What is the history of your script, "The Legend of the 10 Elemental Masters"?
1. From a low-quality classic
From the low-quality classic series, "The Story of the Wonderful Adventure", referred to as "Wondad" or "Wondad series" from here on, particularly episode 4, it's main concept has started it all. In this old-fashioned script, two baddies, one each from Uranus and Neptune, were much stronger than the main team of good guys [which composed of nine characters!]. Also involved were spells, much different from the ones listed on my site. This story, however, was the basement for "The Legend of the 10 Elemental Masters".
2. Dreams and mind game events as ideas
The start from almost any idea was either a dream** or something I've done in my mind game***. Many of my most interesting dreams have been used and "reformatted" to fit my story. What dreams these are is currently kept secret. How I take a dream or something from my mind game and "format" it is explained fairly well here.
Since this story was written around May of 1999, when my Status System was being mass-updated, writing it, originally, would've been a bit tough if status terms were used. So, instead, I played my mind game and went through enough dreams to get plenty of ideas while my Status System was undergoing many of it's major changes. During the real 1999, when I was in eighth grade, there was a party that actually happened that sparked an idea for the beginning act of the story.
Since I've always been into travel, but unable to [one major use of my mind game], I thought of having a story that featured world-wide travel, just as Wondad episode 3 featured. In fact, the very start from my stories was based on a dream that featured travel, on a log raft.
3. Basic run down
Acts 2 through most of the rest of the story was based on travel. The characters needed to travel to various locations on the Earth so they could free the elemental masters of the world. Acts 1 through 10 featured visiting a specific country, however, act 11 was based on the very name of the story. Act 11 was featured and highly expanded from a dream I had. It featured a futuristic city, much info about it is kept secret. Act 12 was just another destination like acts 1 through 10. During this time, the story had the title "The Rise of Atlantis", and act 13 is focused directly on Atlantis. Act 14 featured a special part of the story and is the point in which the main plot was very rapidly reaching the climax. This part, however, is going to be used in my sequel to my current story, "The Legend of the 10 Elemental Masters". Act 15 was another major area of the story that uncovers secrets to the past events in the preceding acts and several unexpected surprises. Act 16 was the climax of the story [Though, sadly as it is, it was quite boring, especially for a climax.]. It was the final fight between the team and the bad guy. Act 17 was just plain bizarre, stupid, and just not worth it giving a grade of a big fat F.
4. Mega modification changes
Though this low-grade script was editted, the editting actually helped with raising my skill level in that part of the list on what to do. I realized that I just had to fix all the bugs in the script. Since there were so many bugs, the story was ridiculously long, and that I thought the story's general plot was confusing, I decided to rewrite the entire script from beginning to end with little reference to the old version [and I mean little]. Not only did the editting help raise my skill level, it helped, a lot, with memorizing the story's basic plot. Because the old plot had so many things that were boring or meaningless to have, I had to decide whether to keep each part and rewrite it, or to just delete it all together.
The first scene had to introduce the main character telling as much about him as possible either directly or indirectly and to be able to tell you what the story was about right away, the earlier, the better. Indeed, from the first scene, keeping the same basic idea, it was changed the most. From flat boring having almost nothing going on, to a version that makes the story seem interesting right away. In the links at the bottom of the page above the footnotes, you'll find a reference to compare the first act between the two versions.
5. Story concept changes
The list of changes between the two versions is immense, extremely long, so I tried to shorten/summarize it a bit.
In Scene 1, the main idea was kept the same. It's just rewritten to get the reader hooked right away. It features Knuckles being on his way to return a jail escapee back in jail. Knuckles continually senses to help him figure out what the mystery was behind the strange events he's sensing. Scene 2, where the main character gets two other main characters right away, was left almost alone, but written much better. Scene 3 was deleted entirely and won't be featured in any other story. I seriously didn't like that scene. Scene 4 from the old version is now scene 3 in the new version, again, rewritten. If you'd like to see a comparison between the first act of the old version [it's boring I tell ya, boring, so I wouldn't recommend reading it, unless you want to see the major changes between the versions], and the same first act of the new version, compare the two here.
