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An Economical Literature

I've been working towards a Masters in Screenwriting for a little over a year and one of the hardest tasks I've found is how to be as economical as possible with each word, sentence, title, log line, synopsis etc

We started with 1 line log lines.  Then a 1 page synopsis which led to a 6 page synopsis.  On Monday's session someone whispered the torture of a 25 word synopsis.

That's half the size of the text above this new line.  Yikes.

With the exception of one play, everything I've written has been short.  Short stories, flash fiction, short plays.  But now that I actually have to make something short I'm struggling.  I sit staring out of the window desperately trying to condense 110 minutes of action into 25 words of complete and profound meaning.

I'm about 15 words off right now and beating myself up over every single key stroke.



 

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