Writing Blog

209231126 NaNo XXX (30, not naughty)

November 26, 2023, 7:15pm

All those who write screenplays, I am in awe. I am yet to find my groove. It is proving a lot more difficult than I had anticipated, especially as I am writing this as a direct movie screenplay. I've done short film screenplays for study, when I did my BA in Creative writing, and one of them was even filmed by students studying film-making. They had to make a lot of changes, which they went through with me, and so I am trying to remember everything they told me as I am writing this.

The main thing is to not be too prescriptive, so a director can put his/her own vision onto things, and so actors have some freedom of movement, but it needs to be prescriptive enough so that everything is set out and organised and makes sense.

I am using a Word template I got from university, but, at the moment, I am not doing the separation of dialogue across pages the right way. I'll wait until I have revised it before I start doing that. It is a general rule of thumb that a page of script is a minute of screen time, though studies have shown it is closer on average to a minute-ten. However, if you aim for a minimum of ninety pages (ninety-odd minutes), that gives the director some freedom to cut and add to their heart's content.

So, as to the story, basically, we have had some glimpses of the animals, and some hint of why the Die-protodon of the title is going to be created, but it has not been made yet. I am using the Asylum basics - creatures appear early, but in shadow, and infrequently until halfway through, then they have to be everywhere. Jurassic Park even did this (sort of).

Will I go into screen-writing more? No! It is not the freedom I desire in writing. But if an idea - like this one - lends itself to a screenplay, then i think I am getting a little more comfortable to actually give it another go.

Raven words: 88229
Our Own Characters words: 38296
Die-protodon words: 4294
Daily words: 2549
Total words: 130819