Thirty_days_to_write's Xanga

I DID IT!!!

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:04:42 GMT

Not only did I complete the challenge (220 pages, OWC), but I finished the script! Yeah, I was up until midnight last night doing it, but...it's done!!! With a week to go, no less.

I've NEVER finished something like this before.

Okay. Obviously, next step is to upload script to Interwebs. I have now done so.

Click here to read. It's a PDF, so you have to be able to read PDFs to get it.

I'm pleased with how it turned out, actually.

Executive Decisions

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:45:37 GMT

I've been doing a lot of editing of "God Bless the Broken Road" when adapting it. I cut Bill out of a couple of scenes where he had no reason to be there...I'm gonna kind of change at least one Order meeting to just the people discussing it...and I'm substituting Ginny for Ron in a scene that was originally intended to have shippy undertones. There's a Death Eater named Olivia Benson...originally she was the SVU detective, but I think that it's just the name that's gonna be the same now. I think I'm gonna edit the Halloween scene into a music montage that kind of mushes October and November together.

I'm at 108 pages and counting. GLEE!!!

Soundtrack

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:21:12 GMT

Obviously I have too much time on my hands, but really, with play practice not until 6 and no classes today, what else was I going to do? Besides, I have thirty-six pages written so far, which puts me well ahead of schedule, and I thought I'd share the soundtrack with you.

1. Hedwig's Theme
2. Wind that Shakes the Corn [Lily's Theme] *
3. Skye Boat Song [Graveyard Theme]
4. Durham Rangers
5. Let It Be *
6. Traditional Irish Suite 1 [The Weasleys' Theme]
7. Piper's Dance [The Detectives' Theme]
8. Do You Believe In Magic
9. Bonnie Jean o' Aberdeen [Becca's Theme]
10. Dark Isle [The Death Eaters' Theme]
11. Scotland The Brave [Severus's Theme]
12. Say, Say, Oh Playmate [Caroline's Theme]
13. Londonderry Air [The Order's Theme]
14. Rhymes and Reasons **
15. Peace Carol ***
16. Muffin Man **
17. Bicycle Built for Two +
18. Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonny Doon
19. Welcome Christmas
20. Noel: Christmas 1913 ++
21. When the River Meets the Sea +++
22. Christmas Tree Medley (Alfie the Christmas Tree/Carol to a Christmas Tree/It's In Every One of Us) ^
23. Kitty's Gone A-Milkin'
24. Little Bird, Little Bird **
25. Dubbing, The (Knight Of The Woeful Countenance) ^^
26. Long-Legged Life/A Sailor Went to Sea, Sea, Sea >
27. Annie Laurie [Regulus's Theme]
28. Scarce O'Tatties
29. Invernia [Voldemort's Theme/Harry's Death]
30. Riverdance [Harry's Resurrection]
31. Perhaps Love <
32. Dela (I Know Why the Dog Howls at the Moon) *
33. Bless The Broken Road *

* = Sung by the original artist
** = Sung by James
*** = Sung by James and Remus
+ = Sung by Young James and Young Lily
++ = Sung by James and Harry
+++ = Sung by James, Harry, and Remus
^ = Sung by Ensemble
^^ = Sung by James, Becca, and Remus
> = Sung by Hermione and Ginny
< = Sung by James and Becca

All instrumentals (ones that don't have a symbol next to them) are Irish folk songs played by the 101 Strings Orchestra except for Hedwig's Theme, which is by John Williams and played by whatever band made the demo CD to accompany my flute book.

Anyone interested in a copy of the soundtrack, I can make it for you.

Day 2

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:45:48 GMT

I didn't write quite as much today as I had thought I would...only seven pages, compared to a total of eleven yesterday. But all in all, I'm pleased. I'm five days ahead of schedule.

Scene I is kind of an introductory scene. Scene II has a lot of action in it. Scene III is mostly talking. So is Scene IV, but it introduces Ed and Anita.

I've posted Scene I already, and I'll probably post the other three scenes tonight or tomorrow.

SCENE I

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:39:45 GMT

(As the title and opening shot plays, music begins ("Wind that Shakes the Corn" by the Irish Rovers). When camera focuses on JAMES, the music fades into the background.)

EXT: A graveyard on a hill. Weeds choke most of the graves, rendering the names illegible. It is grey and windy, and obviously cold. Camera pans to skeletal tree, which rattles violently in a sudden gust of wind, then shifts slowly to a cornfield next to the graveyard, which shakes and rustles as it bows against the wind. Shot widens to include trees, cornfield, and graveyard, including a black metal fence with a high scrolled arch over the gate. Camera then zooms in on this gate and the figure standing there.

