My Ideas: I Wrote a Screenplay! Damnit!

Those who have been paying attention to my blogs will probably guess what this one is about. For much of the last month, I wrote a screenplay in some of my free time. The goal revolved around ScriptFrenzy, a Nanowrimo variant for just this sort of thing. The goal was to write 100 pages in 30 days. And I succeeded! Well, sort of.

Okay, here's what ended up happening. I did write over 100 pages in 30 days! Unfortunately, I didn't remember to actually update it until after midnight, central time. So officially, I didn't win. But that's okay! I did write the 100 pages required. More importantly, I did finish the story itself, as of....

Now! For the record, that's about three hours after the last line here was written. I've been busy. However, it's over! I wrote a screenplay! More importantly, this was notable for being the single least planned, prepared, or conceived of writing I ever made. I changed my entire plan a day before the actual ScriptFrenzy began, had nothing but a setting and skeletal outline to start with, made of major characters on the spot, killed off the original male lead a quarter of the way in, and had no idea what the ending was until I wrote it. It was the most hectic writing I've ever done, but I succeeded.

So why do I feel unsatisfied? Well, for one thing, I think it has to do with the way the rest of this month felt. I was busy, depressed at work, depressed about life and financial issues, and this felt like an add-on to that; more a distraction than a creation. More importantly, though, it was too easy. Despite all the challenges mentioned above and the total lack of preparation, I beat the challenge's requirements with ease. Granted, 100 pages is much easier than Nanowrimo, but still, shouldn't I have felt some struggle with this? Now I know I can write pretty much anything required of me in a matter of a week or two (if motivated and other jobs were not problems, obviously,) but what's next? What's left to do?

So the thing feels a little empty. The story needs revision, sure, but it's not bad. It has a good narrative line, interesting characters, references to past moments in the ending, growth, death, revelations, the whole shebang. But the ending is a total sequel ending copout, mostly because I couldn't find a way to resolve the big questions of the script in the allotted space and story arc, and the whole thing felt rushed, as if it was the movie adaptation of a season or two of a television show. There are no links to the story of my other ideas, a rare thing indeed, though such a thing can still come to pass.

Nonetheless, I'm happy with it in general. Since the requirement was 100+ pages and my investment rule limits things I made under 100 pages, I obviously can't give away everything, but I'll summarize the concept. The entire script takes place inside a machine of massive proportions, so big in fact that a tribe of semi-nomadic primitives live inside one single component of it and are unaware anything else exists! They worship the machine collectively and live by making sacrifices, receiving "blessings" in the form of garbage ejected from a pneumatic tube. Despite this, they survive relatively well, but when a disaster strikes the village, some of its surviving members of the younger generation leave, seeking resolution, restoration of a loved ones' good name, or more selfish desires. They soon learn truths about the place, including the discovery of a city that produces the garbage they have been consuming. Anyone willing to sift through 100 pages of this thing and give me revision notes is welcome to do so.