The long, arduous road to a screenplay

I'm slowly but steadily working towards finishing my first draft but it's a slow process. As I come near the end I'm finding myself thinking about what parts of the book to keep and what parts to exclude. It's too long to fit it all in a screenplay.

One conclusion I have drawn is that I should probably try to find where the different dramatic structure points in the book is located. This will probably give me some notion as to where I should start cutting things out. Another option is to give dialouges to other people and maybe moving things around a bit to better fit a classic Hollywood structure.

Guess I should concentrate more on finishing my draft than worrying about this right now. I'm behind schedule as it is.

Is my screenplay behind schedule already?

The screenplay is not behind schedule just yet. I'm working hard trying to get the handwritten stuff onto the computer. The script size on the computer is now about 115 pages long. I am having less time this week since my dayjob is interfering with my plans and I'm on a developers conference all week. In other words I get no commute time to do any writing on.

Interesting quote I found on a forum.

The first draft of everything is sh*t.
-- Ernest Hemingway

I think I have to agree this far into my work... but I intend to change it for the second, third, fourth and fifth one.

Screenplay: The foundations of Screenwriting

To help me in my quest on creating a great screenplay I definately need some help. Roger has promised to help me by reading the script and I have a great spouse that gives me well deserved critique. I also have a brother who is very keen on reading the script and give his view on how a great werewolf story should be. This is all great and dandy, but before I want my script evaluated in any way, I would like to have at least some basic knowledge of how to write. This is where my latest purchase enters the picture.

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting

I ordered this book last week and Amazon soon answered and said they would ship it on December 8th. A bit too long for me to wait happily but, since I need the book, I kept the order. The next day they sent me a new message and told me the order had been sent. Hopefully I'll get it tomorrow.

What is the book about?

"Ursula's gift" is the story about Stanley Merriwether. Stanley is a plump, sweet-natured young man who seems destined never to get a girl and never to leave his mark on the world, much to the disgust of his take-charge, big-game-hunter father. That all changes when Stanley tries to help a hooker from being thrashed by her pimp. As thanks she turns Stanley into a werewolf by giving him a bite in wolf form.

Stanley's life is obviously turned upside down. On one hand he gets slimmer more attractive to girls and gets more assertive. On the other hand he has to fight the werewolf's thirst for blood, silver bullet shooting psychiatrists and find a cure within 30 days or his father has sworn to kill him.