Well, that all changed two months ago with a sudden burst of writing energy and the purchase of Final Draft, the profession's leading screen and playwriting software.
I had been contemplating writing a screen play for some time but, when I finally sat down to put some of my thoughts into script pages, I quickly realized that Microsoft Word just wasn't going to cut it.
So I spoke to some screen-writing friends, did some online research, and took the plunge to purchase Final Draft. I was surprised at the modest price for this amazing tool and soon came to the conclusion that I could never be an effective scriptwriter without it.
The gift of a subscription to Master Class also helped. I've been watching Aaron Sorkin's brilliant class on writing scripts quite regularly since January -- it has not only taught me a lot, if has also been the source of significant inspiration.
With all of those factors working in my favour, a romantic comedy script I had been planning for more than a year came pouring out over the course of a two-month period. I finished the first draft of Summer Hideaway a week ago and, after some encouraging words and fantastic comments from my partner, I think I will have a strong enough draft to send to my readers before the end of the month.
While I am polishing that script up for review, I am starting the more challenging process of inputting my Abigail Massey at McAdam Station stories into the single-camera television series template in Final Draft.
This will take some time. Unfortunately, it combines the banality of touch typing an already existing story into a new program with the huge challenge of re-imaging scenes that I had written so carefully in prose for children as scenes in a TV show, complete with Scene Intros, transitions and plain dialogue. I'm just lucky I focused so much on the dialogue when I wrote the stories -- that makes it so much easier!
And, thanks to Master Class, I will have Shonda Rhimes coaching me through the process.
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