One of the reasons this blog has been so dead recently is that I’ve been spending all of my available time working on the second draft of my third screenplay.

A fantasy/horror, I’m really excited about this one. It’s written so that I can shoot it with an incredibly small budget if I can’t find funding for it.

My normal process in writing a screenplay (and normal is a weird word, because this is just my third so I’m still feeling things out here) is to first write a one paragraph idea, then a 1 page synopsis, a detailed treatment (outline), and finally a “muscle draft”. If you’re not familiar with the concept of a muscle draft, I’ve referred to it as a SFD (Shitty First Draft) on this blog before, but in order to refer to the concept in polite company, I’ve borrowed Darren Aronofsky’s term for it.

In the muscle draft, you’re going for quantity over quality… things will chance as you go along, and you’ll long to go back and revise, but you can’t. Neither can you edit your prose, or do anything besides plowing through. It’s painful for perfectionists like me, but the idea is that, at the end of the process you have a complete screenplay to work with.

I’m at that point right now. I think the concept will blow people’s minds, but the second draft is definitely going to focus on character development, and plot holes–and also going over the prose until it sings.

It is certainly a relief to finally allow myself to write well. It’s like going from a factory to a studio. I’ve been the button pusher, and the chance to finally be an artist again is music for the soul.