Thursday, April 17, 2008

(K)nightmarish Lessons 2: The Sequel

Got those wonderful, pithy notes back from Gregg and as usual his voice of experience cut through the din and got right to the pulp of the matter:

1. I am a visual writer. That doesn't always work in a frikkin audio adventure!!! Have to rethink my "tried and true."

2. It's not the writing it's the rewriting.

3. I am used to The three tier story: A plot, B plot and C plot that are all intertwined somehow. Will probably have to cut that to an A and B plot format. Yank the story elements out that absolutely need telling and hose off the excess. Shake and towel off.

4. I came in heavy - at 45 pages - but the show is only supposed to be 1/2 hour. I have to up the momentum.

3 comments:

Kevin said...

Which would you say is the more difficult part of the rewriting - going from a three-tier format to a two-tier, or the ramping up of the momentum?

A better question: will taking care of one automatically accomplish the other?

Cunningham said...

I am finding the momentum to be easier and IS addressing SOME of the problems I have with a 3-tier story. However, trimming the fat (upping the momentum) isn't going to "cure" some of the problems and I'm going to have to condense or eliminate (though that's a last resort) one of the subplots.

It's a process.

Cunningham said...

Further to my previous comment:

The problem is that I structured the story so the A,B,C plots are Soooo intertwined and the characters feelings and dilemmas are integral to their portion of the plot.

(Boy - I'm making this sound like a drama, but really it's an adventure tale)

It's like a Jenga game - if you remove one of the pieces, then you have to rearrange the others so it doesn't topple.

Character and plot are always intertwined - so much so, that you can get away with saying "character is plot." How people react and what they do (plot) is directly related to who they are (character).

Again, it's part of the process.