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.

If all else fails

Write more fanfic! Part One of my Combat! story "The Reckoning" is posted online here. Check it out!

Rescued!

Not by Kirby -- by Billy. Because sometimes you need someone young and straight-forward to remind you of something simple you were overlooking.

And all because I was thinking I needed to write one Green Room story per month, and while pondering May's story, Billy popped up and said it would be about him and the reward he'd get for solving my novel problem. And I said, "huh, you?" And he nodded earnestly and said, "Yep, cuz I AM going to solve your problem." And I went, "huh, you?" And he pointed at the keyboard, and so I wrote exactly nine lines of Green Room dialog, not even 80 words total, and as I trailed away, staring at the dialog I'd just written for him, Billy smiled and said smugly, "See? Problem solved."

And damned if it wasn't. And it was all because Billy wasn't in my story "Reckoning" and, more importantly, the reason he wasn't in the story.

The boy is a genius.

And yes, this means I am THROUGH the scene that's been driving me nuts since draft 1.

Weekend was too short

Writing, Wreading, and Watching, that was the weekend. The three Double-U's. And a little exercise thrown in to keep me from getting too chair-bound. Pleased with all three. First two chapters of DTD edited, and some new stuff written for a fanfiction project. The next couple of novel chapters will be more difficult, as I've got new scenes to work in. Should be interesting.

Breaking free of post-novel funk

At last! Forward movement! New words! I'm not stuck anymore.

Such a relief.

Yesterday, I started converting a script I wrote into short story format and finally started getting somewhere on it. I've had a huge mental barrier on this project. Scripts are written from such an outside perspective, I simply couldn't get in close enough to write it in story form whenever I tried in the past. But I was finally able to stop watching the film from the camera's perspective and get into the middle of it. Helps that I decided to start the story from the outside character's pov first. It was surprisingly easy to remember what the world feels like from his perspective.

And I also completed my DTD outline spreadsheet. I have everything I wrote documented. Now to tear it apart, fix it, and put it back together.