Drafting day 11. Page 42.

Day 52 since starting this project. Page 42.

Days outlining:15
Days drafting:11
Total days writing: 26
Days not writing: 26

Okay, I was going to have the day off, but couldn't help doing a bit more.

And it really felt like the Curse of Four Pages kicked in. Or maybe I should say the Curse of More than Four Pages. Whenever I write more than four pages in a day I seem to pay for it the next day. Was hoping I'd gotten over that, but maybe not. Was feeling really uninspired and semi-braindead. Managed to crank out today's four pages with sheer sweat and rugged determination (think Hugh Jackman in Australia... Gaah. Maybe not.) Clint Eastwood? Not that he seems to sweat. Now there's a role model to aspire to.

Could I be screenwriting's Clint Eastwood? All effortless cool and inscrutable gaze? Well, actually, almost certainly not. But I liked asking the question. As though the answer could be yes.

Drafting day ten, page 38

Day 51 since starting this project. Page 38.

Days outlining:15
Days drafting:10
Total days writing: 25
Days not writing: 26

Okay, that sounds like three pages but it's more like four (from top of 35 to bottom of 38). I was going to try to make it five pages today as well, but after I'd got to the bottom of 38 I'd really run out of puff. So I decided to stop and move on when I'm fresh (Monday arvo probably, I'm having tomorrow off).

Went pretty smoothly today. Added in a scene at the end that wasn't in my outline - but I realised I needed it for logic. And it ties up a loose end as well. Part of what I'm realising drafting (as opposed to outlining) can do - you're seeing the scenes in clearer focus.

I'm starting to think of drafting, the first draft anyway, as like an oil painter's pencil sketch - you're trying out your ideas roughly and quickly rather than jumping into the oils and the detail. Working out what the structure of the finished canvas is going to be. I don't paint but I'm finding this metaphor useful. (Good for giving myself a break about the first draft not being perfect, which I am - surprisingly - becoming more comfortable with.)

I'm quite pleased with my page average so far, which is 3.8 pages a day during drafting.

Drafting day nine, page 35

Day 50 since starting this project. Page 35.

Days outlining:15
Days drafting:9
Total days writing: 24
Days not writing: 26

Five pages today! In just over an hour and a half. I'm on fire, baby!

Thought I'd better stop after five... to make sure I don't suffer burnout tomorrow. Felt like I could keep going though.

Reason this is a big deal (potentially) is I've never managed to do more than four a day without the productivity suffering the next day. But this first draft is better outlined than I've managed before... which could lead to upping my regular page count, maybe... we'll see. Fingers crossed!

Drafting day eight. Page 30.

Day 49 since starting this project. Page 30.

Days outlining:15
Days drafting:8
Total days writing: 23
Days not writing: 26

So. Went quite well today. Feeling like my outlining is paying off. Now I'm working on making each scene moderately interesting rather than worrying about where it's all going. Though I'm not trying to polish the scenes up - at this stage I'm more just looking at what purpose each scene serves in the story as a whole. Some of the scenes I've just written, for example, serve to show where my protag's at psychologically before he embarks on his journey. And I hadn't realized that was the function of those scenes (characterwise) until I wrote them.

And I'm starting to think that maybe my first turning point isn't where I thought it was. Not that that matters.

Am out of town for the next week, so that'll screw with my day tally. Will try to get a few days' writing in though, nevertheless.

Drafting day seven. Page 26.

So. Pretty good page count today.

I found that with the outline as it is I can move forward fairly quickly. The complications though were that - well, in one scene, I took out one of the twists I was going to put in there, as that was going to overcomplexify the scene. But the twist that I left in still is maybe sending the wrong message for the following scene... I put it in anyway, as I figured it'd be better to take out (or possibly move around) later than cut it and maybe forget to use it.

I am writing overlong (as usual, it seems). At this rate this script is going to be really long! Never mind, I can lay waste to it in the second draft. Just as long as it's all in there.

I'm going to start keeping a tally total of:
Days outlining
Days drafting
And days not writing.

For each project.

This is to keep me scrupulously honest (especially as far as days not writing are concerned). I think a day off every six days is about right for me, in general - but I've had rather too many days off lately (even if some of them were unavoidable).

So, for this project so far, the Thriller (no, I don't like sharing, even titles!)

Day 48 since starting this project. Page 26.

