Showing posts with label american zoetrope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label american zoetrope. Show all posts

Monday, January 13, 2014

Adapting The von Strassenbergs


My favorite book is being made into a series on Starz. And it's killing me. Not just because I can't wait to watch it but because I would give anything to be a part of the process. The art of crafting a story into a visual reality is just thrilling to me. Making fictional characters take on physical form...gah! I love it!
You see, I have always been a nerd. Not even a tech-savvy geek. I was a flat out nerd. In elementary, middle and high school I spent most of my time reading and writing. Alone. Holed up with fictional friends. 
At some point, probably middle school, I began writing what is known today as fan fiction. This was back when email was still a really big deal and websites were all in basic html. I was, as many people could tell you, obsessed with MacGyver. Something about a really competent man is very alluring. So I started writing my own episodes of MacGyver. And then I started writing episodes of my other favorite shows. I abandoned the novel I was working on to focus primarily on writing scripts. 
Evidence of my early nerdom. All those binders? Filled with teleplays.
Screenshot from Filter's adaptation
Fast forward a decade. Somehow I've wound up a stay-at-home mom and I only have half a college degree. Restless and disappointed in myself I take up writing again. But prose just doesn't flow easily through this brain. It's still wired for action and dialogue. So I write a screenplay. It takes me a year but I manage to finish a first draft of a 120 page script. It's a romantic drama. I put it up on American Zoetrope and get some good feedback. And it pretty much died there. I never worked up the courage to enter it into their annual contest. This year I want to change that. 
My one main goal for this year is to adapt my first novel, Filter, into a screenplay. I've been working on it off and on but this year I mean to complete it and to have it ready to enter for early submission into the annual American Zoetrope screenwriting contest. 
So here's hoping to a very productive year!