The End of a Story

A good story is a powerful thing. It lulls you in. It insinuates its way into the back of the mind and abides there, even when you are not thinking about it.

When you get to the end, there is a sense of completion. A journey has been finished. Parts that were separate have been brought together. The back brain can put it to one side and rest.

All the above is true of reading a book or watching a movie or listening to a story over a camp fire. It also describes my experience of creating a story. The narrative exists in a nebulous, illusive form only crystallizing into something solid when it is written down.

At the beginning of the writing process, I stride forwards into the fog, not knowing what is going to emerge after the next few paces. In the middle, I start to get a sense of the potential destination. And at the end - in the dash to the finish line - I have it all in my head simultaneously and am frantically trying to get it fixed on the page.

This last stage is the reason for my silence over the last couple of weeks. I have been pressing on towards the end of the screenplay 'Interviews With A Serial Killer' (formerly known as White Angel 2).

It is an all-consuming process. Frantic with writing. Even when not writing, I am thinking about it. The characters, the twists, the imagery and dialogue allow the writer little rest. It is a self-centred phase. I don't think it makes me a particularly nice person. There is just me and the story and I resent anyone who wants to take me away from it.

Last night at 9pm I finished writing and e-mailed the screenplay to Chris Jones - presently attending a film festival in Spain. I'm sure there will be further drafts, but for now I feel the weight lifted. My back brain is no longer having to juggle all the variables of a story.


Exciting things are happening in the next few days, so more blog entries will follow.

Screenplay First Draft

The first draft of the White Angel sequel screenplay is written and has just a moment ago been e-mailed to Chris Jones. I am a bit frazzed, having done nothing much else for the last 7 days but work on it.

Now, how to de-frazzle?

Self-imposed deadlines

Self-imposed deadlines become more real when you tell other people about them. More real means more focus. That's the positive side of it. I have done masses of writing and editing in the last 7 days. On the negative side, I am REALLY tired.

Perhaps it wasn't best idea to tell the world that I would be finishing the screenplay by the end of the month. That's tomorrow. (Midnight tomorrow to be exact.)

I'd better get to bed.

The author and the 'paperless' office

I'm editing, but finding it difficult to get a sense of the whole thing. A case of can't see the wood for the trees. And speaking of trees, I printed out the whole thing again last night and now have Act 2 spread out on the carpet. Whatever happened to the paperless office?

Unfortunately, having been banished from the living room, I have no space to see the whole thing in one glance. It is a case of going along the landing and into the bedroom. The above clip should give some sense of what it looks like (even though upside down and back to front!)

Thankfully, this approach to screenwriting does seem to be working. I have spotted a couple of problems and been able to address them.

White Angel 2 Screenplay update

Status update:

I have edited through from start to finish, ironing out continuity errors and harmonizing the voices (so characters don't change their speech patterns too much from one scene to the next).

The script has crept up to 78 pages now - roughly 78 minutes of screen-time - which puts me in the right zone in terms of length. I have 2 scenes to add - which will push it up to something like 83 pages. But further editing will tend to shrink it down again as the dialogue becomes sweeter and shorter. So it looks as if I will end up close to my original estimate of 80 pages.

I have told Chris Jones I'll send him a draft by the end of this month. (That will probably be a minute to midnight on the 30th.)

Anyway, what with all the hours of editing, my brain feels moderately fried. So I will leave it at that for today. Thanks for bearing with me.

How long is a low budget movie?

I am immersed in writing the screenplay, so the blogging has been very slight over the last week. I'm also sneezing. Yes, it is the hay fever season.

A brief report on the screenplay:

Three acts are written. It comes out roughly 10 pages short. I still have two aspects of one sub-plot to work into it. These are connected with a character who is dead already by the beginning of the movie - developing her back-story and investigating her death. In my estimation, inserting this material will take the screenplay to my target length - of around 80 tightly worked pages, roughly 80 minutes of screen time.

Bearing in mind that each minute on screen costs money, and that this is to be a low budget movie, the intention is to make it as short as possible whilst still being long enough to be considered a feature film. My aim had been in the 77 to 83 minute range. Happily, we seem to be heading for the bulls eye.

Today, I am reading through from the start to the finish, editing as I go, identifying places where my insert scenes could work.

White Angel Screenplay

I am sitting surrounded by pages of printed screenplay.

The opening act is sitting in one pile. That is fairly tight already. I may need to back-write some details into it to justify what happens later, and I will need to work on the dialogue, of course. But the scene by scene structure is more-or-less in place.

Similarly, Act 3 is sitting in a pile. The details of what happens may change. But the basic structure is fairly well established.

Placed in a long line on the floor are the pages of Act 2. This is the area of the script where most of the changes are going to have to happen. This is still fluid. With it laid out like on the floor, I can see in one glance where the long and short scenes lie. I can spot patterns and rhythms.

What I have found today are three significant sub-plots which can be developed. These will break up the rhythm of the main story and make it feel less linear. There is a character who has already died at the beginning of the movie. Her story can be developed as can the investigation into her death. There is also a power struggle going on between two of the secondary characters. This is going to be opened up. And finally, I need an excuse for one of the convict characters to start a fire in her cell. I'm not sure what that is going to be yet, but I know how they put it out!

I also watched the original movie again, trying to get the voice of the central character, Ellen Carter. I haven't quite got it pinned yet, but I'm not far off. Her main characteristic is that she doesn't say too much. She looks at people and they tend to say things to her.