Lesson 3

[Madeleine Vessel]

Madeleine Vessel’s Finished Act 2

Doing this assignment, I learned how to speed up my writing. I did find myself doing quite a lot of editing, though, because I had already written many of the scenes previously.

Rating My Use of the High Speed Writing Rules

A. Consistently use.

B. Some use.

C. Need to start using.

Rated C: Rule 1: Use empowering self-talk. Cheer yourself on.

Rated A: Rule 2: Understand writing in drafts.

Rated B: Rule 3: Choose speed over quality for EARLY drafts.

Rated B: Rule 4: Allow yourself to start (or continue) without all the answers.

Rated B: Rule 5: Keep moving. Don’t allow yourself to ever stall out.

Rated B: Rule 6: Even if you can’t create it now, you will be able to at some point in the future.

[Jack Young]

Jack Young’s Finished Act 2 for “STREAM”

What I learned doing this assignment is that outlines are effective tools for writing. It isn’t so daunting when you at least have your acts and scenes outlined. I can really make some time using this method. I already had developed a method for writing fast and even had authored a book on it, “How to Write a Screenplay in 3 Days: The Marathon Method” (Available on Amazon), and had used the method to write 14 screenplays in one year (While holding down a full time job and raising a family).

[George Petersen]

George Petersen – FINISHED ACT 2

What I learned doing this assignment is how important it is not to judge yourself when diving into the first draft.

A. Consistently use.

B. Some use.

C. Need to start using.

Rule 1: Use empowering self talk. Cheer yourself on. – B

Rule 2: Understand writing in drafts. – A

Rule 3: Choose speed over quality for EARLY drafts. – A

Rule 4: Allow yourself to start (or continue) without all the answers. – A

Rule 5: Keep moving. Don’t allow yourself to ever stall out. – A

Rule 6: Even if you can’t create it now, you will be able to at some point in the future! – B

I found it very liberating to set as my goal to write the worst possible draft of Act 2 that I could possibly write.

Whenever a scene wasn’t coming together, I’d just have to ask myself: there must be a way to make this scene worse than it is? And that would keep me going.

[Eric Humble]

Eric Humble Finished Act 2

What I learned: I’ve been using the high speed rules more or less consistently, although I find I’ve been falling into the trap of stopping to think of words/phrases, and padding the scenes with dialogue that has run on a bit too long. So I need to concentrate more on speed and delivering exactly what’s in the outline rather than digressing. That said, I’m moving pretty quickly through the draft, leaving a number of scenes unwritten if I don’t get an immediate feel for them, and whatever ones I skip I’ve decided to leave for the very end, or possibly even for the rewrite, since I’ll have a better idea of how or if they’ll be used at that point.