Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Scriptwriting

This post was actually written a few months ago but i never posted it. The script in question is now no longer being worked on, but this is an effort to get this blog going again.

Working on a new script - first script in years. I'm really excited about it.

A friend contacted me asking would I help write her write a script based on the story she's been thinking about for years. The basic plot is that a man loses his job and thus becomes very depressed and becomes infatuated with a street performer, losing interest in wife. There is a murder and an interesting psychological/paranormal twist but I won't reveal it.

This is the first time I've ever been asked to flesh out someone else's idea and I found it liberating. She sent me a rough outline for the story, some sparse but definite details about the setting, characters, story arc. What I loved was being asked to just expand and open up the story and I think I did a fairly good job, for first thoughts.

It was incredibly liberating to work on someone else's story. I haven't written anything of my own in a very long time but suddenly working on another person's idea gave me the ability to just suggest everything for the story. It was a great brainstorming session. Rarely do I have sessions like that for my own story. I usually start writing and try to work everything out along the way. Really, what I should be doing, I realized, is fleshing out the idea before even starting - not necessarily make an outline, but expand on the characters lives, setting, any possible story points, just so I could understand the world more.

I feel like I need to do more research for my writing also.

This is becoming too much like a normal blog post, just wanted to say that I'll be writing soon.

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