Detective Story – First Draft Done!

I got the first draft of the script done today. It came in at 71 pages. That is still too short for a feature. When I do the next draft, I will see what I can do to enhance the story to make it a feature.

I had skipped a couple of scenes part way through because I wasn’t happy with my original ideas for them. I got back to them today and came up with a couple of scenes that I think are better than average. Both of them were a little longer than what I had been doing. That makes me think that when I do the second draft it will turn out longer. I started to feel I was getting into the writing more than I had been.

I plan to put the script aside for a while, maybe two weeks, and then do the second draft. I haven’t decided what I’ll work on next. I am sure that I will be working on the recut of My Most Difficult Case, but there are several stories and articles I would like to pick up on too.

Detective Story Week Ten

This was a very good week for my script. I finished 34 scenes and I have 6 or 7 left to do. At one point I thought I would have the script finished this week.

I’m debating if I should replace two scenes that aren’t working with a single scene. I skipped those two scenes for now. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with them. Maybe I can just drop them altogether. Another possibility is to expand then into a longer sequence with a little more meat.

The script is 61 pages now, and I think I will end up with about 70. That is too short for a feature, but I think that when I rewrite it will end up longer.

My scenes were a little longer this week. I think that as I get more into the rhythm of writing the words flow easier. I got over 6,500 words written this week.

I had some trouble with my blog this week. At one point, I thought I had lost everything. Something was wrong with my host’s server. They got that fixed and everything is good now.

Detective Story Week Nine

I was making good progress the script this week but other things came up later in the week that distracted me.

Most of the work I did was restructuring the script. I replaced one scene, but I think I can use the original scene somewhere else. I am about a third of the way through the script, based on the number of scenes. I had created a new scene last week, and this week I got I sketched out and written. Working out the background took a while.

I got almost 1,900 words written, but that makes this my least productive week so far. I’m finished 20 scenes and 23 pages. My scenes are still running short.

Detective Story Week Eight: Restructuring and Short Scenes

The week started out well. I started in on writing the script. Monday I got six scenes written. My current outline has 59 scenes planned. Tuesday I got three scenes done and Wednesday I got four more done.

Thursday I ran into a snag though. I realized that I needed to move one of the scenes I had written to earlier in the script, and add another scene in its place. The move wasn’t too hard, but I haven’t worked out what I want to happen in the new scene.

Right now, the new scene is there to put some space between two other scenes that can’t go back to back. It needs to be more than that. It is the next scene I was going to write, so that is stopping me from going ahead. I think I may skip over that scene and come back to it later.

The scenes are coming out shorter than I thought they would. Most books I’ve read on script writing suggest about 3 pages per scene. The average length of the first 14 scenes I wrote is 1.1 pages. If that average holds, the whole script will be about 66 pages, which is too short to be a feature. The average scene length in The Anger Trap was 1.4 pages.

I haven’t decided what to do about the scene length. One possibility is to add more flourishes to the character’s behaviour to make the scenes longer. It may be better to add some more twists to the main plot so that I have more scenes. I could also add more scenes by adding a subplot or two.

I plan to continue writing the script, then deal with the problems in the second draft.

Detective Story Week Seven: Light at the End of the Tunnel

I got the new version of the outline done this week. I added about 2,500 words. One of my scenes started to look redundant, so I removed it. I did some other cleaning up of the file and it is easier to read now.

This coming week I start on the script. There is one more thing I want to do before I start though. I have extensive back-stories for my characters now, but I haven’t given any thought to how they talk. Knowing their personalities will help make the characters distinct, but I know from writing “The Anger Trap” that each person’s way of talking needs to be different.

Week Six: When do I start on the actual script?

The question of when I would start writing the actual script was on my mind this week. I had hoped that I would get the revision of the outline done, so I could start on the script next week. I only got about 2,000 words written and still have a ways to go yet.

I have been following Screenplay-Tip ( http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Screenplay-Tip/112581738752369 ) on Facebook for a while and they had a relevant idea this week.

“Don’t edit as you go along. This will overwhelm you. Finish the story and then go back and revise structural issues.”

I am having some problems with the plot now and was considering whether to work on those first, or write the script and deal with them later. The advice Screenplay-Tip has is to get the script written first, and then work on the problems.

When I wrote The Anger Trap, I ended up wishing I had spent some more time working on the outline before I started on the script. I can see the other side of the issue though. Starting on the script will bring out the characters more. Understanding the characters should make it easier to solve the plot problems.

I worry about having some underwhelming clues for my detective, but then I don’t think that details like that should stop me from going forward. Usually these are details that can be brought out later.

Detective Story Week Five: Developing Character

I finished revising the character descriptions. I had to change some of the characters because of what I had learned about them while doing the outline. Late in the week, I got back to expanding the outline.

I added some pieces to the story that I think will make my main character, Lucas Martin, easier for the audience to empathise with. One of the mistakes I felt I made with “The Anger Trap” was that the main character was hard to identify with.

I changed the name of one character, William Williams, to Billy Clark. He is a suspect in the case. I decided that the name was too cute. I have been using photos of actors to help me visualize the characters. I changed three of the photos this week. Mostly it was because the actors were too old for the parts.

I am starting to expand the outline by providing more detail on what happens in each scene. I went back and reread parts of my outline for “The Anger Trap” to remind me how I did it last time. I’m finding that my scenes seem to be shorter, with less happening. While doing the revisions I added two new scenes for a total of 58.

I moved one scene to a different location. That may have created a little problem for the following scene, but I think it will work out OK. What I felt good about was that it was a scene where I had a loose end that I was able to tie up. In it, the detectives find a clue, but I had no clue what the clue would be. I have similar problems in other scenes later in the script and I have been worried about coming up with good solutions. Finding a solution for this one gives me more confidence.

This was my most productive week so far. I added 3,569 words to my character descriptions and 2,116 words to the outline. That brings the outline to just about the same length as the outline for “The Anger Trap”. I do need to do some house cleaning on the outline since I have a lot of duplication. That would make it shorter. I am about a third of the way through the revisions to the outline. I should be able to get that done next week. I want to do another run through both the outline and character descriptions before I start on the script.

Detective Story Week Four: Lucas opens up

My protagonist, Lucas, is starting to develop. I finished going through my outline and have described what each of the characters want in each scene. I am finding that Lucas often has conflicting desires. This is a good thing from the point of having a good story. Through out the story he is torn between wanting to “solve” the case or to just walk away from it.

I started to write up more detailed character descriptions. Mostly I was transcribing from my notes, but I also drew some ideas from what I learned about the characters while doing the outline. I’ll need to do a lot more work on the descriptions before I go back to the outline.

I went through an exercise where I used a system of personality factors I found on Wikipedia to develop descriptions of each character’s personality. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_Personality_Factors ) I’m not sure how helpful this will turn out to be, but I find that all my characters were coming out differently.

While going through my notes I found some good ideas for scenes that I had forgotten about. I added a couple to my outline. In one case, I replaced a similar scene that was weak. In the other, I added the scene. That disrupts the structure I had created for the story. I decided not to worry about that for now. When I am further along I will know if that is a problem or not.

I added 2,717 words to my out line, bringing it to 10,369 words. I added 1,389 words to my character description, but most of that was copying character information from my notes.