From A Blank Page

Picture this. Thursday, May 7th, 2009 early afternoon. I'm sitting in front of my laptop and this is the view on my computer screen. A blank page.


Then magically, words begin flowing from my mind down to my fingertips and onto the keyboard of my laptop. Tick, tick, tick of the keys. Forming word after word after word of sentences. Sentences forming scenes, descriptions and dialogue. As if I was writing a 40-page term paper. But in this case, it is a 100+ page script. My idea was to originally write the concept I had as a short story. But as I wrote out the outline, the story seemed to get longer than I would have intended. It became something bigger. I knew this was a story I wanted to write. So I made a commitment to myself to finish a draft in one week. I've done it once before. I worried, if I could do it again. I remember reading once that John Hughes wrote The Breakfast Club in two days. If he was able to do it in two days, then I certainly can in seven.

I knew what had to happen. I knew where the story would go. It was about forcing myself to get the ideas onto the page. I wrote nearly 15 pages a day for 7 days. Sometimes writing for hours. Other times, I'd try to write only to stare at the screen endlessly. Some scenes made sense, while some I questioned my sanity of writing them. The beauty of it all is that it's not set in stone, so things can be rewritten to make the story be more fluid.

I usually like my stories. But I love this one. I care about it. I don't usually divulge as to what they are about for fear that someone might take that idea away from me. Hence, I've registered and copyrighted the story. But here's a little something I'm glad to share. The time period is during World War II circa 1944 in the Philippines at the time of the Japanese occupation. You may be thinking "action movie." I can assure you, it's not. Some conflict yes, but nothing major to make it the focus of the entire movie. That's not what I write. I focus more on characters. The people and their emotions. In my story, a soldier and village boy.

I have hopes for this and I won't give up until something happens. The life of a filmmaker is never a sure thing. All we can do is keep moving along until we make that breakthrough. And so the following Thursday May 14th, 2009 at 3:15pm PST. I wrote those words any writer would be happy to see. "The End."