Challenges while writing the script
I started writing the script for “Cold Soul” and while writing it I faced a few challenges. Firstly, I was afraid to write out my protagonist. When I wrote the first few scenes for the introduction I kept thinking if I was staying true to the character. I kept asking myself if this is the kind of character I want to portray through the actions or language she uses. Am I portraying my protagonist right? I was not sure if I was consistent in my character personality. I feel that there is a lot going on with the character personality that needs to be shown to the story and audience. For example,
INT. HOSPITAL - FIRST FLOOR - DAY NURSE 1 Doctor Anna, you have an appointment at 9am. It is 9:05. I have the patient file ready. Here. The patient is in the waiting room should I call the patient right now? ANNA In five minutes. The door slams into the nurse face before she can talk further.
The scene above shows that she is calm that she is late and stern when she says “in five minutes”. She then goes slamming the door. I kept thinking if the character is always late or is it just this time? How does she converse with the people around her? Does this scene justify or tell us something about the character? I kept going back and forth on how I want to show my protagonist to the world. I feel that I should write up the main emotions and personalities that the protagonist has so that if I am unsure of a certain action I can refer and ask myself if this suits her character.
Secondly, describing the settings. I feel that I am lacking in describing the setting in depth. There is a lot I want to tell but I was not sure if I was describing it correctly. For example,
The tall buildings loom over the city.
Anna drives through the city and glances at the people on the streets.
She sees familiar faces. MISS ROSERTA, is selling a bouquet of flowers
to an old lady . MR CARLO unloading coffee beans from the truck.
The city is quiet even though people are hustling their way to work.
I feel that I can improve further for the scene above. I can expand on how tall or short the buildings are. Also, describing further how the people in the city interact with each other. When I was presenting my world I said that it is a small city where everyone knows each other. Thus, I need to reflect that in my script. I will need to change the scene above to describe the setting of the world better.
In conclusion, I feel that this draft has taught me that I should be confident in writing what I want. It is still work in progress thus it is bound to have imperfections. I feel that I should not be too hard on myself and keep writing to further improve my screenwriting skills.
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