100 pages

Reached 100 pages on my newest writing project, Homeland. It’s a feature script set during Japanese American internment during WWII. Took me 17 days to reach 100 pages, which I did as part of the Script Frenzy event. I’ve probably got another 40 to go, which I hope to knock out in the balance of April.

It’s amazing how many folks, a lot of them young, who write recreationally as part of this program. I suppose there are plenty of screenwriters who would shrug this sort of activity off as amateurish, but I find it enjoyable. Plus it never hurts to have a deadline.Writing can be painful. It stings to use both sides of your brain in concert, struggling with a blank screen or the banality of a cliche-ridden draft you’re cranking out at warp speed.

But then storytelling is inherent in us as a species. We do it around meals, beer, cocktails, business lunches, on the phone or in 140 characters of SMS. Might as well capture in in Courier in feature film format.

The vast majority of the 20,000 people signed up to write a script in April won’t finish. Most of the finished scripts won’t be very good, mine included–at least until another dozen drafts of the material are completed.

Some of us might get lucky. Maybe I’ll option another screenplay or produce all or part of this on my own. None of that really matters, though, in the short term. Right now, I just have to finish this draft, stealing an hour here and there.