Astonishing

As I said in my previous blog, I finished writing my first screenplay. I hope I can begin to explain some of the parts of writing this first screenplay that were some of the best days of my last year.

"Here I go, and there's no turning back, my great adventure has begun, I
may be small, but I've got giant plans, to shine as brightly as the sun, I will
blaze until I find my time and place, I will be fearless...be anything but
quiet...I'll be astonishing, astonishing, astonishing at last" from the
song "Astonishing" from the musical Little Women.

As I began writing the screenplay last May, I realized that I had a great adventure ahead of me. What I didn't know was how big the adventure I was embarking on really was. As I wrote more and more I learned more about myself than I ever thought I would know, or ever knew. I knew I couldn't turn back, I couldn't go back to who I was before I began writing. I learned so much about myself, and what I learned changed who I am forever. There are parts of Jennifer (my main character) that are based off of myself, and so as I put Jennifer into new situations, I learned things about different aspects of my life that had affected the way I look at different experiences I now have.

Blessing by Scott Alan

One era ends, and a second one begins...

Just tonight one era of an important part of my life ended, and a second era is begining. At about 8:30 I finished writing my first screenplay. It's a little hard to put everything in perspective right now. It's definatly time for me to start putting it all into perspective.

At about 6PM this evening, I started to work on making the final touch ups on the formating of the screenplay. At about 7PM, I finished the touch ups. At that point I took a break to do some thinking before I made the final edit in the whole screenplay. Finally at about 9pm, I decided that it was time to make the final change.

Now you may be asking me what I'm feeling right now. It's and understandable question to be asking. I really dont know how to feel. I am so excited about the fact that I have finished it, but at the same time I'm so sad that it's done. The journey from having the first idea almost exactly a year ago, to finishing the screenplay today has been a blessing. Last year in early April, I first had the idea for the story. After starting to write the story, I spent six months developing the story. The most recent six months has been even better since I've been able to make a few minor changes to the story so it makes more sense to readers. I've also been able to discover more about the more minor characters that don't play as big of roles as Jennifer does in this first screenplay.

I'm thankful that I have been lucky enough to get to know these characters as well as I have. I am ready to find out where my life leads me next, and what happens to the screenplay. Hopefully I will be able to get this screenplay published eventually. I know I have a second screenplay that I am planning starting to write soon. I will still make lots of posts here about this first screenplay, and any future writing that I do. Thanks to my writing here, I have been able to go back at a later date and find things that I never realized I knew about the characters.

"Every thing you imagine is real" Pablo Picasso

Coreen

Time to focus on the character of Coreen!

Coreen is a character that was introduced to me in January 2008, and was one of two characters that I meet since the beggining of 2008. I've always known that Coreen has played and important role in Jennifer's life. But I never realized everthing that Coreen has dealt with during her life.

Growing up, Coreen had a very normal childhood. She loved music as a child, and has enjoyed singing since she was a child. At age 20, Coreen got married. When she went to college, she decided that she wanted to become a high school biology teacher. During her college years, she also worked doing some research and even had some of her research published. Shortly after graduating from college, she was offered a job at Midland High School in Midland, MI. Coreen miscarried her first child during her first year of teaching.

During her years at Midland high, Coreen met Jennifer. Jennifer and Coreen got to know each other quickly. The same day that Coreen and Jennifer really connected, Coreen's divorce from her husband was finalized. Over the next few weeks, Jennifer and Coreen got to know each other, and became close friends. Coreen had always wanted a daughter, and Jennifer was able to provide that. Jennifer wanted a motherly figure in her life and Coreen provided that.

After Jennifer left Midland, both Coreen and Jennifer kept in close contact. Several years after Jennifer moved away from Midland, Coreen went to New York to see Jennifer. During Coreen's visit, she not only got to be apart of Jennifer's wedding. Coreen was so proud of Jennifer for doing what she believed in. Coreen also met a young women who was up for adoption while she was in New York. Coreen eventually adopted that young women.

Developing the Story

Developing the story that my screenplay has become hasn't nessesarly been easy. I started writing the actual screenplay in May of 2007. Almost a year later, and the story isn't finished yet. I know, your going to tell me that I should have finished the story line by now. In reality, it's no where near as easy to writ a good solid story in screenplay form.

I think I better start from the beggining for the part I really wanted to write about tonight to make sense. But in order to do that, I have start almost exactly a year ago.

In late March 2007 (March 28 to be exact), I interviewed for a job at the Saginaw Zoo. I knew that I had to leave from the interview to go to class. On my way home I was involved in a very minor (no injuries or deaths!) car accident. During the first couple weeks afterwards, I really couldn't talk about what had happend because it hurt a little to remember what had happened. About a week later, I began writing a little about it. I couldnt write much, but it was a start for me. Just writing about the car accident helped me to get past it.

As I wrote about my car accident one day, I began to realize that I have so many stories to tell. Some of them come from my life, some of them come from my very vivid imagination. So, I began writing the story of Jennifer (who I introduced to you in my last blog). I wrote quite a few series of diary entries from Jennifer's perspective and from her adoptive families perspective. My mid to late April I had a foundation for what was to become my screenplay. During the last week or two of April I quit writing. I needed a break from the story of how Jennifer came to know her biological mother. Naturally I turned my attention to exams which were coming up. I also turned my attention to something I needed to adress in my own life.

During those couple of weeks off from writing, I spent my time working, studying, or sleeping. One day while I was at work on a Friday morning, I realized I wasn't who I thought I was. For the longest time, I thought I was a young women who's sexual prefrence was straight. All of the sudden I realized that I wasn't straight, but bi-sexual. This realization would later play into part of my screenplay.

During early May, I began my first full time summer job. I went through two days of training (a Tuesday and Wensday), had Thursday and Friday off before I worked my first weekend of the summer. The next week, I filled in in the Information Center for someone's lunch one day, and on anouther full day for someone who had taken a day off. During my full day out in the Information Center, I had some quiet time when there were no visitors around. During those quiet times I wrote a series of several scenes. Two of them became the first and last scenes in one of my earliest drafts.

As the characters have evolved from draft to draft, so has my understanding of their relationships. This has brough about a slew of new scenes (about 20-30 new pages!) that I still have to sift through. Over my Christmas 2007 break, I wrote so much that there were characters I never knew about even in October or November that began to appear. This has meant more work for me, but it also has allowed me to see the characters that I have known from the beggining from a new perspective.

I have about a month left of school in the current semester. This summer I will be marking the one year anniversary of the beggining of my writing this screenplay. But I wont be marking it by having it published. Instead I aim to mark it by finishing it, and passing it on to a few people to read and give me feedback on. Best of all, I have recently decided that once this first screenplay is done, I will begin writing a second one giving the story of one of my minor characters in this first story.

As time passed over the summer of 2007, I slowley plucked away at the screenplay. I was contiuously learning things about my characters. By the end of October I had a full 89 pages written, and still wasnt done. I still had unfinished scenes to write, scenes to re-write, and even more scenes I wasnt sure I wanted. My most recent copy is a total of 95 pages long.


I know this has been a long post, but thats fine. I could have gone into even more depth on some of the things that happened to me and some of the imaginary stories that play a roll in my screenplay.