Impending Script Frenzy, Story Revision, and So On...

[obligatory‘It’sbeentolongsinceIlastposted’section] I suck. [/obligatory‘It’sbeentolongsinceIlastposted’section]
Moving on.

Revision on my novel has…slowed. Not stopped, mind you, but it has slowed. I blame manga and anime. Somehow I convinced myself that the crisis in Japan meant I should honor them by reading/watching their lovely (addictive) comics. And… Yeah.

Time I’ve spent revising has dwindled.

I start Script Frenzy (www.scriptfrenzy.org) in April. Brought to us by the lovely people who put on National Novel Writing Month every year, the goal is to write a 100-page script in thirty days. Taking formatting and everything into account, that doesn’t seem like a whole lot. Supposedly a page is equal to a minute of screen time. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot. I think I can do it. I’ve always been able to visualize my stories really well, so… writing a movie? No prob! I’ve got my idea, I’ve downloaded CeltX scriptwriting software…

I’d like to say I’ll be able to write my script and continue to revise my novel at the same time. But this is something new for me, so I really don’t know.

Plus, April looks like it’s going to be extremely busy. I take the ACTs in a little over two weeks, and prom is the weekend after that. Yes, I’m going to prom. By myself. Possibly with my sister and friends. And I’ve got all of this stuff going on that might interfere with my care-fully laid out half-baked plans.

Even when I’m actively revising, it’s a little depressing. Those ‘big changes’ I had in mind for the rewrite? So far, not so big. I feel like it’s no better this time around. I’m not changing things so drastically, which could mean that either A) the first part of my rough draft is better than I’d thought while reading through it, or B) I’m as bad at revision as I am at posting blog updates regularly.

It’s a little discouraging. I have so much I want to write. Old ideas, new ideas… But I want to get something ready to try and publish, ASAP. A girl in my class is self-publishing a book of poems and had one poem published in a legit magazine. My mom’s started looking around briefly for potential agents to send query letters to regarding a childrens’ book she wrote a few years ago.

She’s discouraged because it’s hard to know where to start.

I’m discouraged because I’m not even ready to start.

The thing about novels is that they take time. I can write something in a month, but there’s no guarantee it’ll be decent. In fact, it’s pretty much guaranteed to suck. And then you have to read through hundreds of pages, over and over again, before rewriting them and rereading those hundreds of pages, dozens of times.

After I get one book ready to go, there’s still no guarantee that it will be the book that gets published.

Should I be working on this book, or is it a waste of time?

Should I be working on a different novel instead?

Or should I seriously be studying for the ACTs?

*sigh* For now, all I can do is keep writing (and rewriting, and revising).

But while I’m doing that, I’d also love to be entering writing contests, winning cash and books for doing what I love, maybe getting published in a magazine or something if I’m lucky.

I haven’t been lucky, looking online for places to enter. If anyone knows of some legit, free-to-enter contests open to US teenagers, could you shoot me a link?

For now, I think I might try my hand at writing some Keys for Kids devotional things. I mean, twenty-five bucks to write things I’ve been hearing once a day for my entire life?! Win!



Anybody else doing Script Frenzy? Anyone know of some good writing contests/opportunities?



- Silent Pages