I feel like my name lately should be changey-mind-ey-Mary...lol...I heard about this (I'm taking off the big girl panties here, excuse the childish rant that will begin in...3...2...1) stupid script frenzy back in November and thought, eh, what the heck...I don't do the whole, over-indulgence on the details aspect when I write. I feel like it gives the reader the opportunity to see things they way they imagine it should be. My character, my setting, all that stuff...yeah I write a little that tells you the basics, but that's it. I hate it when an author tries to force you to see the story their way because 90% of the time, I see it my way regardless of what they write and it just throws me off. But back to my point, I figured okay, I could write a movie, no big deal.
HOW WRONG WAS I?!?!?
I started with Fall of the Fairytale, an idea I got a while back...still don't know the specifics, but whatever, it's saved in the back of my brain for a rainy day, exactly where I like my ideas to reside. I wrote an actual novel chapter for that then tried to make it work in script format. I got a page of scripted material and stared at the screen like "are you kidding me?" for twenty minutes; seriously contemplated giving up, but didn't.
Then I decided Full Circle, my current novel work-in-progress would make a great movie. OY VEY! The story is good, but when I tried to write it in movie form, it was so cheestastic that even the most horrid B-Rated actors and production companies wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. Don't worry, I'll clean up the grammar & spelling errors and post it so you can giggle at its horridness.
So this morning, I gave serious consideration to just quitting. To admitting defeat and instead of saying I was defeated just saying I was too busy with school and finishing Full Circle and starting the re-write of Unattached to finish Script Frenzy.
So I closed the documents and walked away wondering what to do. I hate giving up, it's totally not in my nature. I may pout and throw a hissy fit (mentally) but I hate giving up - especially when it's something I know I can do.
So I sat down, scoured the internet for the scripts to my favorite movies (New Moon, Shakespeare in Love, P.S. I Love You, etc...The list goes on and on) and tried to find the secret to writing a movie...
I didn't find the secret, but I found an idea that might work. Back in September/October, I wrote a story called Disenchanted. It was supposed to be the prequel to Full Circle, but for whatever reason, it just wouldn't work..But, so not the point. I started skimming through Disenchanted and as I sat there reading it, I started to notice my problem. A lot of stuff goes on in my characters heads, and you can't really (or I can't) translate that to stuff viewers can see. Disenchanted isn't really like that. Beth, the main character, is very upfront about her feelings and emotions and has no problem telling you where to stick it. So I started writing Disenchanted in the screenplay format, looking at the novel and picking out what to keep and what to toss.
I've gotten further writing Disenchanted than I have with Fall of the Fairytale or Full Circle. Heck, I've gotten further writing Disenchanted than Fall of the Fairytale and Full Circle combined, lol. It's an interesting and challenging process. I definitely have loads more respect for people who write movies, it's not easy at all, but in all honesty, I think after this month and this script is finished it will conclude my venture into script writing.
So...there's my update about Script Frenzy
