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BLOG POSTSWEEK ONE: BRAINSTORMING
This week I started the brainstorming process for my screenplay. I started developing the characters and the setting of the story. I also created my account for writer duet and figured out the flow of the script I wanted. The main character is Tara she is a smart student a senior in high school. Many think that she know-it-all she doesn’t have fun and only cares about getting into a good college. Jesse is a bad boy who doesn't care about school and just likes to party. Tara finds out some news about so called dead dad and wants to set out on a adventure to go find him. Jesse plans to go on a road trip to get away from his family. They end up going together, but have a hard time getting along. As they spend time trying to find her dad their relationship grows. The story is set in Virginia in 1989 and they go to New York City in search for Tara’s dad. After brainstorming I started to outline the story a development the story line and figure out a beginning, middle, and end. I'm ahead of my original plan I was going to spend the first week just brainstorming but I already have the entirety of the story figured out. Which means I will have more time to edit and revise it in the end. I am very happy with my developed story so far I think I can take the idea a create a screenplay out of it. I feel that one of the hardest struggles I will have is creating it to seem like it is based in the 1980s. I will have to make sure that every little detail is matched up to that time period. Another struggle is going to be making sure there is no holes in the story that everything makes chronological sense. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEEK TWO: Starting the writing process This week I started writing my screenplay. I wrote a total of 6 scenes. The process was pretty easy as I started writing. The difference between writing a regular novel and a screenplay is in between the dialogue you have to put the actors movements or transitions. This part might be difficult because not only are you trying to tell a story you are creating screen movement. As the process progressing I will plan to do about 10-15 scenes a week. This week was a little longer just because I was starting the program and the writing. One strategy I’m trying to use Is picturing this as a real movie and decide if I would want to watch something like this. At the end of this week I will send a copy of what I have so far to my mentor and get her thoughts. Doing this I will know if the story is making sense and if it is good. I will plan to send a copy every 1-2 weeks and get her opinion and keep me on track. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEEK THREE: Writing This week I was just writing which it is going to be like that several weeks. I starting getting into the development of the plot more and the characters development. As I am writing I am making sure that there is no plot holes in the story and it all makes since. Since it is mostly dialogue that is what makes the story the plot is shown by the action of the characters. As I am writing for the main character I am trying to development a teenager who is ready to grow up and cares about her studies which is different from the secondary character Jesse. He is a rebellious teen who acts out because of his family life. His parents got divorced at a young age and he took it bad. This really shows throw his character he is the typical jock and Tara the main character is the nerdy innocent nice girl. One thing that I am trying to stay away from is being cliche. When I am watching movies I either love or hate the cliques and with my movie I want it to be unique and different. With the character choices I picked it’s pretty easy to be clique the jock is going to fall for the nerdy girl. In my movie I want it not only to be about growing up but finding yourself and being the best you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEEK FOUR: Writing This week I continued writing again, this week I started to development the story line even more. Next week the setting of the story will change into New York City as Tara and Jesse adventure into the city to find out the truth about her family. This week the characters personality started to develop even more. Even the secondary characters like Tara’s mom even though see isn’t a main character it is important to see the way she acts in reflection to Tara’s personality. Since Tara always followed rules and was a very good kid I her to develop into a brave young women. And rebelling is sometimes not a bad thing. As she surrounds herself with Jesse a bad boy he will rub off on her to influence her to let loose. Another big part in the story is the relationship between Tara and Jesse they start of hating each other they grew up beside each other for years. As they run off to New York at first they weren't happy about the arrangement they are in, but as they start spending time together in New York trying to find her father their relationship grows. At first Tara tries to hide he feelings until Jesse makes it clear he feels the same way. My goal for next week is to get at least six scenes in since is part of the story is bigger and involves most of the action it will take more time to develop. As the story transitions into New York I will have to stop and outline the story more. I found it beneficial to take the story piece by piece. I feel that I will figure out things as I go. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WEEK FIVE: MORE WRITING
