Too Short

The script that I am working on has been in the works in at least 4 years. I recently found my original story written on two sides of three legal length pieces of paper. When I consider how much the story has grown in both length and content it’s amazing to me how bare bones the original is. Further, it makes me understand why the first script, based on that original story, is only 14 pages long! But since I’ve started on the new and improved longer script, it makes me question my writing skill in the pass.
I took Scriptwriting in college, I believe in 1997. It was a lot of fun and I developed a script that I was very proud of. That short script inspired a story that I wrote years later. I didn’t finish that new story because Hollywood released a movie that was too much like my story and it just made me angry and discouraged. I think that enough time has passed, so I will try to finish that one up as soon as I finish my courant project.
I was talking to my younger sister yesterday. She is in community college right now. She lives at home with our mom and working part time as a CNA. My mom wanted me to talk to her about what is expected from her as opposed to what is expected from you in high school. I went on and on about improving your writing skills. Reading more to not only improve your writing, but also to improve your knowledge of your subject. As I was telling her this I considered that first script that I ever wrote and how terribly under developed it was. It was only 21 pages long. The requirement was 30 pages, but I got an “A” on it anyway. Granted, I did a lot research to develop the characters the way that I would like and to improve elements of the story. But there was so much that was left out. So much that I could have expanded on to make it a better, longer script.
I just completed the back story of my current script. I’ve even completed the script version of the story. But since I’ve started working on the back story, I’ve read Oscar winning/nominated scripts. This has caused me to write a better developed story and an increase in details that I have left out in previous stories and scripts.
So now as I rewrite the original story to fit the new back story I realize that in the ten or so years of writing and reading since I took that first script writing class my writing had not really improved! Just a little, but I’m not nearly where I wanted to be. My general writing was fine, but my scripts were still skeletal. When I compare my back story script, which I wrote in March, with my original story script which I wrote in 2004 I see that I had a long way to go when I thought that I was a guru! I am glad that instead of trying to produce that short 14 page script as I had planned, I am developing it into something bigger and better that has the potential to be something great.