Well, I was writing a novel. Got about 100k deep and....
YIKES! All that sounds like a heck of a lot of work... Though i can relate (in more ways than one, even though I know jack shit about writing screenplays for TV).
If you'd still like to work on and finish that novel, that
Story Grid thing I linked you can definitely help you out and prune-away the bloat. It can help you figure out what the essence of your story is, what matters and what is redundant, what is lackluster and doesn't serve much to the core of the story, etc. helping you make it tighter.
In my case, I also seek out chapter-based / line-based
meaning so that nothing I do is unimportant to the story, because if it is, then it has to be ruthlessly... thrown into the trash-can until I can recycle it some other way. I don't just write in parts, like a 3-part or 5-part structure like in a traditional story, but I also contextualize what each chapter is meant to represent, and why each scene within that chapter matters. It also allows me to reduce my story into an outline in my head so I can mull it over when I'm not actually working on it.
The point being, every part of my story must have a purpose to exist, otherwise it's just fluff, and I fear it might bore people.
That is one of the self-imposed limitations I keep for myself, along with contextual (not word-count) length, defined by theme, which also determines what beats of the story I want to hit. Not just for the quality of the story, but also to make sure I get it done (because, as I said, I have at terrible track-record for getting things done). Good set of limitations lead to a good system (especially a writing system), and a good writing system will allow you to consistently produce good-quality stuff quickly every single time.
But this might not be as useful to you as my next response, which is...
The question is, how the heck did you manage to channel the energy to put all that together?
Orderliness, Plan of Attack, and sheer hard-work. Let me explain...
I knew this project wasn't mine, but it was something that somebody else trusted me with (along with her own money). I did not want to betray that trust, and I did not want to take that for granted. And beyond just giving them the best-possible thing I could give them at a rate, I also knew that what they were looking for, first and foremost, is to have to have that animation
done. So I couldn't afford to not be practical about this, and therefore needed to rely on a system that will always be reliable to me no matter what I do. I also can't afford to make things so difficult on myself that I would cough up blood before the project is completed.
So a Plan of Attack was necessary for me. I needed to figure out what I needed to do how and in what order before anything else, otherwise I would be bumping along forever, lost and unable to do anything for a long while. I needed to be swift and efficient, even with my creativity. So I storyboarded and created layouts and kept sending it until I got to the final revisions VERY early on. Then I kept in mind what each of the cuts in the storyboard required, and created assets that I can commonly use, as well as keep track of what each scene required to pull them off immediately. I also planned out which tool would be the best to create which cut to save me time, which is why there are so many tools mentioned on my website. Even "how many frame needed per-cut" was decided way ahead of time to make sure I don't over-work myself (and despite that, I
did end up overworking and also got stuck a fair amount).
Having a general idea on what you need to do and how you need to execute it helps a TON! And if a plan-of-attack doesn't seem to be working well, there's no shame in trying something else, but if you do it early on it will save you a lot of pain. Of course, you don't have to be
too meticulous, because...
Being orderly also helps a ton. I'm not a very orderly person because I think very laterally, but I also freeze every time I confront a goddamned mess. So it's still in my best interest to make sure everything has the right place to go so that I don't have to think twice about where to find them. And if I'm orderly
and have a plan of attack, so long as my plan isn't too rigid to have autonomy, I can also plan for unforeseen circumstances and jump right into work anyway -- such as, if I don't have much time to spare, I can finish a cut that is relatively simple to achieve, but if I finish one cut and still have a lot of time and energy I can tackle yet another cut immediately. I don't have to work linearly (except when it comes to phases); I can finish Cut 24 today, and Cut 2 tomorrow.
(This is how I also work with my poetry and short stories, btw, just in a MUCH smaller scale.)
And after you have all that, it's all a matter of determination and hard-work. XD Because without that, I doubt I'll ever be able to complete anything. I just have to sit down and slog my way through to at least complete one thing --
anything -- in a single day. Even a single step of progress matters if you can get that in. So long as you have a plan you're not going to lose track. Ever.
What do you think? Does that sound helpful?
