Only My Scriptwriting

A Little Cold Turkey Today

A Little Cold Turkey Today

No, I’m not talking about the turkey I eat in the blog title above. I’m referring to the term Cold Turkey which I use to sacrifice to get something done. With my writing, going Cold Turkey means giving up watching television and movie while I’m writing. That’s what I had to do today. but it wasn’t as bad as it usually is.

I needed sixteen paragraphs to finish the Episode Four, Probable Death, Story Outline. And I accomplished that. But I couldn’t have done that without going Cold Turkey. It’s not as bad as it reads, though. Lately, I have had several Cold Turkeys. And they have ended with five, six, or seven paragraphs that I needed to get written.

Today, it was only three. And it only took me about twenty minutes to write them. The other thirteen I got before I had to go Cold Turkey. Not only did I finish writing this Story Outline, but I also finished writing all of these Story Outlines. I’m ready to start working on my Scene Outlines tomorrow. And it will take longer to write them.

About six months is what I’m estimating it will take me to write my single-paragraph Scene Outlines. That’s about one Part or Episode each month. Of course, I hope it won’t take me that long to write them. But I feel it will be based on the ten to fifteen paragraphs per day I will be writing. Ten to fifteen that don’t include Establishing Shots.

With my scripts, there isn’t a set pattern to them. Except to keep them to within fifteen seconds depending on which scene they are in. Thirteen seconds/lines for scenes two, four, seven, and nine. Fifteen seconds/lines for scenes one, three, six, and eight. Nineteen seconds/lines for the five and ten scenes. That includes the Scene Headings.

Nine, eleven, and fifteen seconds/line per scene without the Scene Headings. The Establishing Shots are a little different. Within the Scene Outlines, they will be three lines long. And in the scripts, they will be nine lines long. That includes the Scene Headings: Five lines per every Establishing Shot.

Why am I comparing my Scene Outlines to my scripts? It’s because my Scene Outlines are almost the opposite of my scripts. They are planned rather than formatted. The Establishing Shots are three lines long. Scenes two, four, seven, and nines are four lines long. And scenes one, three, six, and eight are five lines long.

The five and ten scenes are six lines long. Out of every five scenes that’s twenty-four lines. And that doesn’t include the Establishing Shots. That’s why I’m writing I will be lucky if I get ten to fifteen scenes/paragraphs written each day. I’m hoping it will be more than that. But I’m hoping it will be at least that many per day.

If I can do ten to fifteen scene paragraphs per day, that will mean it will take me twelve to eighteen days to finish writing a Part or Episode. That doesn’t include the Establishing Shots. They are part of a scene. But they aren’t a scene by themselves. The ten to fifteen is just for the scenes in these Parts or Episodes.