As I continued writing this week I started to have a writer's block. When I begin writing the scene when Tara finds out that here dad is still alive I had trouble writing her reaction. I tried pretending it was me finding out the news which it made it easier to write. One reason I love to write in the first place is because I like to imagine the story in my head. And its gives me control of the whole story. When writing this story I’m planning on using New York as a main setting, I love New York and have been my times. I want to use my experience I had there in my writing, which I think will help the setting of the story. When writing this screenplay sometimes I try to write it like a novel which is what I am used to. In my opinion this screenplay is harder to write then a novel. With a screenplay you have to show emotion through dialogue which is hard because with a novel you just write it out. But as I continue I hope to just the hang of it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEEK SIX: Outlining This week I took a break from writing and I decided to outline and brainstorm the ending. I did this so the whole story leads up to the ending. So far I have the ending I want but it may change. As I continue the story I might want to make few changes. In books that I read and movies that I watch a main characteristic that makes it good is the ending. If a movie is great until the ending you are not going to remember the good throughout the movie you are going to remember the bad, given if it was the last 5 minutes of the movie. The more I was think about that I decided to base the whole story around the ending, and maybe even skipping and writing the ending before I finish the middle. One thing I am going to start doing is watching more videos on writing screen plays. When I started I thought It wouldn’t be that hard but as I keep writing the harder it’s getting. My problem is I can’t come up with good enough dialogue. And watching the videos should help me use the dialogue and stage movements to show the emotions of the characters. After a week of brainstorming I hope to continue writing next week. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEEK 7:
This week I continued my writing I started to skip around on scenes just because I got stuck with a couple of them. I am on page 20. I am happy with my progress since I have never done anything like this before. I am happy I picked a project I actually enjoy. I enjoy getting some coffe and grabbing my laptop and writing. I think that when I finish the project I will continue writing maybe not a screen play but a novel. The next couple of weeks I will have to buckle down to get this finished I have a lot of ideas I want to incorporate into the screenplay but I don’t know if I will have the time. My goal is to finish it completely which is broad because I don’t how many pages that will be. I also have to plan on time to revise and edit if needed. My goal by next week is to get 10 more pages. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEEK 8 This week I got pretty far in my story. skipping around the scenes is actually helping me because right when I have an idea I go to that scene. I just have to go back and piece everything back together. The more and more that I write I realize how strategic and complicating it is to create a screenplay. 12 weeks is a short time to write a whole one especially if you want to to be good. So after the 12 weeks I will continue making this better and better. Writing this week I really got into the two main characters relationship and how it advancing over the story. At first they are neighbors that can't stand each other but after everything they go through trying to find her dad they grow a strong bond. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- week 9 This week I continues to write more and more scenes. Whenever I would get writers block I would go back to previous scenes and start to revise them. This helped because It will save me time in the end. I am really happy with how I is coming along, and I am very excited to show my classmates the progress I have made in such a short time period. Starting from the very beginning with no idea and working my way up I have really suprised myself. The next final weeks I will continue writing as usual but I will also start to but together a slideshow presentation to show my classmates my end result. My plan is to explain the process as a whole then share a few scenes from the script. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Week 10 This week I continued writing. I am trying to get to a stoping point so I can start to revise. Although I will not be able to finish the story completely by the dateline, I hope to revise it well. As I begin to put together a presentation, I will be picking a few scenes from the script to share. I am planning on putting together a blurb about the script and just a little bit about so they aren't lost. I have two weeks left so I have to plan to work everyday to try to piece the project together. Throughout the time period of me working, I worked about 4-5 days a week on the script which I think that with my busy schedule is very good. I am happy with my progress and plan to do more projects like this again in the future. —————————————————-- week 11
This week I continued wrapping up my writing and revising it. I decided not to write anymore and just focus on what I had and make it really good. I started to put my presentation slide together I am using google slides. I began my just describing my project, then explaining what my screen play is about. After that I included a few of the scenes from the script. And lastly how everything went and if I reached my goal. The revising process isn’t bad it just takes time because I might read over something and end up hating the whole scene and have to redo it. I am glad that I did work in time to revise the scenes, I believe that it is a very crucial step in the process of any writing. Double-tap to edit.
Week 12
This week I mostly worked on the presentation part of the project. I want the presentation to be engaging but it is hard with the project I am doing. I will mostly be explaining my progress and reading some of the script. Overall I found that the project wend well, I enjoyed taking time to myself and just writing. It really made me enjoy it. For school I have to write lots of papers and essays, but this was a fun way to change it up and write for fun. Writing this has made me want to try and write more after I finish this I am going to write a short novel. I enjoy projects like this because you take something that is new or you have interest in and you create a goal for yourself. I have realized I need to do more things like this in my daily life and not just for a school project. |