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Writing remains a way to ground and keep my brain healthy, so this week was extremely productive for me. I'm now more than ahead on all of my deadlines... So it's time to start another spec.
I've known what this one is going to be for a few years... I've had the two MCs banging around in my head for a while, and the world has become clearer and clearer. I know the beginning, middle, and end in broad strokes, but I don't have the connective tissue yet.
Tonight I'm going to re-read a few of the things that served as inspiration for the initial spark of the idea, and maybe put together a small pitch deck just to pass some time where I can be actively thinking about the feel without worrying about the writing. Tomorrow I'll start.
Day One. Page One. I know where I'm going. Off we go.
I'm in.
Taking a breath at about 8 pages in. Have a point I have to reach before page 20, not a ton of runway given the crazy world of this script, but what's helpful is that the character is just as clueless as the audience, so as he learns, we learn.
Starting this morning on page 22... I hit the mark I had to on page 20, and now I've got some wiggle room to turn the act. My mind is mostly thinking about the last 15 pages of the movie and making sure I weave the threads here to serve those pages.
I don't always listen to music when I write, but when I do, it's usually one song, over and over and over. Find a hypnotic vibe that can set the tone for the work on the page. Today's loop: https://vimeo.com/345786267
Just wrote the second weirdest sex scene of my career. It's a bar that gets harder to clear every few months.
Locking back in. Here’s the setup for this afternoon.
Lots of calls/vc's today, so late start getting into this. Locking in on page 38, hoping to get to around 50 by sunset. So much of the script has been questions, questions, questions, it's finally time to give some answers.
Great progress over the last 3 hrs. Constructed an action sequence that was fun/hard to write, but think it sings. At 47 now, and there's a major shift in the script where see our characters from a totally new literal point of view. Good place to start in the am.
Today's writing musical loop. Rounding the corner into the 60s... Will be done within a week.
Today is a good writing day. Not necessarily because of the number of pages, but because of the ease. It’s not every day that you can lock in and it just flows, so when that happens, I really appreciate it.
Back in. This is a script I've been background rendering for three years, but I can't help but let the current events weave their way into the fabric of what I'm writing on a thematic level. This script in particular feels like I'm answering my own existential screams.
Now in the mid-80s and starting to think about wrapping up... I'm no longer figuring out specifics in story, but doing the best I can to hit at less than 120 pages... This part always feels like trying to land a plane knowing you don't have enough runway...
In the 100s now. As usual, as I start to close up, I'm seeing threads that only began to form halfway through the script. In some cases these are minor ideas, dialogue callbacks that I can quickly weave into the first 50 pages. In a few cases, it's a problem for the 2nd draft.
I always feel a tremendous excitement when I'm within spitting distance of the finish line. The endorphins that come from writing 'the end' are intense, and it takes a little bit of discipline to slow myself down in the final stretch.
Writers throw around phrases like "listening to your characters" and "my character didn't want to do that" etc, and it's shocking how true it really is. Going into a scene today, I had no idea how it would resolve, let alone how it would play out...
I just had the characters' objectives, obstacles, and 100+ pages in and years of thinking about them, an extremely strong sense of who they are... Just had an episode of the characters showing me the way. What was totally escaping me suddenly infinitely clear. Just gotta listen.
Nine days, 125 pages later (some cuts to come...) two characters I love and three years of meditating on how to attack this one... Feels real good.
