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Script Frenzy 2008: Novels in Hollywood?

I was supposed to post something that my boss told me at work today, but something else caught my eye. :D I know I’m kind of been neglecting this website, which should’ve been launched, oh, I don’t know, 3 months ago but because of busy-ness, I couldn’t get around to sitting down and forming the site. Argh.

But let’s not get to that.

I got this from the Breaking News at the NaNoWriMo website:

I wanted to give everyone advance warning that the second-annual Script Frenzy will be commencing on April 1. We’ve moved it forward by two months, and made some changes to open it up to more writers. Now the escapade includes TV scripts, short film scripts, and adaptations of novels. As long as you cumulatively write 100 pages of script in April, you’re a winner.

If you’ve been thinking that one of your NaNoWriMo manuscripts would make an awesome movie or play, April is the ideal month to find out. I wrote my first screenplay for Script Frenzy last year, and learning to tell a big story using only dialogue ended up paying big dividends in my novel-writing as well. I’d say Script Frenzy made my novel dialogue and pacing 349% less sucky overall, bringing both of them all the way up to a third-grade level. A third-grade level! In just one month!

Sweet progress.

I was also pleasantly surprised by how easy the dreaded formatting turned out to be, and how many great pieces of free scriptwriting software there are out there to automate the whole process. Here’s to a heavily scripted April!

Chris

See the emphasized words? Adaptation of novels. That really made my day. I wanted to join Script Frenzy last year but backed out because of my schedule, plus I couldn’t write an all original screenplay without any basis like others who can put characters who are fascinated with collecting CAT5e. Even if I did use to write scripts back in high school, it was all based on another piece. I still like writing original prose than screenplays. My VD-PROD script was a perfect example, based on Shooting Star. Heh.

But I think I might just join this one. It’s my first time, and I’ll probably fail…but it’s a fun thing to try. :) I might be able to work on Red Meets Blue here, since I can see it more “on screen” than on paper. Or maybe that’s only because I make my characters burst into song all the time. Heh.

Is anyone planning to join Script Frenzy too? If you are, let me know! We can be writing buddies. :D

Entertaining Angels

On Oscars, and books becoming movies

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So I woke up late again today because I slept early this morning, and the first thing I saw on TV was the Oscars on TV, which I ended up watching for the last one and a half hours in the comfort of our leather home theater seating (…which is how I liked to imagine it). :P Now, I’m not really much for foreign actors and actresses (heck, even local) as I’m not much of a movie watcher who remembers who the actors and actresses were unless I really loved the movie…so it wasn’t such a big thing for me. But I enjoyed watching the show, especially during Jon McLaughlin’s performance of So Close (Enchanted! ♥).

This made me remember my younger years when the “best” writing I can do was all done in scripts. I used to write Sailormoon episodes in script format back in elementary, where I made sure their new powers came out in my stories. When I stepped in high school, I became the default scriptwriter for our Ibong Adarna, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo plays and the Florante at Laura video. I loved doing it even if it required me to read ahead, because I get to deliver the story in dialog, which our books totally lacked back then. In college, we had a video production class, where I wrote a 25-page script for class, and then another one for our finals. I think that’s one of the reasons why I have a hard time writing descriptions in my novels. All the dialog in the scriptwriting made me rely on dialog. :P

I think that’s also the reason why I can see some — if not all — of my stories being filmed. At least in my imagination. Complete with soundtrack. Haha. I can imagine scenes that seemed to look better when done live than on paper. Or maybe that’s just my lack of descriptive powers (as of now) that’s making it like that.

I think it would be really cool to have your written works on screen…even if they sometimes butcher it. Heh. My friend Chris did that to one of my works in high school, which I never got to watch so I didn’t know how it turned out. ^^; But seriously, I’d love to have anything I’ve written be acted out. It doesn’t even have to be in Hollywood — it can be just in our local cinemas. Fall Like Rain? Whee.

But first, I have to finish writing that. :D

Enough of the daydreaming; I should get ready. Shopping with mom in a while! :)

Side comment: Ack, I feel like my writing is so…disorganized. I feel like I can’t gather my thoughts correctly and write them down on the blog. Eh, this is what stress does, I knew it.