More Progress

But not on Newland or as I'm starting to think of it "A Kookaburra's Laugh".

Last night I turned a new short story I wrote, into a screenplay for assignment 4 of module 2. It had to come out at 5 pages. Up until now I've used Word, with my own created template in place for formatting, to create these things, and so I used my past efforts to estimate how long a story I would need.

I was way wrong.

Assignment 3 needed to be 4 pages long. I used a 350 word story I'd created on Cafe Doom as it's basis and struggled to contain it to four pages. I figured I'd need a story under 500 words to make 5 pages. But this time I used the demo version of Final Draft 7 (apparently the lecturer doesn't have an issue with great big watermarks spread across the assignment submissions).

My new short story came out at a little over 1200 words. I figured I could format it up and once I'd discovered how long it was, I could decide on what to do with it from there. My guess was a little padding could go on it and it would work for the final 15 page script I'd need.

So I wrote it out and formatted it in Final Draft 7 and fell onto page five with the last bit of dialogue in the whole story - and I used a lot more direction and scene setting than I have in the past, but less actual scenes.

The good news is I'm now back to being in front with the diploma submission schedule. Module 1 has had assignments 1-3 completed, but only assignment 1 returned so far. Module 2 has had 1-4 completed (1-3 submitted and returned with grades). The assignment I formatted last night needs a final read through and then I'll submit it tomorrow. Module 1, assignment 4 is on POV and should be a walk in the park.

Nat might find this new story amusing as it details the struggle of a young man and his efforts to overcome his fear as he enters the local convenience store to purchase a box of condoms. Not particularly horrific in any way, other than to another 16 year old male who has gone through a similar situation - but I don't choose what pops into my head.

For the rest of today I'll be reading MageSign.

I'm a big Formula One fan and that season starts this weekend with the Melbourne Grand Prix (which I can't afford to attend :c() - so this weekend is a write off for doing any work. Still, all work and no play...

Negotiations continue with my rewrite of Dark Rose. This is the first time I've been asked to do a rewrite and I'm enjoying the back and forth comments with the editor. It's a good thing and just about complete with one final issue being raised and that a fairly easy one to fix. I've done the five changes it needed and sent back yet another version (I think this will make it version 4.3 or something). Announcement on where and when you can see it should be happening soon.

**Late announcement** I've applied to join The Random Complexity Writing Challenge instituted by Aerin the Mastermind. As part of the rules for joining I have to place the following on my blog:

RULES
1. Declare your intentions to join the challenge by putting up a post on your blog with this information. Fill out the registration form here. (Done!)

2. Write a minimum of 1000 words of fiction or creative non-fiction per month, from January through December of 2009. (You'd think this would be straight forward but I've only managed 907 so far this month. Unless you count my short story as well and then that comes to a little over 2000. Still a far cry from the 15k I wrote last month. I wonder if I can get writing assignments included in this...)

3. Post an update about your fiction on your blog, or on the Challenge blog (coming soon.) So, you can publish your writing if you want feedback, or you can just put up a post about the 1000 words you've written in the past month. (Moderator has the right to sniff out impostors, but mostly she trusts the honor system.) (I already do this so no great drama).

4. Your 1000 words per month can be in any form, but they must be created for this challenge. So, you could write two new non-sequential 500 word snippets for your previously begun WIP, or several hundred haikus, or a variety of short stories. You can use writing prompts. Fan-fic counts. Revisions count only if the original words were written as part of this challenge (so it doesn't count to merely edit your 2008 NaNo entry.) Creative non-fiction absolutely counts. Facebook missives and email correspondence do not count. (Hopefully I can start this in April - getting another 1000 words out this weekend will be difficult - you know, with the race and all...would this bit about "Creative non-fiction" - would that be writing assignments?)

5. Rules may be further explained, at any time, and entries are at Moderator's discretion.

Come join in with me. Fill out the registration form here.