time keeps melting away

We've decided that the final date for major script changes will be before ACTF week. So before February 15th. That is coming up quickly.

The solo piece (The Button) is looking good. As I mentioned in my last post, I shaved a whole page of unnecessary dialogue off the piece which, in turn, probably took at least five minutes off the running time. Until I read it out loud, I didn't realize that most of the beginning part was me just trying to get started. The pacing the first time we read it was very slow. Now the challenge will be to mine for character. They may mean adding more to the script. Or it may mean that now is the time the work of the actor really begins.

The ten minute (Bathtub Safety) is also looking pretty good. I did some minor edits of that script over the weekend to fix a plot point at the end and it seems to be flowing better than it was before. Bathtub Safety was the script that I had worked on the most before the project even began. I've been living with this script the longest and editing it the most, the work load with it started as significantly less. I doubt much more will change with the script but there are some repetitive parts, especially in the middle, that need to be smoothed out.

The one-act (Regarding Eden) is the script that requires the most attention at this point. While the major theme of the show is not religious (on my end) there is a lot of stuff about various religions and historical events that really need to be hashed out. Right now, I feel like it is slowing the progress of the show down because I don't yet have a clear grasp on what I want the purpose of the religious elements to be (well some of them, some of them I know.).

It seems that my major issue when writing is my repetitive nature. When I first write it, being repetitive helps me find a character voice. But by the second draft, it isn't character, it is too many words. I am slowly but surely discovering the depths of my process. More to come...