Plans and Outlines

If this were NaNoWriMo I would have pages upon pages of back story, character development, and outlines already prepared, but my decision to participate in NaPoWriMo and Script Frenzy were both relatively last minute, and neither genre is really a strong suit for me. Don't get me wrong, I am not going to rush blindly into April, I still have a week plus a day, and I am an experienced procrastinator, but I think my time will be spent more on mental preparation than actual plot development.

My first and main concern is for Script Frenzy. Not that I view that as the more important writing challenge, but just for the fact that I have written poetry and have not written scripts before, SF is a bit more difficult for me. I felt a little stupid last night after spending a good while ruling out potential plots because it would be too difficult to reenact on stage, just to remember that script writing constituted television shows and movies as well as stage productions. Today, I have been focusing on learning how to format a screenplay and at the recommendation of the official ScriptFrenzy website, I started using a program named Celtx.

Celtx is free and has a desktop application available for Mac and Windows, as well as a web based cloud service. So far I have only played with the web based service, so I can do some writing at work on my lunch break, and continue at home without any difficulty. There is also a PRO version of the software, as well as Android and iOS apps for a small cost, but in my current situation none of those seem prudent. The great thing with Celtx is that it basically handles the formatting for you. Sluglines, actions, characters, dialog, all handled with minimal effort from the user. Definitely a godsend, allowing me to worry more about writing and less about formatting.

On the plot side of things, I am still struggling. One idea I had for my script project was sort of a real person in a video game story. There was a Scooby Doo movie that did something similar, or the relatively recent movie Gamer, or even, in a certain sense, Scott Pilgram. If I go this route I would probably place the character in a MMORPG, with all the user interactions that go with that. Some things will be different since the character would be in the game, not just playing it, but things like resurrecting after death, talking to other characters (but not in the world wide chat) and allocating skill points would all be present. Not 100% on how I feel about that story line, but it is a possibility.

For the poetry challenge, I still like my idea of an epic poem, and actually had a couple of ideas. One that I am toying with would be told from the point of view of a prophet, medieval style scenery. The first and thirtieth poems would be in a first person perspective, the prophet talking about himself and what he does. Poems 2-29 would likely be third person, each poem referencing a specific prophecy that is foretold. Some specific ideas, since it would be medieval in nature include prophecies of the King, the Queen, the Prince, the Blacksmith, the Knight, etc. Still working on the full 28 character list, and still deciding if I really want to go forward with that idea.