Lesson 2

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine Vessel’s Finished Act 1 First Draft

Doing this assignment, I learned that I can make things happen in a much shorter time using the High Speed Writing Rules.

The first draft is coming along. So far, so good.

[Jack Young]

Jack Young’s Finished Act 1 First Draft for “STREAM”

What I learned doing this assignment is that I could really make life miserable for my main character a lot more than I thought. Originally, in the act I I had planned, my character had a fairly boring life as a banker before the “other” world story kicked in. However, as I wrote the draft, I decided to kick it up in a variety of ways so that his life began falling apart much sooner and included much higher stakes. Hal said to make their life Hell, well I sure did and I think it will help to hook the audience in for the ride.

[George Petersen]

George Petersen – FINISHED ACT 1 FIRST DRAFT

What I learned doing this assignment is, well, for me, it comes down to criminalizing proof reading. If I can deny myself proofreading until the draft of the entire screenplay is completed, that helps a lot.

My other concern I came up against in this assignment is this: does someone have to die in order for it to be a good turning point?

I was watching Coda and I was wondering: this is a great script, but no one died at the end of Act 1. Where is the turning point? Is it when she joins the choir? I think so as it puts her on a path of conflict that doesn’t exist before she joins. But since no one dies in the turning point, does that make the script weaker? Interesting question.

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble Finished Act 1 First Draft

What I learned: writing at high speed is allowing me to catch up quickly in this class. I’m enjoying the process and learning to embrace it. My only frustrations are when I run out of time and have to abandon a section of the script without writing it — and just leave the outline segment in its place. This has happened several times now, but I’m confident that once I’m done the draft, I’ll be able to go back and write or repair those scenes quickly.