revisions

The word conjures up a great many things. Revisit. Visions. How many times would she revisit Saardu? How many changes would it undergo as Carma experienced new visions? 

Let's count...

1. The 1985 version, the original first draft novel titled The Ills of Saardu, copyright registered on May 17 that year. (Republished later under a new title: The Genius of Saardu.) 
2. The 1987 version varied very little, from what Carma recalls of Tish's notes and the rewrite time being short. She was a fast typist. If all she had to do was type mostly what she saw, rearranging the storyline... the planet itself remained exactly as she had created it in the beginning. She was madly in love with this planet. It was her very own Narnia. She could live there forever.
3. The 1991 movie script, about which the kind professor called her inventive, original and refreshing. His affirmation would revive her for the remainer of her thinking years. 
4. The 2000 online posting of chapters of a wholly new premise, story arc, and main charactere name. Cherry became Ruby, who was Katy as a literary reinvention. Katy--Ruby was a girl on Earth who had the use of two of her fingers, and an amazing computer that helped her dreams turn into books, which Carma edited and published. In her dreams, Ruby visited other worlds. One named Zenya and the other Saardu. In her dreams she could talk and sing and dance and shout, she could climb trees and swim! She could pet the wildlife, most of whom were extraordinarily company-loving. Best of all, they were telepaths. Every last one of them--down to the bugs. Nothing much changed on Saardu in 2000, except for the cast of characters, how they got there, where they come from, and how Ruby's encounter with a boy named Howie changed what we know about life itself, and who we are in the universe. Carma still adores this version, titled The Adventures of Ruby & Howie on Saardu. 
5. The 2003 screenplay based on this new version. 
6. The 2004 the first rewrite of that 2003 script, now titled Saardu: The Adventures of Ruby & Howie. The planet was front and center. This mystical planet that pulled two earthbound kids to it, while their bodies remained in the here and now--a far more intriguing story!  At least to her it was.. She was excited to show this to Professor Walter, if he was still at UCLA. (He was, and eventually they would connect.) 
7. The 2005 rewrite of the above script, which she turned in as homework in a UCLA online screenwriting lab. Best of all, the course was based on Richard Walter's book, and taught by one of Richard Walter's students, now faculty in the screenwriting department, usually teaching summer classes, plus only professional courses that were open to the public. His name was Chris and she found him to be a very good teacher. She took his lessons and wisdom to heart. It was in the course of their last conversation about her work that Chris told her she ought to write another script, because this story--as good as it was--he said, "It's a hard sell." More about what that means later.
8. The 2007 overhaul of the Saardu movie script, returning to the roots of Saardu as best she could remember it, considering the fact that she had thrown out the box of Saardu stuff seven years ago when she decided Katy was her leading lady! She would save the adventures of Katy and Baz for later, apparently there was an attitude problem about a story of two distinctly gifted children. Somebody actually used a word Carma won't repeat. Katy was a miracle. Carma was a devout C.S. Lewis fan, starting with Narnia and evolving as an adult to consume perhaps half of all the books he had written. Her favorites were The Screwtape Letters, which is positively devous, and A Grief Observed, which Carma will tell you is the most tragically romantic thing she has ever read. Because it is not fiction. Nevermind all that. Saardu: The Adventure Begins was born that year, and Carma finally met the world's greatest teacher, Professor Richard Walter on the UCLA campus!
9. The 2008 rewrite, pretty much starting from scratch after reading the professor's meticulous notes on each and every page of her script! She gained a thorough education directly from the professor, whom she hired as her second writing coach--or as he preferred to call it, script/story consultant. He would read it as many times as it took to get it to the point where they both agree that it is ready to be presented to studios. She paid him a fin. In 2008, she would rewrite the damn thing over and over. She can remember how many iterations they went back and forth on. 
10. Early in 2009, taking his advice about under-utilized characters, she honed the script to where she felt ready to expose it to some light. She registered the script with the Writers Guild and submitted it to several screenwriting competitions. In 2009, Saardu: The Adventure Begins, earned a Best Feature Script award in age 8-12 category, anointed by KidsFirst! Film Festival Screenwriting Jurors. It earned Best Children's Script from AOF International judges. It made the list of Readers' Favorites at EXPO. Top ten science fiction scripts, Fantastic Planet International Screenwriting Contest. Honorable Mention from the Yosemite Film Festival judges. Top three of the month readers' favorite screenplays at Zoetrope screenwriters workshop--a virtual hangout for writers. Carma discussed these victories with the professor and they agreed, it felt ready to show to studios. 

The writer describes the year 2009 as mind altering. It was the year she met her husband and her illustrator, both on Facebook, when it was a half decent networking hangout for talent. 

Ludo and Carma rushed madly into a friendly venture and created the first published Saardu novel. 

Saardu-Aartwork™
by Ludovic Leleu © 2009

more to follow =>

Come back next week for some of Carma's favorite frequently asked questions and her responses.

Saturday's blog topic...first pitch.