I completed the first draft of a screen adaptation of my sister's novella, A Sword in Hand. I started in late 2021, getting the first few pages done, bit by bit, following along with my sister's story, I but mostly procrastinated for over a year, turning my attention to other things. The week after my 60th birthday, I resumed work on the project and took to writing every day, finishing it in two weeks.

It's a direct adaptation of a work that's about 15-1/2 pages. Most of the dialogue and much of the directions are lifted directly from my sister. I then added and edited where necessary for it to make some sense as a script, and this draft comes out to a little over 44 pages.

The next step is to listen to it read by other actors, get feedback and take notes. After that comes the challenge of figuring out what to cut and what to expand. In its present form, it's way too short for a feature and a bit long for a short film. Its length is more in the range of a long-form TV pilot.

My plan is for the reading to take place on Monday, July 31, my sister's birthday. That should give me enough time to wrangle the talent and anyone else among friends and family willing to listen.

This draft is a merger of Leigh Ann's writing and mine. It's a matter of how much of my sister's words I keep in the next draft, while remaining true to her story and the characters. Many of her descriptions of action work perfectly well as directions in a screenplay. And there's being so closely attached to it, given our closeness as family. Yet despite that, I can still see where the story raises questions, which I'm sure will be raised by others.

At least this draft is finally done. On to the next step.