How Long Should You Keep Working on One Story? Part 3

My friend, Steven Kearney was instrumental in keeping me going. He was already a successful comedian, actor, writer and producer. In Australia, you have to be a jack of all trades and he does them all really well. He told me about Michael Hague
http://www.storymastery.com/
and that having the script covered by him would the cost of $800. (This is the part where I tell you start saving.) What came back was devastating. The story itself and the characters were wonderfully original, (OK, so far so good) but the story was a complete mess. Unmanageable. Too many characters and who was the bad guy?  Damn! I'd been working on the structure of this thing for years and it still wasn't right. Never mind, I took a deep breath and his notes, and started over. After a few more months of rewriting, I felt I had implemented all of Michael Hague's instructions via his DVD on structure, however, when I had finished, I was too scared to send it back. I just did not want to spend another $800 to be told it was still terrible.

Steven was busy with his own production company by now, so I really was on my own. And let me tell you, on my own was not something I wanted to be. I needed a support group but I had worn them out. No body wanted to hear about my script or lack of one. By this time, I had rewritten the main characters into, probably, a hundred drafts and the story was changing each time. I decided that I would run it by someone else, someone who had never heard of me or my story, before sending back to Michael. I found a producer, someone on the net, who had started a script covering business and who offered me a good deal, so I started work again. I will admit, he gave me one great piece of the puzzle. But, I was to learn later, that he was a bad script editor, though he did leave me with some great advice after our last session. 'Find a  really cool, up and coming Australian director." What? Is that all you've got? Where am I going to find one of those? Australia does, small outback stories about dogs or great little films about sixties singing stars. My story spans time and dimensions with a seventeenth century heroine. I'm talking big fantasy for the YA crowd and those who like fantasy mixed with Sci Fi. In fact, Lord of the Rings for girls! You can see my problem.

I had to face the fact that as a producer, and that after spending six sessions with the story, if he himself did not want to produce it, then, what was I left with? I thought it was really good now; in fact, I was certain! Oh boy, was I was wrong.
To be Continued....This blog is going to document the journey of The Perfect Tear and what it took to get it this far!

This is the other thing I spend  a lot of time doing. Here's a link of a great Jerome Kern song my band and I recorded live last week. My dress is by Cut 25 and the gorgeous shoes are by Jean-Michael Cazabat. If you look closely, you will see my shoes match Steve Hadley's beautiful bass! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlrXLWT2GHA