Third draft

Worked my way through the script a second time, many, many changes. Characters came and went, plot lines disappeared and things came more into focus. Stevie, the main character, had a girlfriend who left him, and even though she was a strong character and their scenes together were fun, she was just getting in the way. So she's gone.

Billy, the guitarist has become more defined, but the only one who was causing problems was Gemma, the bass player. Well, that was until yesterday. It suddenly hit me that apart from the obvious rom com stuff, it was hard to pinpoint what the story was really about, and that was because the goals the main character had were just too wooly and in conflict with what happened. So I gave him Billy's desires, and moved his concerns over to Gemma, and hey presto, it all makes sense now. Suddenly it's a story about someone being so desperate to escape their life and achieve something that they lose sight of what they really want. Now the story actually makes sense, has a purpose, and most importantly, a main character who actually changes.

It's odd how these things come about. Like the main character I couldn't see the wood for the trees, couldn't see what was wrong (though I knew it was something). But in thinking about it all the time your brain does weird things, like those screen saver programmes that run in down time calculating SETI data or world pollution. And so it was that in the middle of the night these changes came to me and it all became clear, so much so that I was forced to put the light on and scribble them down on a bit of paper in case I woke up the next morning knowing I'd cracked the main problem but unable to remember how (see also: my plans for Cold Fission).

So third draft it is now, halfway through and it's coming together nicely. All I need to do now is find a way to add some wizards and ninjas and maybe a bear that fires lazer beams through its eyes and I will have a solid gold hit.