Movie Scripts and Television Pilots
This week I’ve been working on a couple projects, all in different stages of completion (except for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday as those three days were eaten up by the release of Secrets of The Hollywood Girls Club). I’ve noticed that my writing process for scripts, whether it’s for television or film, is different and yet the same than when I am working on a novel.
First, writing a novel I think is much like running a marathon…not that I’ve run a marathon…I’d like to, eventually..but…I digress. When I write a manuscript it is the slow and steady plodding every day. Especially with the first draft, each day chipping away at the story, writing and getting the first draft on paper and the word count up. Then next comes the rewrite, and I never know how long the rewrite will take.
When I write a script, it feels like a sprint. Perhaps because there is so little exposition and so much dialogue…one script page might take 2, 3, or 5 pages in manuscript format.
And yet, the similarities in the writing process for both a manuscript and a script are striking…I hear a voice, I see a scene, I dash to my computer to write everything down. I become incredibly confused in the center of whatever the project, because I so clearly see the end and have no idea how I’m going to get there. I fall in love with certain scenes, lines, chapters that don’t make the cut…instead they get cut. I always *want* to believe the first draft is all the work I need to do…that it’s perfect but know in my heart if I rewrite and polish and rewrite again, the story will be so so so much better served by my hard work.
xoMaggie