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Beat Sheets

Yesterday I sat at my Grandma's kitchen table for five hours.  Out of those that time, one hour was spent staring out of her back door at squirrels and wood pigeons in the garden.  Another thirty minutes was spent with the neighbour's cat, Teddy, who decided to investigate the kitchen and my legs and the very warm boiler I was working next to.

In the remaining three and a half hours I managed to write about seven pages which translates to roughly seven minutes on screen. That takes me to seventeen pages total and I have to hand in one hundred and ten pages by June.  I ideally want to have completed a first draft by March (yeah right) and then I'd have a few months to edit and wrestle with it.

At the moment I'm preoccupied with several beats I need to try and hit or at least aim for in terms of Act I, Act II, Mid point, Act III, climax and a resolution (or not if I want to puzzle an audience).

I've got my story laid out and I'm happy with the structure but as I'm writing it I feel like I'm way ahead of my timing.  There aren't enough pages written for the beats that I've covered.  In one of our lessons we drew an elaborate plan of timing and milestones and where we should have got to but a certain point.  We're not slavishly following this but it is incredibly supportive to have that idea in mind.

One of these days, when I'm really procrastinating and avoiding the script, I'll type it up and post it.

Luckily today I want to carry on with the script and as I'm snowed in I haven't got anything else to do.  Hopefully by the end of today I'll have done another seven pages.  Wish me luck!



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