I’ve come down with a bit of a cold as of late.  Thankfully this phase of the book prep was finished over the weekend, which gives me a little time to go back and blow the dust off some screenplays that have been beckoning me to finish them.

During last week’s show, when Marilyn Horowitz did the “Four Magical Questions” exercise with me on the air, I was surprised with the positive feedback I got.  Not to mention the fact that I was dredging up a character from a script I hadn’t touched in many months.  However, it motivated me to go back and look it over again.

Now that particular story had a few gaps in it in the second act.  After going back with a set of fresh eyes, those gaps filled themselves in without too many headaches.  Painting myself into a corner is a common thing that happens, but I crave it.  There’s something fun about figuring out how to get out of those corners without ruining the paint job.

One other interesting point came out during the course of the interview with Marilyn.  I pretty much spilled the beans on my own philosophy of screenwriting for those that were listening.  The “fly on the wall” method, which dovetails nicely with Marilyn’s “Four Magical Questions”, has worked well for me so far, but it does take a little work before getting down to work on a script.  But once you start, the actual process of writing it so much easier, your plot points unfold right before you and the whole story is right there being told by the characters.