write a 20,000-word screenplay in the month of June. The basic rules are that you can formulate and outline the story beforehand, but you cannot start writing the script itself until the first of the month. After that you're left typing like a slobbering, rabid pit bull in your spare time over the next thirty days until it's done.

And type I did. I ended up at 20,362 words and 108 pages with two days to spare, which would roughly work out to a movie one hour and fifty minutes long uncut. It's entitled "Milo," and is basically "The Bourne Identity" for the tween crowd. The official tag line reads, "A young boy with no memory of who he is discovers that he has extraordinary abilities, only to find out that unlocking the secret may destroy his newly-adopted family unless he can find the courage to unravel it alone."

Profound, I know. ;-)

I'm not winning an Oscar with this one, but those of you that know me well know that I've always dreamed of being a published writer and this challenge came up just as I was toying around with finally doing it on my own anyway. I actually planned to write another screenplay I've had in the back of my head for ten or twelve years called "Closing In" but the plot line for "Milo" came to me in a flash a couple nights before June 1. I like the concept of "Closing In" better and thought that I'd learn my way through the screenplay writing process with a different idea.

I learned a lot during the writing process, and I came out on July 1st understanding the structure of a "proper" screenplay and story in general much better than before. So after twenty eight days of typing, three books on screenplays, four nights of falling asleep at the keyboard until waking to a cramp in my neck, and way too much Web surfing I ended up with a rough draft of my first real bit of writing. I've started to revise it but this is proving to be just as daunting a task as writing it, and without that month-long timer ticking in my head it's been difficult to complete.

I thought that mentioning it here would encourage me to get back to it, and to get it in a presentable state so I can gather some critiques. After taking my lumps with this one and learning some more about the screenwriting process, it's on to the next one.

May 2007 be the start of my writing career.