FireMonkey

OK I’ve just finished ScriptFrenzy 2008 (www.ScriptFrenzy.org), which I won, the target being to reach 100 pages – though I haven’t quite finished the script, and it will need editing… So far I think it’s pretty good. Maybe once I’ve finished it and edited it to a final draft, then I’ll submit it somewhere, try and sell it.

I haven’t decided on a final title for it – the working title is ‘Zombie Town’ – it’s about zombies in my home town of Nantwich, Cheshire, UK. It’s kind of black comedy horror – kind of like ‘Shaun of the Dead’.

I haven’t touched it for over a week now, ‘cos I needed to get back to some other things I’d been neglecting, but I will finish the first draft soon, as there’s probably only a few more scenes to do.

I haven’t been posting for a bit… anyway, I did hit the 50 hour target for NaNoEdMo, but I haven’t finished the editing process on my novel. It didn’t go very well, mostly because I didn’t know what I was doing, even though I read some of the advice on the NaNoEdMo site.

I will revisit it soon (next couple of months I think) and re-edit it – I think I over complicated things, and also tried to ‘polish’ it too soon (which was a waste of time at this stage)

So, there’s still a way to go before I can say I’ve written by best seller!

(April 08) Also did NaNoEdMo on my NaNoWriMo novel… the target for it is to do 50 hours of editing, and it was tough! I’ve never really edited before, and didn’t have much of a clue, even though I’d read some of their advice. So it didn’t go very well.

I decided it needed to be more complicated, having a second or third plot line, and scenes away from the main character. I’d just tagged this all on and it didn’t fit well. I think it was because I’d been reading Tom Clancy, who tends to jump from one location to another, bringing things together later on. I’m just not good enough yet to do that, so it proved counter productive. Later I checked a few of my favorite novels, and many of them are single point of view – no jumping from one location to another (without the main character) – e.g. Pride and Prejudice!

So i didn’t finish the editing process (yet) – I think I’ll get back to it in the next month or two and do another restructure, chopping out (most of) the jumping about, to re-simplify it. I actually liked it better when it was simple!

The other mistake I made was trying to ‘polish’ it to a final draft, when it was still at this early stage… which is mostly a waste of time.

Oh well, live and learn!