WTF is my script about!?

As I write this (earlier in the week) I’m still working on my new 1 hour drama pilot.  On my new blog schedule, I’ve reserved Fridays to talk about my own writing, so here I go.  Let’s see...I’m on page 51, which probably sounds like I’m close to finishing, but I’ve got over an act still to write so a major blood letting will happen once I’m done.  I see myself having to cut down several scenes I like, and just plain cutting a bunch of stuff I outlined…no wonder I've been procrastinating this!  

But, cutting down is nothing new for me.  If you can’t tell from the blog, I tend to be long winded when I don’t have a page limit to hold me back.  I’m used to deleting my precious words (or cutting and pasting them to use another time).  It’s amazing what setting something aside for a week will do.  I might think I can’t live without a scene now, but next week I’ll be brutal and say: “Wow, what was I thinking?  DELETE!”  I think the biggest changes will have to come in my first act.  Of course, trying to put all my puzzle pieces together just how I want is taking more space than I want.  Right now, my first act is 22 pages, which wouldn’t be so bad if my show only had four acts, but it has five (plus a teaser) so that’s too much...especially since I’m just a baby writer.  I’ve seen a lot of pro pilots around 60-65 pages, but I figure for a baby, a little shorter is always better.

Anyway, yeah that’s where I am, but I’d be making no progress if I hadn’t outlined the episode before I started writing.  That leads me to a short but amusing article I read on Lifehacker.  Outlining/making a beat sheet/breaking your episode/writing a logline...all that sort of groundwork is ESSENTIAL (I think) to a writer (especially a baby writer), but I know a lot of people don't enjoy it.  I know people who feel like they’re dumbing down their complex ideas when they create a logline, or that they’re sapping their creativity by tying themselves down with an outline...for me, I sometimes think I just suck at it (especially loglines).  So,  if you want to make the process more fun, read the article.  It basically says that asking yourself short, profane, and confrontational questions about your work can elicit shorter/focused and more convincing answers.  I think that’s just the type of useful feedback you need, whether you’re in the early outlining stages, or are pitching your finished script to someone.  So try it, ask yourself: “WTF is my script about!!!???” and see what you get.