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focus

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:07 pm
by Motherof8
My problem is focus. Now, it didn't use to be a problem but I'm juggling so many projects that to say I'm working on one in particular, I can't say -- I'd like to.

With eight completed screenplays and some accolades under my belt, I finding the drooling process of pitching takes up every ounce of my spare time. I'd love to have an agent but even then screenwriters must "sell" themselves at all times with their employment.

This chapter I entered was something I thought I must do. I prefer writing the visual less the profound endless vocabulary but the challenge is in me. Screenwriters don't maintain the rights to their story once sold unless they also have the novel rights, then, they do. The Lord and His providence has to be strong if the story is to maintain its original script -- production companies, actors, etc...all have a say in the constant re-writes.

Residuals of the film if sold as a script don't exist for the writer unless you can bargain it into the contract. That's a very slim prospect. Again, if you have the rights to the novel, then you become part of the producing team and have more input and yes, residual payments too.

With that said, I felt compelled to enter my sci/fi fantasy piece. It has been my hope to expand it to a trilogy after I wrote the stand alone episode II of the script. Instead, I started from the beginning writing the novel. I only have the first chapter finished but it's all hashed out in an outline. Stopping everything else would be essential to continue this. I'm in a quandary hoping the Lord would reveal his thoughts.

Then, there's the duties of this household. I'm a homeschool mother with only five this year starting this year in August. Number six will be staying at home this year studying and CLEPing out of her first year of college hopefully. Number seven works and lives at home and number eight is working his way through a meteorology degree. Did I mention the 2500 square foot garden we can, or the Labrador pups we raise, the twenty acres we maintain, the small orchard that was frost bit this year that needs babying, that we were Deacons in our church, that we occasionally house those in need, that my daughter ran into the neighbor's parked care adding another bill to pay?:) I often thank the Lord because we have been given a lot. We always have decisions at our feet - we are never without possibilities.

:)
Blessings,
Mo8

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 3:38 pm
by eireann
My 15 yr old is doing some CLEP and CC this year too. I'm making her take all online classes, as I have no desire to be her chauffeur. She has to take her PSAT this October, so we'll leave the CLEP stuff til after that's done. I'm hoping she'll score enough to be a NMS.

Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:08 pm
by Soren2007
My entry was part of an overall project that begun many years ago. I know the story and have it outlined. I spun off a short story from it and it now lives in both a script and novel format. I keep going back and forth between them and each time I write the novel, it adds to the screenplay, and each time I advance into the screenplay, it adds to the novel. The two are different in style with more left out of the screenplay regarding plot and dialogue, but the action and visualization come into the screenplay more. It's been a fun experiment.

I have a rule to not write novels with screenplays in mind. I don't mind adapting from film to paper, because so much changes, but have only once adapted from paper to film - and that was because I was completely stuck and the process helped create new action that brought me from start to a new road around the blockage.

Thanks for the thread, Mid. I'm excited about this contest and really like my entry. It's great to see all the names entering with me. That'll be enough consolation in November if another contestant wins.

My question is: do we ever get to read the first chapter before the book is published?

Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:37 am
by Soren2007
This line of thinking has me cracking up. I've no idea who would play the characters, and I started this as a screenplay! And, to see each of you talk about a profession makes me realize how undefined my characters are in that way. My story was more of a world creation story (not sci-fi) and so occupations didn't work there way in very much at all.

Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2007 12:41 pm
by Mid
(((((Chrissy))))) there, is that better?? Seriously, hope the pain diminishes and you can type to your heart's content!!!! I had a horrible headache yesterday and couldn't even read, so I know how frustrating that must be...
be better!!!