Act 2 featured the main theme of the story in both the old and new versions. However, the concept between the two are opposites. The theme, features an air plane ride to Puerto Rico.... Also, because I found scene 6 in the old version boring and senseless, it's been deleted. Scene 9 in the old version required scene 3, which was deleted, so scene 9 got deleted as well, though scene 9 did have a funny part, something originating from my mind game and can be found in the list of funny things. In the old version, the audience in a court room got very noisy and the judge couldn't get them to be quiet. Knuckles casts a spell to simulate the sound of thunder and scares everyone.
Act 3 featured the characters telling flashbacks of each other and their origin, mainly of the main character. Since much of this has already been indirectly specified in act 1 and has been scattered around the rest of the story otherwise, almost all of this act has been deleted, however, it's location has been kept the same and the one key event here has also been kept, the rescuing of another master monster.
Act 4 featured another event from my mind game, kept almost exactly the same as I have it in my story, except the beginning half, which I added in. This event, however, was mostly deleted with a small change and meshed in with one concept from Act 5 in the old version. Scene 17 in the old version became what is scene 9 in the new version.
6. Heavy mass-combining of acts
Act 5 had mostly nonsense stuff going on that was deleted. Since Act 4 and 5 from the old version had major deletions, I combined these two acts as one whole.
Acts 6 and 7 were actually one destination, partitioned because act 6 was getting really long when I wrote it. It spanned 25 written pages for just act 6 and another 7 for act 7. Since much of this stuff was nonsense, again, it has been mass-deleted. It featured something I did a lot in my mind game, jumping from platform to platform with a pool of mud surrounding the area. You won't find mud 4.5 feet deep 13,000 feet up Mount Everest, would you? To make it even harder for the characters, the main enemy set up a special barrier to prevent the main good guy from getting around so quickly. From about 32 written pages to only a small 9 written pages in the new version. Since, originally, with the deletions included, acts 6 and 7 would only have 1 scene remaining, a fairly short scene. To make it a bit better, I added a completely new section learning about the various features of the story's general content. This special scene is the unlucky 13. It's actually my favorite scene in the entire story! When I came to editting it, I couldn't wait to get to this scene, a halfway point, something I've never had happen with older stories! More on the editting process later.
Acts 8, 9, and 10 had tons of unneccessary events for the main script. In fact, all these have shrunk down into only 3 scenes. However, instead of being the next act in the new version, these scenes are the next act after this, act 7 in the new version plus a few parts from the old version's act 13. Act 6 in the new version is mentioned in the next paragraph. Act 9, however, in the old version, featured an endless monster raid attacking a city somewhere in Africa. Through numerous ultima6 spells and a special shield Knuckles gives the characters, the monsters wouldn't get wiped out.
Act 11 is what act 6 is in my new version. This act featured the futuristic city from my dream I had some time ago. It's a city named Amazonia. It is located right along the Amazon river, which, as you can tell, is where I got the name from. What was featured in this dream has been deleted from the old version, however, it's been planned to be featured in the sequel to the new version. About 2/3 of act 11 has been deleted, the basic concepts except one part, have been almost untouched. Act 11 in my old version [and 6 in new version] is my top favorite act. Much of what is featured in this act is kept secret.
Act 12, in the old version, was just a final rest, however, it was very boring so it has been completely deleted.
7. Toward the end
Act 13 featured the newly Risen piece of land, Atlantis, and has basically retained it's original idea. However, it has been shortened some and rewritten for a better plot. Act 13's main events have been moved more than any other events. Much of what is done on Act 13 has been moved to what would be 8, 9, and 10 in the old version. However, even some extras are included in act 7 of the new version that were previously not included in the old version. Parts of act 13 from the old version has also been moved to the final act in my new version, act 8.
Act 14 featured a special event neither from a dream nor my mind game or any other source. This act has been deleted entirely from the old version, however, parts of this act are planned for use in the new version's sequel.
Act 15 featured secrets to past events in the previous 14 acts and why things happened as they did. It also included several surprises. Much of these surprises have been deleted and what remains has been moved to act 6 in the new version.
Act 16 was the climax of the story. It was so boring that I just plain rewrote it from scratch keeping the very basic ideas.