Days outlining:15
Days drafting: 7
Total days writing: 22
Days not writing:26

Ouch! Thought I was doing better than that... Okay, I had flu, and was out of town a bit, but really... Well. That's what reality checks are for. And scrupulous honesty. And why this blog is anonymous.

Day 14 and 15 on the outline. First half outlined.

I've now finished outlining the movie up to the midpoint. (Had internet access problems yesterday, hence no post.) I had an unexpectedly very productive burst yesterday, late afternoon (a very unusual time of day for me to be productive) - maybe two hours of plotting, which brought me within a few scenes of the midpoint. I was hugely relieved as I'd been feeling stuck stuck stuck. I was advised by a wise friend to just think what my protag would logically do next. This helped. But still, I'm not sure what broke the drought exactly. Wish I knew... actually I think my subconscious decided I'd been stuck for long enough and it was time to move on with it.

Most of the work was done yesterday; today I just had a few scenes left to resolve. And did so. So should be back on the draft tomorrow, phew!

I think one of the recent things I've learnt is to think more in terms of acts. It seems to work for me to treat each act as almost a separate script. Beating out an act at a time, rather than trying to beat out the whole script at once, seems to work best. I think what I learnt from the last script was not to be too surprised if I need to majorly regroup and rethink at the act breaks.

Plotting today.

Looking at an overview of the second act today. My brain hurts! Have a bunch of ideas but need to link them together in a coherent and logical way. Also not sure what my protagonist's next action needs to be. On the bright side, had some ideas (unexpectedly) for the third act.

Still having to watch being overclever. Hey, I want to be clever, just not overclever! I have a tendency to throw twists in before I've got the story straight in the first place.

Drafting day six. Page 21.

Going okay so far. Have just got to what is my first turning point, more or less. I'd really like to have this more plotted out than it is - but I'd lost momentum with outline, thus the drafting. So far it's hanging together. Just need to push on and it will be what it will be... one thing I'm doing with this first draft is trying not to try to write 'well'. Just getting it down without polishing. Because I figure that if it was written relatively effortlessly (or rather less laboriously) then it'll be that much less painful to chuck out huge swathes that don't work or aren't quite right. That's the theory, anyway.

Drafting day five. Page 18.

Well, I'm really working on the whole 'hold it loosely' approach. And things really are developing differently from how I'd thought. I'm going with it for now, though I'm not entirely happy about how divergent it is... but I'm trying to look on this first draft as actually a glorified way of beating out the plot. So, no matter where the plot is by the time I've finished, I will have a reasonably coherent scene-by-scene breakdown of the script. And thus a clear starting-off point for rethinking where the story's at. Some of the things that are new could end up working... we'll see. As my major crime tends to be overthinking and overplanning, am focusing on moving on through and getting it down, in whatever form.

Drafting day four. Page 14.

Okay, only two pages today, call it a half day. (Always harder to get motivated on a Saturday!) I'm working on easing up a bit and trying to be a bit more relaxed in my approach to this first draft, rather than be in a 'clenched fist' 'must get this right' frame of mind. Did manage to ease up a bit today, I think.

Drafting day three. Page 12.

Well, I did my pages today, but... today is one of those days when the distance from this draft to a decent script seems to stretch out to infinity. Didn't take long! Maybe the key is to just look on the process as an archaeological dig and to enjoy wallowing around in the mud. Or something.

Drafting day two. Page 8.

Well, so far so good re page count. Still a little anxious as to how it's all going to go, as I remember hitting a wall at the midpoint last time, but I'm approaching it differently this time. This time I'm looking at the draft almost as a relay race from act to act, so I'm expecting to have to do some major plotting at the midpoint. Hopefully that will carry me through.

Drafting day one. Page 4.

It's always slightly painful to start writing and what comes out is the real first draft, not the imaginary perfect draft you have in your head...

Still, page four. So it's underway.

Day 13 on the outline. Drafting imminent.

Well, did some work today, couldn't keep away. But I'm still feeling a bit stuck somehow - and I think maybe that's a sign I should just start my draft. I'm going to allow myself 'plotting' days during this draft, as the outline's not as worked up as I'd like it to be, but this time I'll have a rule of never having more than one plotting day at a time. Because I don't want to lose momentum. Will take a day off tomorrow to clear my head, and start draft on Wednesday.

