The End of The Beginning

A lot of people have asked us how we are going to write our adaptation when we don’t even live in the same city. Distance isn't the only impediment; we don’t even write the same way! Marla writes it all in longhand and types it in later, while I just work on screen. But, though our processes are very different, our writing styles are not that dissimilar.

After a bit of discussion and false starts we just split the script in half. The worst part of this process is that we talk often and it’s really hard not to discuss what you’re doing and whatever changes you make “on the fly.” You still want to leave a few surprises for the other person. And all you can do is hope they’re well accepted. Since Marla and I started out as collaborators and then I reworked several of her scripts, we know and trust each other’s talent.

I am happy to report that our division of labor worked out spectacularly! We each finished our half of GREEN DARKNESS a.k.a. NOT THIS TIME a couple of days ago!

Now this is where it gets REALLY exciting!! I read Marla’s half and she in turn read mine. We made changes to each other’s work and then sent it back.

Our styles mesh really well! I would venture to say that it would be impossible to guess which of us wrote which part~~

We did so much work on the halves that we were able to glue the halves together into a whole. But wait! No laurels growing under these screenwriters’ feet. We went at the entire script AGAIN and made MORE changes!

Where did that get us—to the end of Draft 2—a month ahead of schedule!

What next? We’re sending it to a trusted screenwriting friend who is also a fan of the book. We’re asking her to give us feedback on whether we stayed true enough to the book to satisfy the fans.

Stay tuned~~
Angela