Writing the Western Update II!

Yesterday, 9/13/11, I got through another scene. This one was more dialog heavy than the opening, which was an action set piece. Conversations usually take a longer to write than action because it's so easy to let people keep talking and talking- and before you know it, you've spent ten minutes letting two characters decide what to have for lunch. This scene came out to be five pages, which feels a bit long for me. It's important in making one of the main characters more sympathetic, especially after we saw him do some not-so-nice things in the opening. It also helps establish his motivation for the rest of the story, but especially in the first half.[ref]As we'll see, stuff happens in Act III that changes things a bit...[/ref]

The scene is supposed to feel a little slow and downbeat, a textbook Action Film Quiet Drama Scene. Still five pages means five minutes on  screen- and I know I can get slow and downbeat in 2-3 pages without making it unbearable.

The temptation is always there to go back and rework things you've written.[ref] I confess I made one tweak to the end of the previous scene [/ref] I usually try not to do that though- you'll wind up always revising the same things over and over without writing anything new. There will be plenty of time for revising when the whole thing is done.

At least now we're officially into Act II. Onward and Upward!