Nicholas Thurkettle

I have made small-but-tangible progress on one screenplay for four consecutive days – this has produced eight new pages of material and boosted me over the transition from the beginning into the body of the story. I even had one of those mini-breakthroughs I enjoy so much, where an annoying logical question for which I kept trying to produce contorted solutions proved to be the thread that, once tugged, unraveled a bad scene I had been clinging to and revealed the much better scene hiding behind it. That scene is not even going to happen for 20-ish pages, but I’m looking forward to writing it now.

That’s a decent result, but at least on this specific script it’s probably going to slow down for the moment – I’ve reached one of the major sequences of the movie and so I’m going to have to step back from the keyboard and spend a little time with the legal pad plotting and outlining what has to get done in the next 8-10 pages, and how to get it done in a way that feels entertaining and organic.

I also spent a little time in that highly-personal script on which I work sporadically. I read through the accumulated pages the other night and surprised myself, because I forgot I had written “GOD THIS SCENE IS BORING” on top of an exposition-heavy dialogue in a cafe that I really ought to just torch. I also caught myself trying to write a Meet Cute (Screenwriting Lingo Translation: A charming or funny moment contrived to introduce two characters to each other that are destined to bond with one another somehow. Most often used in romantic comedies.) I’m getting rid of it. This script is not the place for Meet Cutes.

Actually, all this screenwriting, and that short story I finished last week, is just me taking time off from the novel. I’m going to have to transition back into that so I can finish the next chapter and trigger that payment I’ve got coming – I’m also meeting with my collaborator/patron next week, so the more work I can show, the better.

My bold experiment with not outlining on The Ghost Light has so far produced only 13 pages – which is far from nothing but only barely something, by my reckoning. I set it aside to finish a chapter of the novel and probably won’t come back to it until after I have finished enough chapters to trigger another payment. That story has waited a long time to be told; it can wait a little longer.

I’ve been working on a different screenplay for the last couple of evenings; one that Adam and I started as another collaboration awhile back before we ran aground at page 29. It’s not that we didn’t know what was going to happen – most of the story is outlined – we just didn’t have the same mutual fire under us that created the Football Script. It’s a fun idea, plays to our strengths, and very commercial – every industry person to whom we’ve told the idea thinks so – but when you’ve only got the last bit to motivate you, that is rarely enough; and we each had other projects that felt more creatively enticing. For these interim days, suddenly I’m finding pages for this one – we’ll have to see if he thinks they’re up to snuff.

But this is why it’s valuable to keep these half-projects at hand, along with all the notes and outlines. When you’re in a mood to write and your first-position project just isn’t moving your fingers, it doesn’t take long to get yourself back into the groove of something else. And the results can surprise. The other night I was reviewing my notes for a short story idea from three years ago, then I blinked and realized I’d typed 200 words. Again, that’s only barely something, but compared to the nights when it feels like you can’t find a single good sentence hiding anywhere in your brain, it’s an enjoyable feeling.