Today’s the last day of this week. The last day that I get to edit “Things People Do” for the next two weeks while I work on my other projects. At the beginning of this week, the screenplay stood at 113 pages. Through the week, I’ve managed to trim it down to the 108 pages that is today, not that this day is over yet. I’m sure there’s more to be edited out.
At any rate, that’s 5 pages of unnecessary descriptions, character actions, and parentheticals cut from the script, which tells me even more that I need to get the “Novel Writer” in me under control when I write my screenplays. Don’t want to waste time writing something that will DEFINITELY get cut come editing time, now do I?
I’m at the last quarter of the script and still haven’t come across any scenes that need to be cut. I’m very happy about that. Every single scene so far moves the plot forward and is key in telling the whole story for the reader/audience.
As I read over what my main characters have done in this story, and why they did what they did, I can honestly shake my head. Not at them really, but the human race in general, because what my characters have done, somethings bad-other things REALLY BAD, isn’t too far from what people do everyday in this world. Some of these people are in far off places, some are your next door neighbors, some are members of your own family, and some of these people are “YOU/US/ME” who commit these acts. It’s a scary thought, but one wrapped in truth.
I can relate to some of the acts my characters have committed, not simply because I wrote them and may or may not have done some of these things, but because a lot of it, if not all, is truly human nature. Survival instinct. The will to preserve ones life and lifestyle. There are so many layers, levels, and perspectives to it, but from something like being rude to someone, or spreading rumors, to robbery or murder, It’s amazing what we do, as humans, in the name of “survival”. To the point that you really can’t put ANYTHING past us as a species. It’s survival of the fittest.
How interesting we are. How powerful. To literally have the power to create civilizations and destroy them.
WOW! Where did all that come from, lol.
Anyway, I’m shooting to get the last quarter edited and done by the end of the day today. I’ll keep you posted.
scribereglyph 