Trying something new

Another week rolls by, another submission is sent - Come & See is once again done with for the time being, leaving me to soldier on with 'Broken,' my next project. Still a working title, natch.

I'm going to try something a little different with the blog entries for this one - I've noticed in the past that I've not been particularly specific about things until I'm done with them. I guess I like to play things pretty close to my chest. This time I'm going to try to change that, and make much more specific entries that dig into the minutiae of the writing of the script. That way the blog will not only include the usual progress reports, but will also chronicle the writing process, its missteps, dead ends and various other warty bits. The intention is to give people a much clearer picture of how I get through the writing process.

I thought it might be interesting to try it - being fully open about what I'm finding fun, what's proving to be a ballache, etc. Never let it be said I'm afraid of trying new things.

'Broken' then. It's a revenge story about a former soldier who gets volunteered for a super-soldier type program like Captain America. Only in this case, the powers manifest unpredictably and end up crippling him the first time they kick in, killing both his superhero and his soldier careers in one fell swoop. Then the man learns that he was volunteered for the program by his superior officer for exactly that purpose, to get him out of the way for nefarious reasons. The theme is the man learning to turn his powers to his advantage, taking a curse and it turning into a blessing in his pursuit of retribution.

Firstly, I'm fairly constrained by a limited page count of 40-50 to tell what could, if left unchecked, develop into a much more convoluted story that's just too long. I already have a lot of plot that I'm going to have to cut, as I originally conceived it as a story of intrigue that I just don't think I'll be able to tell in the pages I have. To that end, I'm going by the rule of "show, don't tell" to avoid it getting too wordy, and streamlining the story to cut out the stuff I don't need.

I've already thrown out what little I wrote last year and come up with a punchier opening that in one page exactly defines the man, his powers and his mission. That's what I'll be going for in this script - if a scene isn't doing at least two or three different and relevant things, it's getting the elbow and I'll be searching for some other way to tell the story.

So it's going to be a challenge. I actually think that keeping these blog entries is going to help. Being quite neurotic, I may not be able to cope with the guilt of not having anything new to report in my weekly posts. That should keep me writing.

In other news, I'm regrettably shelving my plans to attend the London Super Con in February. Unexpected expenses and London prices are not compatible. Hotel prices for that weekend are just bloody stupid. Unfortunate, but it didn't look like it was going to be much cop anyway (excluding Stan Lee), so I'm not losing any sleep over it.