Beating the board… and the clock

It’s an all-out war right now – and a race against the clock.

Have you ever had a creative idea that you planned to develop gradually… and then the opportune moment lands on the calendar much sooner than expected?

Suddenly the fun and games are over, and it’s GO TIME.

Well, that’s my screenwriting life right now – and I couldn’t be more excited.

In under three months, I will find myself at a convention where producers are hungry for fresh stories.

If I write and pitch mine well, they just might buy. A month ago, I had only a vague idea of two characters’ journey and a title. By the end of February, I need a semi-polished 110-page feature film script.

Am I overwhelmed?

A bit, yes.

But thankfully that’s mitigated by the resource all screenwriters know as “the Beat Board.”

If you study this thing, it will forever transform (spoil?) the way you watch movies.

Think of a mathematical formula that, if you input the correct coordinates, will always get you where you need to go. Not necessarily where you want to go, but where your story needs to go.

It’s Blake Snyder’s famous tool for hitting all the crucial plot and character points a viewer needs in order to enjoy and care about your movie. Thanks to Snyder’s book “Save the Cat!” I didn’t have to invent my own process for pulling together a tight plot and compelling journey. Of course, the characters and the actual plot are up to the writer, but the key moments and turning points are all laid out in this ingenious structure.

When I first started putting shape to my new feature script, I struggled because I didn’t know much about my characters.

I felt like I couldn’t start outlining their journey if I didn’t have their whole life story figured out. But thankfully, as I started filling out the scene index cards and taping them onto my white board, I began to understand who these people are and why they move from each place on the board to the next. It’s a mysterious discovery process, but an effective one – and an energizing one.

I won’t spill too much now, but for anyone with that insatiable curiosity that characterizes many of you, my literary friends… here is a foretaste of what is cooking.

A renowned sculptor is going blind. And he’s running out of time to finish his magnum opus.

Meanwhile, as of today, an emerging screenwriter (that’s me) is typing the words “Act Two” at the top of page 26. One act down, two to go!