Script editing vs Book Editing

Right now I am in the midst of script edits for "The Hardship".  Finding the ability to shift gears from book editing to script editing takes me a moment.  I didn't realize that would happen until I really started  getting into the guts of editing "Elemental" and then jumping over to script edits.

The producer of The Hardship sent me a list of suggested scenes and basic edits.  The scene edits forced me to stop and think all the way through the entirety of the script to make sure the continuity wasn't lost, not unlike book edits.  However, where books allow for the insight into a characters thinking and feelings, script writing forces you to act out the emotion or the thought.  Sometimes that can be a bit dicey.  If the audience doesn't get it the way you meant it to, the interpretation can be a bit different.  But I guess that isn't too bad, art can be like that.  You mean it one way and someone takes a completely different meaning from what you have presented.

I love script writing, it's clean and logical and follows a really nice pattern of layout that I like.  The challenge ends up being that the conversations have to be spot on.  It helps to actually read them out loud as your write it to make sure it sounds like a conversation one would have with someone else.

Back to my edits!  If you are interested in following the progress of The Hardship film, you can like it on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/thehardshipmovie.

:)

Wouldn't it be nice?

On my run this morning, I started thinking over the thoughts that had been running through my head concerning other stories that I have read from some really great writers.

The last couple of days, I have been thinking as reader and pondering the beautiful way in which some writers bring their characters to life.  It got me thinking about how it be so great if those characters were real tangible people.  Flaws and all.  

I'm tired of the Katie Holms, Tom Cruises, Brad Pitts and Sandra Bullock types brought to life by their publicists and managers.  It is tired some.  It made me wish for the Daniel from the Lauren Kate's Series, or Tohrment or Veck from J.R. Ward's Series, or even Patch from Becca Fitzpatrick's books.  I know they are angels, a vampire and a human thrown in for good measure.  But just their strong beliefs to do right, their fierce loyalty and ability to love.  We miss that in the people around us I believe and our real life "characters" in the form of stars disappoint sometimes on so many levels as we are voyers into their lives.  But still, it has me wishing.

Yes,  have been thinking, wouldn't it be nice.  I so hope that readers want to know my characters as much as I do

Will I ever get there?

Like a lot of aspiring authors, getting a major project off the ground is a challenging effort at best.  Add the element of working full time and managing a home, the attempt becomes a major effort.  

I find myself more frustrated day in and day out with trying to get the goal of my first book published.  Setting aside the needed time to do it become harder and harder.   I rally against the seemingly insurmountable task of getting this off the ground.

Additionally, due to my lack of education, I find I struggle with punctuation and grammer in so many areas of my writing.  I didn't realize how much I lacked until a friend began helping me edit my book, chapter by chapter.  One day she brought an edited chapter to me and quipped, "I feel like a school teacher with a big red pen and I'm sorry." I smiled and assured her this was exactly what I wanted her to do, but I couldn't help thinking inside how useless I feel in that regard.

The desire to write still fuels me on and it is the total love of the characters and story that keeps me sane. But quoting Morpheus from The Matrix, not being able to spend time doing what you feel you were born to do is like a "splinter in the mind".  

One day I hope to have a big pair of tweezers!