Thursday 21st October 2021
Today I learnt a really important lesson. It’s a lesson I already know but I obviously need reminding.
Always read the submission guidelines.
Today I put a couple of hours into a script. I was super pleased with how it turned out and was pleased with myself that I’d written something that, save a read thru and quick edit, was complete before the deadline. I was really pleased with myself for not leaving it until the last minute.
And then guess what I find out?
I go to prep the submission, see if there are any extra requirements such as a writing CV or certain types of formatting. And I see that the submission has to be an entirely different script to the one I’d just written. Seriously, I’ve spent days on this thing.
Where I got the wrong submission guidelines from, I don’t know, but I need to submit something five times this length on a totally different subject.
I’m an idiot!
At least I checked before I submitted. I suppose there’s that.
I did better on other projects though. I’ve started work on a new short which is going to be the bulk of my first draft work for the next couple of days. And I’ve started outlining The Worthy.
I’ve decided to go with a 12 point plot structure rather than the 27 point one I used for The Accursed and ended up cutting out most of the last act.
I’m currently using the corkboard in Scrivener and have mapped out the 12 plot points as scenes. I’ve then taken the ideas I have for beats, written a single sentence, and placed them on the corkboard directly after the plot points.
I have an idea of the story, but it’s more of a rough shape rather than any sort of structure. I have a few beats put in, but it’s super simple right now. Characters need developing and arcs added.
My plan is to layer this up over the coming days and let it take shape. I then plan to use several plotting tools on it to tighten that structure up into something that will work.
If I want to start on 1st November, I really have little time but often the hard work is in starting. Well, that and transitioning from the 2nd to 3rd act which ALWAYS gets me.
At least with The Worthy, there are no submission guidelines for me to mess up.
I’ve got a few other things to do. I have a couple of videos to edit but I’m finding that I delay things to later in the week only to then find it’s the next week. I’ve also got a ton of training to do next week for a course.
And then it’ll be November and I’ll be up to my eyeballs in first drafts.
I’m glad I’m busy. Other than underestimating the time everything takes for me to do, I’ve got a lot of words done these last few months and October is already my best writing month so far this year.
Of course, I’d do better with my time if I learnt to read the guidelines before I started writing a script, but I guess it’s all practise.
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