My Process

Opening scenes are crucial. Bruno knew exactly what he wanted to start the film. From there, setting the mood and setting up the characters took a lot of the first months of the project.  I became obsessed with the backstories of each of the primary characters so that I knew them better than many real people. Those opening sequences would tell audiences in a nutshell the world in which our main protagonist lived and the influences that would determine his decisions.

World Building

Bruno and his team had already created the technology and look of the world.  They’d been working on this a long time before I joined the project.  That was a tricky part of the writing effort.  In screenplays, those things are usually left for the director and special effects folks to hammer out, after the screenplay is complete.  But Bruno was the producer and director, so he wanted very specific visual imagery in mind that he wanted reflected in the script.

The Ending

Bruno knew where his hero would end up and what he would accomplish.  That big finale, full of emotion and punctuated with action was the culmination of everything that would happen in the middle. The characters struggled, loved, and died over and over again with every rewrite–and there were many. Endings can be changed based on the reactions of a test audience. But I knew in my heart that our final outcome, the final result of the search for salvation was the only real way the story could end.

Everything Else

The rest was cake.  I say that in jest. Generating my ensemble of characters and creating the dialogue that wove their relationships into a tapestry the audience would care about was like giving birth.  Lots of pain. Dark doubts that I could finish this gargantuan task bubbled up from unknown depths. Writer’s block clutched me by the throat. My remedy was to sequester myself in an entirely new location.  I booked a desert retreat with only Joshua trees and quail as external distractions.  I could do nothing but write and pace, pace and write more. It worked.  The threads of plot and required action sequences fell into place.

Once Again, with Feeling

In the end, Bruno liked the story.  Then he completely changed a couple of foundational premises–and I started all over again.  “Less humor! More battles! ” were his clarion cries. Even some relationships changed. Into the fray I leapt and resculpted the story to meet the new parameters.

Aftermath

Pain.  Anxiety.  Struggle. Squeezing my brain for every drop of dialogue. It was the hardest and best writing experience of my life, and I wouldn’t change it for anything.

My hope is that this expansive saga will be produced as a full length movie or adapted as a television series.  “White Storm” incorporates drama and action in a space opera setting that spans generations and places cultures in conflict on a galactic scale. I know that most scripts never see the light of day.  Still, after a year and a half of immersive writing, it feels like I’ve handed off my foster child.  I hope it grows up to be a respected movie some day.

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This is a self-funded project. Find out more on facebook.com/whitestormsaga.