Finished the First Draft of a Screenplay for The Rose Ring

Soon after The Rose Ring was published, I began working on a screenplay for it. I've wanted to try writing a screenplay for a while and I think this story would make a great movie for Hallmark or Lifetime or the Inspiration Channel.


I didn't have a whole lot of time to devote to it, but I worked on it here and there -writing mostly longhand in a composition book, changing things as needed, converting a written text to a visual medium, writing notes in my notebook like "do dialog from pages 154-155" where it didn't make any sense to rewrite the text. Tonight I finished typing it using the free software from Celtyx.

What have I learned so far? Even though this was a relatively short book, the screenplay needs to be shorter. My rough draft is 131 pages. I need to cut 30 pages. Each page equals about 1 minute of screen time and the average movie is between 90 - 100 minutes. I have lots to work on and condense! I also learned that I think visually (I kind of already knew that). When I write a story, I see it as a movie in my head, so it wasn't that difficult to convert my ideas to screenplay format. The process was a challenge, but I enjoyed it.

I don't know if anything will ever come from this project, but I'll keep working on it. Maybe The Rose Ring will make it to your TV screen or DVD. Wouldn't that be amazing?And in the meantime, if you'd like to buy the story and read it, I'd be so grateful!




Comments

  1. Janice Lane PalkoJanuary 30, 2014 at 2:39 PM

    Hi Anne,

    I read and reviewed The Rose Ring and agree that it would make a great Hallmark movie. I've been toying with the idea of screenwriting since so many people said my Christmas novel would make a good movie too. It seems like quite a challenge. Good luck to you and thanks for mentioning Celtyx. I'd never heard of it before.

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