Script Frenzy Victory!
Submitted by Earok on Sun, 04/25/2010 - 19:45Today, after a difficult month of running a script writing marathon, I have churned out a screenplay weighing in at over 100 pages (Somehow it expanded to 121 pages when I transferred it over to the Mac version of CeltX!) and over 18,000 words.
Whew! I made it! Thanks to everyone who supported me through this troublesome ordeal.
Just a bit of background on the script, it's called BattleSuit Epsilon and draws inspiration primarily from Starship Troopers and various Gundam Series. It's also loosely a sequel to Derelict. The story is about the efforts of a mentally deranged pilot of a prototypical powered armour suit to fend off an invasion from a powerful enemy. So, not exactly Oscar winning material, but it was lots of fun to write none the less.
I actually restarted the script from scratch (albiet with roughly the same backstory) on about the 9th so from start to end it took around 16 days to write. The reason why I restarted is I wasn't 100% happy with my original concept, and so my page count became rather stagnant and I needed new inspiration.
That inspiration came when Kirsty and I were walking home from the Auckland Game Development meetup, and we witnessed the delusional rantings of a (possibly just drunk or stoned) lunatic. He was seriously saying things like "When I fight, I AM A DRAGON" and "You think your droids CAN POSSIBLY DEFEND AGAINST ME". I kid you not. So I thought wouldn't it be awesome if he was my giant robot piloting protagonist? So that's what I ended up rewriting my script about.
Even though overall I wrote less then half the number of words required to win NaNoWriMo, it certainly wasn't half as easy to get there. For instance, it's harder to get in the 'writing zone' doing a script because you're constantly having to stop to change between scene, action, character and dialogue formatting. And you can't just bump up your word count by blathering out meaningless prose, as you can in NaNoWriMo.
Also, I think the lower bar for Script Frenzy actually made it harder to commit to keep working on it, with NaNoWriMo I was working on my novel before work at 7am almost every day, I might have done that once with Script Frenzy.
Well, I'm going to celebrate with a nice dinner at Dennys.
Comments
Glad you finished. I don't think I helped too much though.. I just provided the occasional comment. :) Enjoy your dinner. :)
Sounds cool. I have yet to watch the whole of Gundam.. I did start, just never finished.. Ooops. :) How much of it have you watched?
Also the insane/drunk/high guy, sounds like a story which a 'one hit wonder' script writer would say, such as the Matrix brothers did with theirs. "It was a dream." I think you should try get it made into a movie. :P
You must have a great girlfriend giving you time to work on things like this. :)
Well, even just getting occasional feedback on the project was motivating, so cheers anyway =).
I've watched all of Gundam Wing/Endless Waltz and am about half way through Gundam Seed (Stopped only because it was taking up too much of the time I should have been using for Script Frenzy!). I haven't seen any other Gundam iteration yet.
Heh, I highly doubt I'll ever try to get it filmed (Maybe I can make it into a game) but I'll definitely keep a copy of it just incase I decide to polish it.
Yeah, Kirsty is awesome =) but it wasn't just that she gave me the time to do NaNoWriMo and Screnzy, she actually encouraged me to do both of them.
Congrats. Again... on actually finishing your creative projects. That is a pretty rare trait to have. If I ever have to write a reference for you it would include" Erik sees things through to the end." That could be a good eulogy too.
Heh, Thanks Stephen, much appreciated.
I think I am starting to become particularly keen on being a 'goal junkie'! If only I was as effective at setting and meeting fitness goals as I am at creative ones..
Well done! I am seriously impressed by your willpower and determination - and I'm betting the script is pretty decent, too :)
Love the anecdote about the drunk guy. Yep, sounds like an awesome protagonist :D
Cheers Sam, though I think the odds would be stacked against you on that particular bet ;) Still waiting for Kirsty's feedback on the script before I even think of letting anyone else see it!
It was fun writing thinking up stuff for the protagonist to say, for instance "How can you possibly fight WHEN YOU ARE MADE OF VEGETABLES", but in hind sight adding multi-dimensionality to the character is next to impossible!
Hrm.. Matrix..