Second Step
Yesh! The second draft is done.
About 5-6 months behind schedule. *gulp* I think I grossly underestimated how long things would take. This new schedule should be a bit more accurate. Three years sounds about right, right? I’m just gonna focus on the next step and fill in the dates as I go…for now.
So why did the 2nd draft take so long? Besides the amount of revisions, I hit a couple roadblocks that killed the momentum I was building. One was around June when work got intense for a month or so. Then in August I had a week off and was making good progress— until I hit this one scene. It needed to be completely re-imagined and my revision notes for it were pretty much “this needs to be fixed, here’s a bunch of possibilities, so fix it”. Also, the outcome would affect the scenes that followed, so I couldn’t skip past it. After running away scared and banging my head against the wall, I made it through and finished off the rest this past week.
Coming in at 99 pages, I’m feeling pretty confident with it. Compared to the 1st draft, which was 86 pages, this one is more fleshed out, flows better, and is much clearer. Here’s what’s next:
The third draft. This will be more of a polish than a complete re-write*, so it shouldn’t take as long (I hope). I’ve marked a bunch of scenes that need a little more tweaking, and there are few new revisions that came up that still need to be addressed. After that, I’ll do a dialogue pass to make sure everything sounds okay. Then I’ll put it away for a bit and re-read later to assess the whole. THEN it should be ready for thumbnails, which I’m sure will bring out any remaining dialogue and story issues.
Alright, let’s go!
*this advice worked wonders, but probably isn’t necessary for my 3rd draft
One & Half Step
Quick update since I’m past the first due date. Currently 77% done the first re-write. Aiming to finish by the end of month. Gotta push it!
Talk more soon-ish.
On Your Mark
This whole thing started when I finished the first draft of a story back in 2012. I pulled out the script a few months ago on a whim. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting it to be. There were definitely some parts that needed fixing, but overall it seemed to be working. There was one problem though. I wrote it imagining a live-action film. Unfortunately, there’s no way it could be made without heavy CGI and visual effects. I doubt anyone would be interested in putting up the budget for it either. What’s funny is that when I first came up with the idea I pictured it as a comic or a book. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a comic might be the best way to go. I’ve been wanting to make one for a long while and now I have the excuse to do it. So! Here I am, documenting my progress (or failure) online. It’s going to be a tonne of work, but I’m up for the challenge.