Thursday, July 20, 2006

At least I'm making writing progress somewhere!

More Combat! fanfic posted. Part 2 of my story "The Reckoning."

It's weird to me to watch how this story's translating from screenplay to prose story. Part 1 and 2 combined equal just the teaser and Act 1. Part 3 (still in progress) is Act 2 and 3. And Part 4 is Act 4. I didn't really consciously break it down that way, it's just the way it went. I remember when I wrote the script last year, it was hard because I'm used to 5-act television shows. Combat! is only a teaser and 4 acts, and my mind wanted to bust the story automatically into 5. I think my first draft WAS five, and then I shifted scenes around and cut some stuff to make it the proper 4.

Odd too, because there are two distinct versions of this story floating in my head. The original screenplay, which I can still see with all the camera cuts, music, etc., exactly as if it had been filmed in B&W and aired back in the '60s. And now the new story version, which, while the same plot and same actors and much of the same dialog, runs very differently. For one thing, it's now widescreen. For another, it's color. The scenery is no longer "stock" C! locations, but something new. Even the music is different. I can play the same scenes from each version side-by-side on my mental silver screen, comparing them, and it trips me out. The new one looks like a modern movie remake! Which, as much as I hate remakes, is oddly apt, because instead of just writing down what I see happening in the original version, I'm being forced to re-imagine the story in its new prose context. Which is turning out a lot harder and more time-consuming than it was supposed to be.

2 comments:

Rachel Kovaciny said...

Combat! is only a teaser and 4 acts, and my mind wanted to bust the story automatically into 5. I think my first draft WAS five, and then I shifted scenes around and cut some stuff to make it the proper 4.

Er, either you think WAAAAY too much about this, or I think way too little about it. Ye sissies, you actually sat and analyzed this and are making it fit the #-of-acts format of the show? You one crazy lady. Or me one lazy lady, lol!

DKoren said...

Well, screenplays are what I intended to make my living at, for awhile when I was young and stupid. Shadow and I cranked out a whole series of television scripts to get us in the door. I'm also a confirmed plot-aholic, so acts are just part of the plotting process and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that. And YES, R had to match actual C! acts, are you kidding?? LOL!! Because I am that crazy. And because otherwise it wouldn't play right in my head.

But even when I was in junior high, writing Voyage fanfic - I broke them automatically out into the proper act structure, so I was doing it long before I had degrees and agents and knew the sheer hell that my nerves can put me through before a pitching session.