Profile avatar
donfranke.bsky.social
Writer and editor of fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays.
65 posts 39 followers 36 following
Prolific Poster
Conversation Starter

I enjoyed this article, thought I'd reshare: pipelineartists.com/the-calling-... #scriptsky

Day 5 of #ZD30SCRIPT, 30 pages down. Gonna need a lot of editing though.

Day 4 of #ZD30SCRIPT, 23 pages in, spending some time on the outline today.

Day 2 of #ZD30SCRIPT , 20 pages in.

Day 1 done for Zero Draft Thirty challenge, wrote a little over 10 pages today.

It's March 1st! Time to start the 2025 Zero Draft Thirty March Challenge #ZD30SCRIPT

Just watched Frost/Nixon (2008) finally after seeing a mention in a book. Don't know why I waited so long, really enjoyed it. Still relevant too.

I've been on a roll with reading and providing feedback for other people's scripts, there's some really good stuff out there ... but my streak ended today.

Just read the screenplay Alien: Engineers by Jon Spaihts. Liked it more than Prometheus. Interesting how far some movies are unnecessarily "xenomorphed" from a solid script.

Just watched Hitchcock classic North by Northwest. Found something odd so double-checked the script. In the first half he's close with his mother, but in the second half (which includes him getting "killed" very publicly) she's only mentioned jokingly. Not a loose thread in the 1950s I guess.

Ever get excited about a script you've been working on, then when someone asks for the logline, you send it to them, then read it from their perspective and think "oooh, this is really not good..."

So I finished incorporating feedback from 3 coverage pros and CoverflyX. Before I edit my script to death, I think it's ready to submit to BL. I'll then use BL feedback to get it ready for 2025 contest season. That's the plan so far anyhow.

When feedback tells me to change or improve something that I thought was already pretty good, the rewrite often makes it so much better. #whyIlovecoverage

I'm learning to let go of OCD movement details in action descriptions. Like, instead of "She turns and heads to the door", I now use "She heads to the door." Simplicity takes discipline.

Received a lot of great improvement ideas with latest coverage feedback, excited to incorporate. The overall story structure is holding up so that's good, just some tweaks to add tension, add depth to a couple characters, etc.

Just finished reading The Descent by Jeff Long. What a world he created! Appreciate how he swung for the fences with visceral descriptions, not caring if ever it made it to the screen. Seems too gory to be turned into a movie, but then they're making Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, so who knows.

Just finished watching Lawrence of Arabia for the first time. Beautiful cinematography, and the ending caught me by surprise. I now understand how so many films were influenced by it.

My sci-fi script just received excellent feedback and a decent overall score from CoverflyX. Will continue tightening, even try to cut a few pages if possible. Also waiting on feedback from another reader. Glad the final version is in sight. #scriptsky

Just read Hard Times (1975) by Walter Hill. Deceptively simple, and so good.

Made more updates (including new title) and sent it off for more coverage.

Got my feedback from The Mechanic ... and it's good! I might actually have something competition-worthy this year. #scriptsky

Putting away the Cheetos ... gonna make some tea.

Of course added a few small but impactful lines to the script I already sent out for coverage. But this is my process I guess, and feel real good about those changes. A couple more threads nicely tied off.

Latest script got claimed on CoverflyX to get additional coverage.

Just submitted my script for coverage. If overall recommendation is along the lines of a significant restructure/rewrite I may put it away and resume work on my other script that's on its second draft. We'll see.

"A surprise is a frustrated expectation." - David Bordwell.

Got feedback that I need to add detail about the near-future world my script is set in. Started a diagram for how the main set piece is structured. Don't know if it'll go into the final PDF, but it's good for me to see how all the invented set pieces fit together since characters travel among them.

I keep editing my current project, worried I'll never stop. At some point I know I'll just have to call it and hope for the best.

Must. Resist. Social. Media. And write.

Listening to "The Craft of Scene Writing: Beat by Beat to a Better Script" by Jim Mercurio. Reminded that just because a beat is clever, doesn't mean it's needed. #scriptsky

Finally enjoying what I'm writing. Too bad it took twenty drafts to get there.

It's always good when you're writing and a half hour disappears like it's nothing.

I received excellent feedback once on a dialog I wrote, which was that I needed the characters to do something while they talked. I found those missing actions to be opportunities to add details that fleshed out the story and characters.

It's interesting how "no AI" has suddenly become a selling point.

Spent the 3 day weekend incorporating 11 pages of coverage notes. Back on track, but a few to several more rounds of editing to go.