Back to the drawing board.
Let me tell you, screenwriting, is an art form for the succinct. You have less than 120 pages to get the whole thing down. Much is made of what is implied but not shown and even more is shown but not told. But confusingly for the novelist, in the long run, this is a team effort. The actors get to decide HOW to portray an emotion and the set designers get to decide how it will look. The producer/director/casting agent get to decide who stars in it and how it will be shot and in the end all you can decide on is how the story goes and what words should be said. And even that may be changed in the end.
And don’t get me started on your slim to nothing chances of selling a script or getting it produced. Film/TV writing is all about networking and knowing the right people and when you live in the back of beyond in the UK and not in London or LA, the chances seem exponentially worse. But, we soldier on, because if you write well enough, you never know…
Anyway, script 2 finished, I found some lovely film people to read it for me on a place called Stage 32 – a social network for film and TV creatives. Both had opposite ideas of what worked and what didn’t, but made me realise I still had a LONG way to go before I should let anyone influential read it.
So I read three more books on the craft and took a breath. This is not going to be a quick process. It will most likely take years before I’m ready to put myself out there and chance the market. So this time I decided to start completely fresh. For a few weeks over the summer I read and watched films to decide what I like and what I don’t.
So here I go again with a new idea, one I am working on with all my new insight into the craft. It’s like a long set of stairs ahead of me, but and I’ve lifted to tread one.
Wish me luck. I’ll keep you posted.