The problem with stupid characters . . .

I really needed a character in this thing I'm working on to do something stupid.

The problem is there are entire constellations of stupid things that stupid people can do. I needed to decide on what particular stupid thing this idiot would do. Fortunately, what I decided advanced the story in multiple ways, and what another character--not quite as stupid--does in reaction to it sort of gives the plot a nice little twist that it desperately needed. Basically, you think the story is going one way when suddenly it heads off in another direction.

Let's hope it's a good direction. I think it is. It feels right, to me.

This is Act III of this little thing I was hired to write. I've still got a long way to go on it--it needs to weigh in at around 120 pages and I'm at 80 or so now. Still a lot of story to tell, though I'm seeing the ending now.

And this is just the first draft. I'll have a lot of rewriting to do on it--but, for me, the first draft is the hard part. Once the words are on the (virtual) page, it's a helluva lot easier to go in and change them.

I think for any project--novel, screenplay, what-have-you--the first draft is probably the most important step. Most writers I know approach it incorrectly. They want their first draft to be producible, or publishable, and it won't be. And it shouldn't be. There are a lot of things in this screenplay that I'm going to have to redo, rethink, rewrite, delete, replace,, what-have-you, when I do the rewrite. Not to mention the notes I'm going to get from my collaborator, when she reads it.

You know what? I'm not worrying about it. That's relegated to the rewrite. Worrying about that stuff now would be inappropriate. I will worry about that stuff--and fix the problems I know this thing has--down the road. Right now I just need to tell the story.

Okay, lecture over. For now.