Structure - Act I

        I’m finally getting back into the revision of my first screenplay, “Sabbatical.” In a previous blog post, nearly a year ago, I wrote that the Script Revision Was Coming Along. Well, perhaps that wasn’t accurate. It was only getting started, and it’s been a very slow start. The truth is that it’s been mostly on the back burner for months. Around the time I wrote that post, I was also starting my venture into microstock photography. Now that I’m moderately set up with microstock, I’m switching gears back to the screenplay.
        For the first draft, which took quite a while, I just wrote it. It was a bit piecemeal and sort of haphazard. I wrote it straight as a screenplay. Of course I outlined the story, but it was done in the midst of the writing. Outlining and structuring was more of a way to refocus rather than a way to begin. Since that first draft, I’ve learned a lot. Without a doubt, I’ve still lots to learn, but I’m in a better position to revise this thing now.
        So for this round, I’m pretty much ignoring the first draft. The story’s been in my head for years, even years before the first draft, in one form or another. Now, I’m starting with structure, or perhaps more accurately, restructure. I had more or less avoided formula for the first screenplay, but now I realize how much I need it. To do the structuring, I’ve acquired Contour, my 3rd software purchase from Mariner Software. So far, it’s helping me a great deal to think through every step. And recently, I finished structuring Act I.
        It’s very refreshing to start from almost scratch. I needed the time away from the script in order to detach from it. I think it’s absolutely necessary to spend some time away from a first draft of anything. As Hemingway so aptly and eloquently put it, “The first draft of anything is shit.” Before this restructuring, there were so many holes in the story, not to mention too much dialogue. Not to say that there are no more holes to fill in the story, or that when the time comes to write the actual screenplay again I’ll have amazing dialogue. But I’m on a much clearer path this time around, and I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve written shit. I also feel freer to just write, now that I recognize how true Hemingway’s words are.
        This goes for the novel I’ve been writing, too. I started writing it around the time I finished the screenplay. I’ve only been working on the novel from time to time, however. As of now, my plan for writing the novel is to just write a bit here and there as a break from other projects. When I’ve written upwards of 1.5 to 2 times what I’d like to have in the novel, I’ll start trimming and cutting and gouging. Then, once that first draft is done, I’ll put it aside for a while and come back to it when I’ve enough distance to write a decent 2nd draft. And just the other day, I wrote a rough outline of the novel and already realized a character I can cut. For now, though, it’s screenplay revision time.