Care, Care, Care and Care Again

On Screenwriting, I completely re-wrote Leicester Square again this year.   Humbly, I can now confirm it is definitely four-fifths of wonderful!  But, as anyone who writes and reads screenplays knows, four-fifths of wonderful is still, a considerable mind-numbingly-bloody-long-way-to-go.  The plot is now tighter than a rat catcher's glove and the set-pieces are tenser than an Elvish archer's weapon of choice, but once you put romance at the heart of a drama, you need to have your audience fall in love with the characters and care, care, care all the way to the titles.  Still, I know what needs to be done and think I have the stuff in the kit-bag to take it from good to great.  But, I also know to get there you need to care enough to really make it as good as it could be.  I'm reminded of the story of Blue Valentine, which was made by Derek Cianfrance. He reportedly knocked out more than 70 drafts of the script before the film was finally wrapped.  Seventy!  You have to more than care about the tale to deliver 70 drafts.  You have to have to be obsessed.   A little like the hero of Leicester Square, Tom Horner, who spent nine months of his life obsessively, painstakingly, crafting his masterpiece panorama of London in isolation, battered by the elements. Tom almost lost everything in the pursuit of his obsession.  All I need to do is re-open Final Draft.

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