First Draft Is Done!

I hate writing the first draft of a script. Hate it. Plotting is so difficult for me. Pure torture. What happens next? What happens next? What happens next? SHUT UP! But, if you think about it that's all a story really is: answering that question. So, the first draft is done. Now the fun begins: The rewriting. I love rewriting. I love finessing a script. Never tire of it. And there's plenty to do. This is the first script since Beautiful Loser where the first draft came in at over 120 pages. 123 to be exact. That must be cut by at least 15 pages, and hopefully more. I like my scripts under a hundred pages. But, we'll see. The story comes first.

Most first drafts take me 6 to 8 weeks. This one I started six months ago. It's a ridiculously difficult concept -- a real challenge for me as a writer (which is good) -- and the What happens next? question sometimes took days of mental exercise to answer. However, it wasn't just the difficult concept slowing things down. In my defense, I did lose some time in Canada and rewriting another script that's hopefully going to some finance people next week.

My manager will be happy. He's been all over me about this. This is the script Disney's interested in, and even if they don't like it he's always looking for an excuse to call them.

Here's a little side story: I was Googling my name and the name of the script I just optioned to see if there was anything about it out there and came across this. Four years ago I won semi-finalist in a screenplay contest and didn't even know it. It's a contest run by Francis Ford Coppola. 2186 screenplays were submitted, I made the top 79. Not bad. Not bad at all. But I'm giving Francis hell for not calling me. You know, as soon as I'm a big enough shot to get near him.