Story Story Story

It’s funny, though I suppose not surprising, how some people react to the “Jordan Gets All Trav’s Money, Trav Dies Penniless and Alone Plan”. For every person who tells me they think it’s a good way to keep motivated, I get people who think it’s just bizarre. I have a buddy who was kidding around with me, saying “Dude, if you miss every milestone, that’s TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!” Haha... My reply was, that’s obviously not sustainable. I have nowhere close to that kind of money!

But, the point is that I’m working hard to not have to pay ANY money. And so far it’s seeming to work. It’s definitely a wackadoo idea, and I can see why some people give me a bit of grief about it (all good-natured, of course).

Anyway, last week I pitched to Lyla the story for book one. Sitting down at the corkboard outline, I ran through the whole book rapid-fire, explaining each major beat. It felt like I was at an animation studio, pitching storyboards, and it was really fun. I was happy to find that she felt it was a pretty strong start. She pointed out a few elements that needed clarification, or felt lacking in some way, and I took them and started making edits, additions, and cuts. I think the outline is more solid for it, and armed with a more solid outline which I created in Google Docs, I started writing the script for Book 1.

So, as of now I’m in the middle of the first draft, and I’ve been pretty good about keeping up with it. At times it’s a bit daunting, and at times I find it hard to get motivated to sit down at the computer and type, but mostly it’s been a total blast. As the story comes together, I’ve been often pleasantly surprised at how much I like it. That doesn’t mean it’s actually that good yet, but I have confidence that it’ll get “good enough” (as opposed to “perfect”)...

The characters and their voices are taking shape. The story elements are finding what they need, be it drama, emotion, humor, action, romance. I’m striving to include all of them. I’m also referencing a book as recommended on Jason Brubaker’s excellent Remind Blog called Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald. It’s a really straightforward, easy to understand look at what makes successful stories. It includes a lot of fun examples from the world of both screenplays and comic scripts, and thankfully doesn’t reference Citizen Kane or Chinatown anywhere in the book, but instead includes fun ones like Raiders of the Lost Ark. That’s a lot more my speed, and I appreciate the author’s perspective.

So, that’s where I’m at this week- story story story! I expect to be done with the first draft at the end of this week... Then it’s time for revisions... More next time!