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Well today was the day I was supposed to get some notes from Wendall Thomas on my second draft of my LA Features script, and sure enough when I woke up this morning there was a 12 page set of notes from Wendall waiting for me in my inbox.

It’s full of loads of things I need to change, but in a way it was a kinda positive thing to read because her list of problems are for the most part ones I am all too aware of; things that I felt needed changing anyways or all the bits I knew I was kinda fudging and hoping no one will notice. It’s nice to know you aren’t way off the mark in your own personal judgement.

Of course knowing where the problems are and knowing how to fix those problems are two different things and that’s where Wendall is going to be invaluable to me. Some of these problems have been in the screenplay since day one and I’ve yet to find solutions for them, but already just reading the notes has given me a bunch of ideas for things I’ve never thought of before but which might well be the answer to all my problems.

I could go through all the other major points of interest like how my character’s aren’t flawed enough, how I need more conflict in the end of the script and much more, but I’m not sure exactly how much use that will be to anyone, or if anyone even cares. But I guess if I stumble upon some major discovery like I feel I’ve worked out the secret of how to write flawed characters or something then I guess I’ll write a blog entry about it.

One note I do wanna mention though, because it’s a bit more general about me as a writer rather than the specific script, was her comment that my writing style is too dense.

I had already suspected that my writing style was perhaps a bit too dense with me writing very detailed descriptions when it wasn’t always needed, which is why I decided this year I’m gunna make a concerted effort to read more screenplays and get a better sense of economy in my description. (As mentioned in my new year resolutions.) It’s nice to finally know one way or the other if I’m worrying over nothing or as I suspected it’s something that I need to address in order to work in the LA industry.

I’ve now got 42 days or 6 weeks until I need to hand in the 3rd draft, so I guess from today I need to stop working on my horror film and get back to work on my LA Features romcom.

I’m pretty pleased with my horror film so far, but there’s a long way to go with it yet. The bit I’m struggling with at the moment are the specifics. Like it’s easy to say “right at this point I want her to be chased by the killer”, but to actually fill in the specifics of that is very hard. It’s such a set piece kind of a moment that you’ve really gotta think moment by moment what is gunna happen and how that can be original and engaging.

I think I’m gunna stop worrying about it so much and just put something down even if it sucks. Writing is rewriting after all.