Second Draft

I was having a bit of trouble getting back to my After Alice rewrite after the holidays. I work well under pressure. There is nothing to get me moving like a firm deadline. So, I told my writer's group that I would have it ready for them to review in three weeks.

That was a week ago. I have actually made decent progress. There is much left to do, but I think I can wrap it up in time for the review.

Script Notes

Last week I send my budding script to Scott the Reader for feedback. I felt like I really had "something" this time around, but I wanted confirmation. Yeah, I know about the whole pay a professional reader vs. ask a friend argument. Due to turmoil in my personal life I lost touch with most of the screenwriting relationships I had made. More importantly, I have had Scott read for me before and I think he gives excellent notes.

Back to the story.

He sent me very good notes - clear, constructive, and detailed. There was good news and (of course) bad news. Shall I start with the good news?

He like the premise of my story. That is a great start! But, what made me really happy was discovering that I am self-aware to some degree. The things he said didn't work were the things I knew weren't working. The things he liked, I felt good about as well.

Now for the part where I was shredded. There were characters that weren't working. There were areas of the plot that didn't hang right. A bit of spot-on dialogue. Let me say, I was mortified about the on-the-nose dialogue. It is a something I hate, yet I have a horrible tendency to write that way. It makes me think of my 8th grade English teacher, Mrs. Callan, who would constantly remind us to show the story and not tell it.

He made several suggestions. Some of his ideas were ones that I had previously considered. He also suggested things that had not occurred to me. I have been mauling them all over for days. I have weighed the options. I feel ready to chose my direction and head out boldly.