Where I'm at with the outline (or I should say beat sheet) is, I know what's happening in act one, though there are a couple of scenes I'm not sure should be in act one or two, I know clearly where the midpoint is but I know very little about how I'm going to get there specifically, don't know much about second half of second act, I have two competing scenes one of which is the second turning point but I'm not sure which... I know where the climactic scene takes place and the broad dynamics of what goes on.

Wow. That's pretty sketchy. That's a general overview, I do know more detail than that but that's roughly where I'm at. But as I've been spinning my wheels for a few days, launching in seems like the best option at this point. Wish me luck!

Day 12 on the outline.

Okay, I did come up with a couple of things today, but in general it's quite difficult and not flowing the way it has done up to now. Not quite sure what that's about. Maybe it's just that I'm at a more difficult point in the process. That's what I think it is. Hope it is!

I think I'm maybe also overcomplexifying and not just asking myself one question at a time, which is what I've been doing up to now, being more methodical.

Or maybe I just need a day off. Maybe will take tomorrow off.

Day 11 on the outline.

I was just going to work on the first half of the second act today, but then I realised I wasn't sure which half of the act some of my scenes needed to be in - so I worked on the act as a whole. Slower progress than I'd have liked. A general shape is emerging, but it all feels VERY slow! Looking at my cards on the floor it doesn't look like I've made that much progress - but my brain hurts, so that's got to be good, right? Not sure if my dissatisfaction means I'm overthinking, or what... And every so often I realise there's a whole angle I haven't considered yet, like my protagonist's relationship with the antagonist... and so on and so on. I realise that I'm going to have to start my draft with a lot of questions still unanswered, or I'll be counting down to 'Day 100 on the outline'... still, knowing where to draw the line is tricky.

Migraine.

Had a crack at writing this morning despite having got a migraine first thing. Didn't fly. Brain too fried. (Migraines do actually screw with your brain after you've had one. For me it's usually the rest of the day that I'm operating on half a brain, more or less).

Day 10 on the outline.

Have first act outlined now, enough to draft. Really need to move on to second act tomorrow. If I want to start my draft on Monday, that's first half of second act tomorrow, second half of second act on Saturday, third act on Sunday.

That's a lot. Not sure if I can get there by Monday, to be honest. But - momentum has been working for me, so that's what I'm aiming for. (Obviously, I have some sense of what's going on in the rest of the movie, but it's very far from locked down.)

Day 9 on the outline.

Planning to start the first draft on Monday. That gives me three more days (with Sunday off...) Doesn't quite feel enough time but it's all about keeping the momentum going.

Had some good and useful progress today, still a lot to do though, especially in the second half.

And, in other news... Barack Obama won the US election!

Yeah baby!

post 101.

Yes, this is my hundred and first post!

Today's writing went wellish despite a late start. Starting to piece major scenes together in order and getting more of an overview of what's going on at each stage.

I think I am going to have to start a tally of how many days I work on this idea before starting my first draft, so the outlining doesn't run out of control.

So, for the record, today is day 8 on the outlining of the thriller. It's going okay.

Reflections on the blog: Keeping a blog has been working really well for my writing - like an external conscience. It's nice logging on and having a little chat about what I've done each day. And if I don't write, I feel I'm letting my readers down. It's also giving me a really clear record of my writing process. It'll be useful in the future to look back and have an accurate overview of how I tend to work. And it's really nice hearing from other writers on the site too - makes me feel I'm not the only one slaving over a hot laptop!

The Chocolate Fish Awards haven't been taken up by as many people as I thought they would, though - I know I'm a sucker for external rewards/acknowledgement so I thought I'd have a few more takers. Not sure if people are shy to post their writing progress or just not writing. Or not interested in chocolate fish! Has been fun handing out Fishies though (congrats Sean and blofeld!)

Didn't write today.

Real life intervened, dammit.

And outlining.

At this stage I'm having a fairly constant flow of ideas that I'm juggling to put in place. Some of them are incompatible so have a few moments of doubt as to which way to go. Still not sure exactly when will be the right point to start the draft. The ideal point is somewhere where everything's not exactly locked down - so I have wiggle room - but without gaping holes/voids that are big enough to fall into mid-draft. It's a fine line and I'm not sure exactly how to be sure when I'm at that point. Any suggestions welcome.