27 April 2025
At long last… the second draft of the script is completed. The script now stands at 18,912 words and 76 pages. I’ll have to do some time tests some other day, but it’s safe to say this will be a feature-length film.
For the most part, the second draft is the final draft – locked in. There’s an 1100 word section in Scene 10 that I don’t absolutely love yet. I need to revisit it later with fresh eyes to see if I can’t polish it up a bit further.
I’m kind of embarrassed that it took me about 9 months from the conclusion of the first draft to the conclusion of the second draft. But there have been a number of unique challenges with this script.
Writing a stage adaptation to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” was so much easier because the source material was already there. I simply had to translate it. In contrast, “Socks” is an original story of my own.
In “Frankenstein”, I kept the 19th century dialect. While some people might consider that a challenge, it actually made my job easier because old English is more formal, a lot like writing political rhetoric – a style of writing I’m particularly good at. With “Socks”, I had to write casual dialogue, peppered with small talk and minor distractions to make it sound more natural. I’m not particularly good at small talk in real life. I prefer to get straight to the point. So teasing out the script in this manner was especially challenging for me.
“Socks” is a persuasive story. The challenge in writing a persuasive story is to avoid beating the audience over the head with your message, but rather to make it subtle. If your audience accepts your argument, you want them to think that they reached that conclusion on their own rather than being dragged there kicking and screaming.
Finally, I’m not a professional writer. I’ve studied Robert McKee. I know good writing when I see it and I know bad writing when I see it. I know the difference between plot and story, the difference between character and characterization. I know the importance of strong character development and the importance of conflict. I have no delusions that I’m producing a work of Shakespeare, but I’m making every effort to ensure that this script – this story – is as strong and as professionally written as I am capable of. That meant not being content with “good enough” but constantly going back over the script again and again to polish it and bang out as many imperfections as I could find. That was a very time-consuming process.
And there’s a lot of me in this script. A lot of my own story is laid open bare in this script, and so now I move on to the next step – allowing a select group of friends to read the script and give me feedback.
