EXT. RAVINE - NIGHT
Iris pulls herself from the mangled Jetta like a worm wriggling free from a crunched-up coke can.
She slaps onto the dirt. She’s in the basin of a ravine.
Behind her, the Jetta lies on its hood, upside down against the far side of the ravine’s crook. It clearly landed face-first before falling on top of itself.
She doesn’t look back. Only ahead. To the edge of a ravine.
A highway looms above her.
The faint glow of headlights passes by every few seconds overhead.
IRIS
(voice-cracking; weak)
Hello? Is anyone there? We need help!
No response. Obviously.
She’s going to have to climb.
Weakened, she approaches the cliff side. She digs her hands into the dirt, clinging to whatever she can. Clawing her way up.
With every passing light, she calls:
IRIS (CONT’D)
Hello? Hello. Hell-
She saves her strength. Grips harder.
Clambering, slipping, reaching, falling, grunting, groaning, until finally -
EXT. ROAD - NIGHT
Iris’ hand grasps the edge. Fingers curl. She heaves with the last of her strength and pulls herself topside. She’s on the shoulder of a cliff-side highway. She curls up, catching her breath, until -
HEADLIGHTS break from behind a hill, BLINDING HER. It’s a VAN, It slows to a stop in front of her. She winces- safe at last?
To read the next page:
Page 3! We did it! Here’s Page 2, but I recommend starting with Page 1.
This project is both parts exhilarating and terrifying. It’s only day three, but I wake up so genuinely excited about how I get to write a page a day of a project I love; what fun!
But then, of course, the time begins to pass without me writing anything, and as the hours tick by, I soon get consumed with self-doubt. “Am I actually going to be able to write a page today? That means I have to, like, actually write! And to do that, I have to figure out what actually happens next.”
I guess that’s the good part about limiting yourself to only writing a page a day. You aren’t tempted to ride the wave of flow-state and see how far out you get before getting lost at sea.
No, this method is much safer. It’s like treading water in the shallow end of the pool once per day, but each day you get a little closer to the deep end.
Maybe we’re a little too early into the process to make such a bold claim. I do think that the further into this I go, the scarier it will be. But taking it day by day does take the edge off.
The key element will be keeping morale high once I’m truly out of my depth.
What’s the method water polo players use for treading water - move your legs like an egg beater? By the time I’m done, I’m turning this high school gym pool into a soufflé!
A quick note about screenwriting:
If you’re unfamiliar with this style, or this is the first time you’re reading a draft of a script-page on substack, let me explain why the formatting is funky.
Here is an example of a screenplay page. This one is actually from the script for the video game The Last of Us, which is now an HBO show so its somewhat topical!
For now, ignore the [ GAMEPLAY] section in green as that format doesn’t apply to TV shows and movies. I’ll explain it below.
There’s four key elements here: The CHARACTER name, the DIALOGUE, the ACTION LINES, and the SCENE HEADING.
In a script, the action lines are left justified; the character names and dialogue are center justified, and the scene headings are in all caps.
That little “INT.” abbreviation stands for “interior” as the location is the interior of a guest room, after which the time of day (in the example, “NIGHT”) tells everyone reading (and more importantly, working on the script) what the light is like outside.
Here’s how my script page 3 looks in its proper form:
I’m writing this in a program called Final Draft, but these days I’ve heard writers use all sorts of programs. If its interesting to those of you who end up reading this, I may start posting the screenshot of the script pages instead of typing up the formatted version. I figure for scrolling on mobile, the way I’m writing it now will look better, but let me know which you prefer.
A note about my car accident:
On Thursday, the first day of this project, I was in such an excited hurry to get to work after I published my first page that I wasn’t looking behind me and bumped into a parked car. Luckily I was right across the street from an auto body shop, so I ran over and asked for a pen and paper to leave a note on the car.
It turns out - the car belonged to one of the technicians!
So long story short, he and I inspected the damage which was negligible at best. I gave him my information, but he said he wasn’t going to report it. I’m prepared in case he does, of course, but it was still nice of him to assure me that I wasn’t a horrible person or anything like that. Consider my guilt relieved!
Now, this whole car-accident opening sequence actually is inspired by something that happened to me a long time ago - luckily with a lot less death. But that’s a story for another time…
Happy Saturday!