Two years ago, I attempted an adaptation of the Punisher: Circle of Blood graphic novel. It isn’t bad, and I might even show it to someone someday. Last year, I took a short story I wrote and did an adaptation of it. It also isn’t bad, and it too I might show to other people in the future. Both need another couple of passes before I’m happy with them though.
This year, I decided to write an original screenplay instead. And it was much harder.
I’m sure the screenplay itself won’t actually be harder to write, once I get to it. See, the hard part this year was that by working on an adaptation, like I had the previous two years, there is less prep work. The characters and the plot is around 90% there. Sure, you’ll have to make changes, but the foundations are there. But with an original, I have to make all that stuff up myself, which I didn’t do before hand, and so I’ve spent the last four weeks fleshing out characters and plot points, layout out arcs, and doing everything I should have done in March but never got around to.
Lesson learned: start prepping in March next year.
That said, I like what I’ve got, even if with a day and a half to go I don’t have a single page of screenplay. I’ve got notes. Lots of notes. And I really like the idea I’ve come up with, so I will continue to work on this and hope to have a finished screenplay in a couple of months. What’s it about? I’d rather not say, but I will leave you with one little tidbit. The title.
“Ursa Major”
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