Making progress

My favorite: the breakfast of champions.

I have written 36 pages of my screenplay.  It is flabby and wordy and will need to be screwed down some, but my goal at the moment is just to finish it.  Then, the hard work begins.  I have been planning the story as I go along.  I have used Blake Snyder's beat sheets to plot out the major parts of the story and then I've been going back and planning out the scenes in between the big plot points.  So I know how my story is going to end.  I know where act 1, the midpoint, the end of act 2, all are.  I plan out a few scenes and then I write them.  Then, I plan more and write more.  I actually have ever scene through the first 60 pages pretty well plotted out.  I am finding some strong advantages to doing the screenplay the way I am.  I have the overall structure, but I still have enough room for surprises and twists along the way.  I feel like a dog put on a long lead chain.  I have lots of room to run, but I don't run so far that I destroy the unity of the screenplay.  I recommend Snyder's book, "Save the Cat."  There is also software of the same name which isn't too expensive, but I can't say much about it because I've not bought it.  Another good book is "How to Write a Movie in 21 Days."

The exciting thing is that I am sure that I can use the same structure when I write young adult and middle grade novels.  This screenplay is eventually going to be a book.  In fact, I started to write the screenplay as a way of organizing and planning the novel -- to make it lean and powerful so to speak, but I think now the screenplay will be good enough to submit on its own.  Even if no one buys it, that's okay with me.  I have truly enjoyed writing it.  It's been a while since I could say that.  I have been putting too much pressure on myself to please others that I forgot that I had to write something to please myself.

In other news, both of my night classes have now met once.  Tonight's class seemed a little quiet, but I feel they may eventually come out of that.  I know several people in my other night class who should make that a fun class to teach.  So far this semester, I have been keeping myself organized with my classes at North County.  I sort of had that as a resolution.

Tomorrow is our first weigh in for the Biggest Loser at the high school.  I'm going to try it.  I need to drop about 30 pounds and I might as well start.  I ate a lot tonight, and I'm going to give myself an unusual breakfast treat tomorrow by making Toaster Strudels, my favorite.  Usually, I reserve them for the weekend, but tomorrow is going to be my last day before I start trying to watch what I eat.

That's all the news that's fit to print.

It's one hour and fifty one minutes away from Friday, at least here in Missouri.