Checkpoint

I just finished the first draft of Act One. If there's one thing I learned from the screenplay I wrote last year, it's the importance of staying organized. I got lost in a maze I created and I couldn't write my way out of it.

I ended up with the task of having to cut so much out that the story needed to be changed. I basically had to re-write the entire story and in my re-write I think I lost my mind and it just ended up getting weirder and weirder and weirder. I don't know if it got so weird because it was authentic weird, or because I was so upset with having to rewrite the whole thing that all the weirdnesses were just convenient devices to make rewriting the piece of shit more bearable.

Anyway, this time I'm taking it act by act. I don't know why I didn't focus harder on acts before, but that one is in the past forever. I don't think I ever want to go back and fix it, even though friends of mine still want to shoot it.

I want the length to be as standard and to-the-paradigm as possible. A first act is typically 30 pages and I stopped at about 50-something. I have about 20 pages worth of trimming to do. I know it's pretty much all just shortening conversations. It sucks always, being that I spent so much time, but it'll be worth it. I have to figure out how to keep it short enough while still giving you an idea of the characters.

Hopefully I'll be done cutting this down in about a week and a half.

Wish me luck.