Act 17 was the ending scenes of the old version. Because the ending in the old version was very bad, the ending in the new version is much much better. I spent extra time planning it to make it extra special. The difference between the two endings is kept secret until the movie is completed and has been on market for at least 7 days.
8. The first 5 rounds of editting
After I rewrote the new version, editting was next. This is where I checked the content for general errors [like missing periods at the end of sentences, missing parentheses that denote actions, etc.], and for grammer errors [like misused words, bad wording on some areas, etc.], to ensure of the shortest length possible [that is, getting rid of anything truly unneccessary], and to verify the layout design and facts. Another feature was having to add forgotten images, maps and diagrams or fix existing ones if needed.
On the first-level editting, I did encounter quite a few errors. These were easy to fix. Second-level editting starts when I finished reading through the first-time editting and is the second time I start reading through it to fix things if needed.
Rounds 3, 4, and 5 are just the same as the first and second, but it gets harder and harder to find errors. By the fifth round, I was so involved with the story I forgot that I was even editting it. I've had to go back and reread where I think I first got too involved. That tells me that the story is better than I thought. Again, it was scene 13 that really grabbed my attention and was the most motivated to reach. Also, act 6 in general [scenes 14 through 17] is also my favorite area keeping my motivation and distraction levels too high that I often forgot I was even editting.
9. A change in editting method
Because I found the motivation levels so high, I devised a very good way to solve this issue. For the last and final round, round 6, I was to edit each scene to perfection. That is, keep rereading the same scene over and over again until I don't find an error. If I do get involved, however, it's straight back to where I think I lost track on what I was supposed to be doing. Once that round was done, I went back again and did some fixes. Long scenes posed some problems with this, however. To solve this issue, I sectionized the scene. That is, I broke the scene up into multiple sections [sort of like this page is designed] and kept rereading those sections until no errors could be found then go to the next section and repeat. I've had about 36 to 40 sections in all, typically about 2 pages; 1.2 pages without the images and their captions. Instead of just going through one round every three or four days, I often took nearly a full day just to complete just one scene. Tossing in the back section, the special section containing the raw basics, like the character's general information, like an appendix, that took nearly 9 days to complete just half of it. The image database, a collection of images, maps, and diagrams used throughout the entire story, plus extras not found in the main script itself, though it contained the most pages, it was the easiest to check. Just about one hour was all that was needed for about 20 pages of images, 2 each [excluding the logo] plus a short caption. Past here, the rest went by in about two hours, and could declare the editting job finished.
10. Getting an agent
Past the editting phase, I sent my script to copyright. I then started to write a letter to mail to about 4 production companies. This turned out to be a bad thing to do as all I got was replies saying that it was unsolicitated [sp.?] mail and didn't even read it [except to determine it's nature]. I thought I was at a brick wall until one day, I went to the library to seek more information. I needed an agent. How to get one, that I didn't know as I ran out of time to find out. Eventually, I found a service that provided access to hundreds upon hundreds of agents. I found it so tempting that I couldn't help but think about it. Eventually, I got the money I needed for this and now I've got two agents seeking my script. Now to simply wait for an exceptance notice where they accept my script for production.
Please note: until copyright has been successful for my newest version of my script, likely to be completed in August or September of 2004*. Until then, the information about it is very limited.
To see what is currently available, click on any link below with "available" immediately after the link text. If you see "restricted", you can still view it, but a lot of information has been left out. If you see "unavailable", clicking that link will just give 404 errors. Once copyright has been successfully completed, many of these links will still take a bit of time to complete afterward. After the documents are written, all will be fully available, including the first Act as a preview of it!
Script-writing main page - fully available
My general story-writing history - fully available
This script's long history - restricted
Self-created storyboard - restricted to first act only
Preview of the first act - unavailable
Script summary - slightly restricted
My old version - restricted
Footnotes:
* This time frame is based on a previous successful registration. It took close to 9 months to complete. My new version was submitted around, I think, sometime around Christmas of 2003. Add 9 months, that's about August of 2004.
** Many of my wacky dreams I won't use in any of my stories have been included here.
*** My mind game is a futuristic-type video game I play in my mind. To learn all about it, Click here.
