112 - 112 - 111

Those are the temperatures for the last three days here in Woodland Hills.

Insane.

******

So I wound up writing more on my script to get to the climax than I expected; I realized that I had so much good tension going that I could milk it for much longer.

I spent over an hour each on Friday and Saturday knocking out the pages, and finally hit my first rough draft, at an honest 91 pages.

I was prepared to toss it to the side to get some distance from it. In fact, on Sunday, while my wife was driving my sister-in-law and I up the coast to cooler climes, I curled up in the back with a notebook and did some extensive brainstorming on another project, that I friend and I once made some notes on, which we're getting ready to revisit.

I've never written with anyone, but this script has a great hook, and needs to be written.

Then, Sunday night, a friend from my writing group called, and begged me to take his Monday night slot the next evening. Never one to pass up a free slot, I said sure.

I picked up the script again. Polished pages 48-71 for the read, trimmed some dialogue here and there, added some conversations there and there. 92 pages now.

Brought in last night, where the actors read it, and they did a great job; I sat in the audience with my eyes closed, and listened to the dialogue flow, and it seemed to flow well. The guy reading the narration also gave it some great urgency.

But then my fellow writers tore it apart a bit, and most of their comments were spot-on. The story (in which I'm trying to do a lot, and need to do it better) needs more finessing, more twists, more surprises. It needs to take more advantage of the hook.

They also wanted one of the characters dead. "Kill Tim" was the mantra of the night. Never mind that he's one of the nice guys. It's a bloodthirsty group.

I need Tim for the climax, but it occurred to me that I might effectively turn him into two characters, one who gets killed along the way. This also might give me more to play with in terms of character dynamics as the script plays out.

So I'll be in a Woodland Hills Starbucks this morning, figuring out ways to reblock the storyline.

And to kill Tim.

22 straight days of writing at least one hour, through yesterday.

******

A guy I semi-know (Reed Schusterman) is looking to do a short film and is looking for a script. Under 10 minutes, in close to finished form, producible on a low budget (a few hundred dollars). He is looking for scripts with elements of action, thriller, sci-fi or fantasy; he's not looking to do a pure comedy or pure drama.

If you have anything like this lying around, send it to him at NimrodShorts@gmail.com by Friday. Pay is a copy of the film and seeing your work onscreen.