Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Bits added

No idea what this shot was meant to be but I like the colour and the blurry eye full of tears quality to it. Short of poking myself in the eye or standing staring into the wind, it's the best you're going to get!

I'm really getting into the swing of my screenplay now. I've got seventy minutes of screen time and by a quick estimation (based on the heap of MS still to adapt) I can tell I am going to run over time but that's okay as I can edit it down when I'm through with the first draft.

The novel I'm adapting is the one I wrote last June and I must have read it through, first page to last, about a dozen times now, either for editing or for my own amusement - yes it has comedy and yes, I am that pathetic! Here's the strange thing - it still makes me cry at the sad bits!

Is this usual? Do you cry at your own writing (and I don't mean from a lamentable state!)?

18 comments:

catdownunder said...

I just want to change the sad bits to happy bits - but then there would be no tension and no story!

Lori said...

If you enjoy your own work, I think that is a good sign. I think that's how you know it's good work. I hate mine. I am unable to edit it because I hate to go through the thing again.

Rachel Fenton said...

They'd love you to write happy endings in Hollywood, Cat!


Lori, you are too hard on yourself!

I should have thought liking your own stuff would be the bad thing - the way you should worry when people tell you they think they're the only sane people!!

You have a keen critical eye - use it! If you don't like something you've written, write it different.

Everytime I revisit a piece, after a little break, I want to change it. I do feel that if something's too fresh (the pain of writing it too recent in memory) that I loathe trudging through the sludge of it. Usually a little breather's all that's needed to see it as a challende and opportunity for improvement rather than a chore.

Just ignore me and my stupid empathetic ramblings. I am a bore and know nothing.

But I believe in you and your writing. So there.

Going now. For hot milk and The Lacuna. Woohoo. I know how to have a good time.

Rachel Fenton said...

PS challende should obviously be challenge! It's been a long day...

Rachel Fox said...

I cry at my own words on a regular basis. Every now and then even manage to laugh at an own joke.
x

Kass said...

What a great sign that you can weep at your own stories. I have attended two screenwriting workshops and loved them. I have an unfinished 28-year-old screenplay that makes me cry too, but for different reasons.

Thomas Taylor said...

I like your ghost photo.

I think it's a very good sign to still be able to respond emotionally to your own writing, even after many reads. Of course, that's no guarantee that others will:-/

Anonymous said...

I cry, but perhaps that isn't a good sign!

Rachel Fenton said...

Rachel (t'other) - it's the laughing at my own jokes that's the worry for me...thanks.

Kass - Awe - now could be the time to sort that screenplay out - once and for all. Very intrigued. There's heaps of cool software now, too, to make the repetitive typing a thing of the past! Celtx is available online and is free.


Thomas - I think it's important to be able to step outside of any emotional pull and look at a piece of writing objectively. That's why second/beta readers are so valuable. Thanks

Rachel Fenton said...

Donna, I spent so long writing the comments to Rachel, Kass and Thomas (school run in between!) I missed yours there. Apologies!

I know what you mean - that's why
I wanted to ask!

Kass said...

Rachel - I have transferred my screenplay to Celtx, but have not clicked on the icon since. Maybe I've out-grown the story. It was written over years (in my mind) as an escape from my first marriage.

Rachel Fenton said...

We all write to fulfil different needs at different times.

Perhaps that screenplay has served its purpose, Kass, but don't let an experience that ends with a terminus be the termination of that creative outlet.

I'm outwardly optimistic that there is something salvageable from any experience/attempt. A few years and no doubt I'll have narrowed down my mediums, but for now I'm happy to try many different outlets - all at once if the mood takes me.

Also, I don't think a project has less importance to us if we are the only ones to see it. I just painted a picture of my legs/feet in the bath because I got the urge to paint and I really wanted to take a bath, so I did both! Doubt I'll ever show anyone that painting but it was still a valid expression of how I felt having my bath!

And no one's knocking down my door to take my novels off my hands either, so they're kind of for the audience in my head, too!

I wish you much creativity/enjoyment in whatever way you choose to express yourself.

Paul A Reeves said...

Hi. I get excited and sometimes find myself perched right on the edge of my seat when I'm writing, and although my main writing project is a surreal sitcom, there are some very emotional scenes, and some of my actors have felt themselves getting carried away.

It's amazing watching things you've written come to life.

I've just finsihed my first novel, and I always feel myself getting lifted away into the adventure, especially when reaching the ending which is quite rousing. I'm looking for a literary agent right now, and have no idea if it will get picked up, but I have loved every second of writing it.

Rachel Fenton said...

Paul, that's so brilliant to read! Phewsh!

Having people act out what you've written must be wonderful.

I am just enjoying the writing for now and only have a vague idea of what to do with my screenplay once it's written. It's a whole new thing but it's one which excites me.

With novels we get (almost) total autonomy but we never (hardly) get to know what others make of our work.

With a screenplay you get to see sother people's interpretation of your work and see it in ways you never envisaged - that's really interesting/appealing to me.

Thanks.

I hope you get representation soon! Very best of luck with your novel.

Group 8 said...

I've cried at the sad bits in my novel. TOTALLY normal :)

Rachel Fenton said...

I've cried at your novel, Nu!

Phewsh for self-sobbing though!

I was tempted to re-read the said sad bits until I become immune to their sadity!

Thanks for the reassurance there!

Ann Best said...

Crying is a good sign! That means you're really into the characters' lives.

I tried screenplay writing a few years ago. I recently had an urge to go back to the two ideas. One of them I paid a reader in L.A. to read; she gave me a superb critique.

I learned a lot about writing scenes as I tried to write these plays. That's what a good book is too: scene, scene, scene. And character. Action is character, character is action.

I'm really interested in knowing how yours turns out!!!
Ann

Rachel Fenton said...

Thanks for reading and commenting on this, Ann.

What's been interesting to me, as I've developed my interest in screenwriting, is that previously I had always watched films with primarily an interest in character and story. Now I am really tuned in to the framing, the cinematography as well as the character and story. I've always been interested in the visuals - an aside of painting, but I am really aware of using the whole visual to aid character and story and seeing stories more cleary as well as writing them for how they read and lift off the page...It's like I just got given a whole new tool kit!

Will keep you posted! Thanks.

I notice you have an interest in memoir and you might be interested to read Sixth in Line on my blogroll...and The K is never Silent.. :)