Baby’s First Screenplay
Today I finished the first draft of my first real screenplay. THUMBS UP! Although this should probably feel like an accomplishment, I’m too aware of how much work still needs to be done to really enjoy the fleeting moment. In many ways the work is only now starting; I’ve got the skeleton of the story on the page, I know who my characters are and where they’re going, and I basically have the sequences laid out. However, the script suffers from the following:
- Acts 1 and 3 are too long
- Shifts in protagonist’s desire aren’t mapped to specific twists in the story
- Act 2 climax doesn’t feel climactic
- Subplot about protagonist’s parents feels forced and clunky; I forget why I created it in the first place
- I’m not using all the aspects of my primary setting to their fullest
- There are about 20 pages of room to expand, but I can’t figure out what precisely would be enhanced by expansion
- It isn’t funny yet
... and that’s just off the top of my head, without any feedback from other readers. My screenwriting professor is going to tear this thing apart (thank god).
I’m looking forward to the next (insert high number here) drafts, because I tend to do my best writing in smaller chunks in the revision process. The shittiest scene ever written is still less intimidating than a blank page. It will probably be another 4-5 drafts before I share the script with anybody.
I’m also—and I can’t figure out whether this is good or bad—looking forward to the next script I want to write, which becomes alarming only when I start thinking and plotting this next project while my unfinished script sits on the screen, demanding love. I want to develop my current spec script to the point that I’m proud of it, then mail it into the wild in hopes of securing an agent. Am I naïve to think that my first screenplay ever is going to be worth purchasing, or land me representation? I’m not going to mail the fucker until it’s representative of what I can do, but still… it’s the first. Part of me wants to revise, polish, and bury it, theoretically forcing the emotional detachment necessary to throw a spec script against a wall of rejection letters. But… I like my script. I like the characters. Someday it will be airtight, charming, and funny.
WOULD THAT DAY WERE TODAY!
Isn’t that right, noble steed?