From Draft One On...

Two months ago I had accomplished something I had wanted to do my entire life.  I finished my "novel."  The manuscript for How I Broke Into Heaven came in at 220 pages and nearly 55,000 words.  The story felt strong in some places and weak in others.  I did not use an outline, hell most of the time I did not even know where the story was going.

It felt amazing, for about three minutes.  Then I realized that it had taken me about a year to finish the manuscript.

The writer I was at the beginning of the journey and the writer I grew to be were vastly different.  There were tonal differences throughout as my life went from good to great to bad to worse and back to good.

That said I still like the story that is buried in there deep beneath all the bullshit that lends itself to first drafts.  I also remind myself that the first draft may not be the end of it but it is the most important step.  You must sit down and write, if you want to be a writer.  Regardless, of the success or publication of this manuscript and the couple screenplays that preceded it, I can now honestly call myself a writer.  A good one?  Probably not yet.  But a writer nonetheless.

I promised myself eight weeks off to work on a screenplay but now am forced to delve back into How I Broke Into Heaven.

I have written second, third, fourth, fifth, drafts of screenplays but that is a different animal than a manuscript.

I suppose my game plan from here on out is something like this;

1) Re-read in entirety, take detailed notes, highlight thoughts I love, try to remain objective and dismiss material that doesn't lend itself to the story.

2) Re-write the entire novel from page one.  No copy and pasting, no transcribing long blocks of text from the finished manuscript.  Explore ideas that you like with an open mind.  Do not attach yourself to past thoughts.  Remind yourself to always serve the story.

3) Finish re-write in two months to try to keep quality of writing consistent throughout.  

4) The novel itself is the telling of two parallel stories.  I would like to try to make sure those two stories match thematically and tonally throughout.

5) Aim to be a more visual storyteller.

6) Be honest to yourself and to your story.

So on July 23rd, 2014 here we go.