I printed up a copy of The Vanishing of Owen Taylor, and it's 540 pages long. Over 119,000 words. If I dropped it on someone's foot, I'd break a toe or crush their arch. Wild. I'll let it sit for a couple days then get onto it this weekend for the final polish.
I have to admit, I'm amazed I got to this point, the way the story kept shifting on me. It's still not completely settled down, but my only real concerns are with detail work and whether or not I should cut a sub-plot. My goal now is clarity and consistency; I've got Jake's voice set and the flow of the story works...at least, it does for me. Just need to maintain.
It's funny, but most of my screenplays wound up being just around 105 pages long, plus or minus a few. My longest one, currently, is 135 pages while the shortest one I did was 80 pages, mainly of action. I guess I do like digging into the characters' minds, and revealing their meaning is a lot easier in a novel than in a script. I still think cinematically, but the complexity of guys like Jake and Curt makes up for that in a lot of ways.
I used to think I was just being lazy and scared doing screenwriting, like I was relying on other people to help my work come to fruition. In reality, it was just my shirking my responsibility to the story and characters. I'm still nowhere near as good as I want to be, as a writer, but I can now see a path towards fulfillment. Even if my books don't sell well. At least with these, I can't say I'm shirking anything. I'm whining and arguing and bitching like crazy, but not shirking. How To Rape A Straight Guy and Bobby Carapisi are proof of that. I can honestly say, I write what I want to write and fuck everything else.
Hmm...maybe there is some tiger in me.
I have to admit, I'm amazed I got to this point, the way the story kept shifting on me. It's still not completely settled down, but my only real concerns are with detail work and whether or not I should cut a sub-plot. My goal now is clarity and consistency; I've got Jake's voice set and the flow of the story works...at least, it does for me. Just need to maintain.
It's funny, but most of my screenplays wound up being just around 105 pages long, plus or minus a few. My longest one, currently, is 135 pages while the shortest one I did was 80 pages, mainly of action. I guess I do like digging into the characters' minds, and revealing their meaning is a lot easier in a novel than in a script. I still think cinematically, but the complexity of guys like Jake and Curt makes up for that in a lot of ways.
I used to think I was just being lazy and scared doing screenwriting, like I was relying on other people to help my work come to fruition. In reality, it was just my shirking my responsibility to the story and characters. I'm still nowhere near as good as I want to be, as a writer, but I can now see a path towards fulfillment. Even if my books don't sell well. At least with these, I can't say I'm shirking anything. I'm whining and arguing and bitching like crazy, but not shirking. How To Rape A Straight Guy and Bobby Carapisi are proof of that. I can honestly say, I write what I want to write and fuck everything else.
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