Huh? Say again? 2014? No that can't- Oh, look, it is. Um, so, I never really updated my status pertaining to A Ronin No Longer, did I? (For those not keeping track, I don't blame you, I've been sporadic, to put it mildly, A Ronin No Longer is the name of a script I'm writing)
Well, I started off November knocking over at least 1,000 words a day for a while, but then, a couple of mishaps happened, First, I went out of town for Thanksgiving, this wasn't a shock or anything, and frankly, I saw it coming, but it still took a bit of a hit on my productivity. That would have been perfectly fine, had I not made a rather major adjustment to the out line of my story. This change was for the best, but it was still a hurdle, as not only did I have to change my story, but it also extended the story by a good chunk.
So basically November ended, my goal word and page wise, had been met, but I was only two-thirds through the story. Well, December came and was as crazy as ever, I managed, occasionally, to slap some more words onto my work in progress, but I still wasn't done, not until last night, when I finally typed "The End" So, now that I've finished my first draft, I've learned a few things:
1st: First Drafts suck. I mean, wow, there's some stuff I like, but, what? no... they, just, they just stink. Half of this makes no sense, I suspect the rewrites will be intense
2nd: Don't screw with your outline or whatever sort of structure you're working with, unless you commit to a couple of days of JUST reworking your outline, having a half-formed idea and throwing down tracks in front of your new direction does not a satisfying conclusion make.
3rd: Kinda related to the second point, but I found working from a birds eye view, then coming down and connecting the dots, much easier than what I was doing for a while in the middle there, which was connecting dots I hadn't quite figured out yet.
All in all, it was a very educational experience, I think I'll take some time off from working on the script, play some games, watch some movies, and read some books, basically separate myself from the story, and get an idea of what a finished product looks like, before coming back for the rewrites with the clear goal of making the story at least half way decent.
