Years ago, I wrote a novel. It has since languished in my drawer. I’ve always been conflicted by it. It has serious flaws. The beginning starts off well enough, the middle meanders and the ending falls flat with an audible thud. Reading Syd Field’s Screenwriter’s workbook last night, I realised, that I had in fact been writing the wrong story. I introduce a main character and stay with him for half of the book, before switching the focus elsewhere. It just doesn’t work and I now have fresh ideas to go forward with.
But, it also reminded me of what I’ve known for a long time. Scriptwriting is an incredibly helpful form to know if you are a novelist. It teaches you to be very specific and structured when bringing stories to life. This is a tremendous boost when you are stuck.
So I’ve decided on a little experiment. As I work through the Screenwriter’s workbook, I’m going to let everyone see my mistakes and shortcomings too. Privately, I’ll be writing an original screenplay, but publicly on this blog I will be writing a Dark Angel TV movie (since there is absolutely no way that would ever get made).
Why Dark Angel? It was a short-lived science fiction TV show that got cancelled before it hit its stride. What’s worse, I thought the last episode was one of the weakest and most clichéd of the final run of episodes and it ended on a cliffhanger. I can’t do much about the clichés but I can tie off the cliffhanger, and completely deplete an imaginary budget with action scenes.
Roon
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