Draft #3 be damned!

This afternoon I just completed draft #3 of the short that I've been working on. It's occurred to me that since this is the only short that's being produced, it's pretty much also the only one that I'm going to get constant feedback on between drafts.

I am going to be working on another short for someone, but from what I gather, he doesn't seem to be the type who wants constant control over the script because he's not planning on shooting it immediately. He's just hoping to be able to make it some day.

Other than that though, everything will be entirely up to me. Sure, I can have other people look over it and tell me what they think, but in the end the final editing choices will be solely my decision. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I like having someone else to work with and bounce ideas off of when they're invested in how it turns out too. I think it will be much more difficult to write without solid deadlines (other than the end of the year one) as well. I guess I'll have to learn how to make my own and stick to them... or I'll just learn how to write really fast when I realize that things aren't up to snuff and I only have one month left. We'll just have to see.

I did another draft of the pilot I've been working on too. Well, a mini-draft. I took the criticism and comments given to me by a reader and applied most of it. I still have some things that the reader mentioned to cover. Some of it is dialogue based, which I will work on last and some of it is stuff that I don't agree with yet, but probably will by the end of it all. I just have to see where the characters are going and how to take them there.

One more thing that I've been working on (though not in a written down sort of way, just in a tossed around in my head way) is an outline for my second pilot. It's the only other large project I have (two pilots, three shorts) so I want to get it started. And since it's closely tied into the short I'm working on, I'm not sure how they will connect.

I'm debating between having the pilot be a longer version of the short or having the short be the intro to the world and then having the pilot be the second, but larger story in the series. I'm not sure which would better serve an audience.

All in all, things have been busy and school, officially, starts tomorrow. I've got Mastering Dialogue (yay!) and a group directed study for screenwriting (the only class where I'll actually get to work on my thesis projects). On Monday nights (not tonight) I'll have a class too (The Writer's Room), but today is Labor Day, so that class will start next week.