Coffee Crew! What's the word?
Quick update today. Spent more time on the dialogue again, just finessing the specifics and making sure it's where I want it to be. It's a balancing act, massaging the words while keeping it all grounded. I'm not going for anything too stylized with this one, so that's important. If it lands too far, I feel like the tone would be wildly different, and the story would have to lean into that in a way it doesn't right now.
The surprise I gave myself with this script is just how big the world they exist in is. I had in mind for this to be three characters, and that's it. Well, that doubled. One of them is more of a shadow than anything else, but without them, there's just way less connecting the different parts of the journey. The perfect setup for a limited series, so it all works out the way that it should. I got comfortable with the story I wanted to tell before I started writing. What I didn't know was just how structurally heavy the base of the story was. I was doing a lot, trying to work it in a space that was too small. The world was already there; I just had to find it, and that's the beauty of the craft.
I'm confident that I can wrap up this second draft tomorrow. The first test will be a cold read from another writer who I don't have any connection to.
Until then, I'll catch you at the movies. ✌🏾