Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Low to the Blogdar

Okay. Enough neglecting this blog. Apologies and all that stuff.

I've been wrestling with a bit of a decision lately regarding various stories that are competing for my time in Final Draft. While I think each one could at least become a first draft, some are probably more marketable than others. But which one to tackle first?
  1. A coming-of-age dramedy about a college student who must choose between the comfortable career path and finding his own true voice. Partly auto-biographical, this material is really close to me and would be pretty easy to write. However, if I'm not careful with this one, it could end up in the "emotionally disaffected man finds true love amidst the strangeness of life" category. (see Garden State) Not that that's a bad thing...
  2. A self-centered advertising exec learns an eye-opening lesson about compassion and letting go of his materialistic side. I've probably done the most up-front work on this one, but still needs some basic story polishing.
  3. A sci-fi thriller about a researcher who finds himself living ahead of everyone else on earth. I think this one has great commercial potential. Only a couple of hurdles...(1) It's based on an existing short story so I'm not sure whether to just go ahead and write it and let the studio handle the rights or secure the rights first, and (2) scenes might be way too long because of the "time difference" between the lead character and everyone else.
  4. A noir-style thriller about a man randomly targeted to take the wrap for a murder. He must unravel an intricate web of clues to find the real killer, while eluding the police who are hunting him. This was an early story idea that I've kept around for a number of years. Nothing new as far as concept goes, but could do with a clever character flaw to make things interesting.
I'd like to start drafting any one of these, but as well all know, it's difficult to devote quality writing time to more than one.

I'm giving myself until this Friday to decide.