The man standing at the gate is wearing a black trench coat and a fedora clamped firmly down over his hair. His eyes are hidden beneath the brim of the hat as he looks up at the hill, but the general air is one of infinite sadness. One hand rests lightly on the gate. The wind lifts his hat slightly and his eyes can be seen. It is JAMES.

JAMES
(whispers softly, barely audible)
I should have been there for them. Why I survived when they didn't, I'll never know. But I should have died.

He grips the top of the gate slightly.

Camera zooms in on his hand--strong, powerful, careworn--as it rests there for a second, then slowly travels down the gate to rest on the latch. For a second, the fingers fumble with the catch, but then slowly they draw away. Camera zooms out to include JAMES's face, the look of pain and sorrow, as he turns away.

JAMES
No...no. I have a long way to go...before I can forgive myself enough to go in there.

He heaves a sigh and blows a kiss towards the top of the hill, then turns to go and nearly knocks over a young man standing behind him. The young man is wearing a black cloak with a hood pulled up over his head, partially shadowing his face and hiding his eyes. In his left hand is a bouquet of flowers. Although neither one knows the other, it is HARRY.

HARRY
Sorry...I'm sorry...

JAMES
No, no, it's my fault. I'm sorry, I'm a little preoccupied.
(Hesitates, then looks down at the flowers)
Do you know someone buried here?

HARRY
(Nods. Quietly)
My parents. And most recently my godfather.

JAMES
(With sincerity)
I'm sorry about that. When did your parents die?

HARRY
When I was a baby.
(Hesitates, then)
They were murdered.

JAMES
I'm sorry.

HARRY raises his eyes to look at JAMES, who steps back, startled. Briefly, a face--that of LILY--flashes across his vision, giving him the same look, before it is replaced by HARRY, who speaks.

HARRY
Who...I mean, do you know someone who's buried here?

JAMES
(Shakes his head slightly to clear it, then nods)
My wife and son...and I think my best friend.

HARRY
(Surprised)
You think?

JAMES
(A touch reluctantly, as though he isn't sure he wants to share this)
I...I kind of cut myself off from the world when my family was killed. I went so far as to move out of the country to get away from the pain...but I've decided to re-enter the world. I asked someone if they had heard of him and they said he was dead.

HARRY
(With obvious compassion)
I'm sorry.
(Brief pause as he looks up the hill, then back at JAMES)
Were you going in?

JAMES
No, I...I just left.

HARRY
Okay. I suppose I'll see you later then.

HARRY turns and opens the gate, then slowly advances through the graves. Camera stays on JAMES as he raises his eyes to the hill, watching HARRY's progress, then sighs, turns, and walks away. As he does so, the music comes back in and plays the final few lines of "Wind that Shakes the Corn".

Fade to black.

Day 1

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 17:45:57 GMT

I slept in this morning, or I would have been writing a lot sooner. Anyway, I got up about nine, checked my e-mail and my updates, found all the important stuff I was going to need, and started scripting away.

I'm actually surprised. I thought it was going to take me forever to get very far. I had nightmares that I would be at 50 pages on April 29. But I'm already on page 8. I did some calculating, and I actually only have to write three pages a day to finish by April 30...so I'm already well ahead. And I did it all in an hour too.

I was using someone else's spreadsheet, but in a few minutes I'm going to write my own. If I can't finish it in fifteen minutes I'll sit and work on it during Vampire Literature, because I just do not care what That Woman thinks anymore. Tuesdays suck. I love Organ History and Design, but it just eats up my evenings...and tonight I have play rehearsal right afterwards, so that's going to cut into my Screnzy time. It's also going to cut into my eating time, as in I won't make it to the Dining Hall before it closes, so I'm having my dinner now.

Anyway, off to do that spreadsheet before I run out of time. Ciao.

I Write, Therefore...

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:11:20 GMT

Talent is like a faucet. When it is open, we can write. Inspiration is a farce, invented by poets to give themselves importance. --Jean Anouilh

Writers seldom write the things they think. They simply write the things they think other folks think they think. --Elbert Hubbard

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

A serious writer is not to be confounded with a solemn writer. A serious writer may be a hawk or a buzzard or even a popinjay, but a solemn writer is always a bloody owl. --Ernest Hemmingway

Originality is nothing by judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another. --Voltaire

For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word. --Catherine Drinker Bowen