*** CONTENT WARNING: themes of grooming & S.A. ***
i’ve been developing my screenplay HUMANPOWDERKEG! and hit a block. so naturally, i started skimming through my other unfinished projects. in doing so i stumbled upon my dear ole moonswing. my first screenplay i’ve ever written. started back in 2022 or 2023- it’s all over the place. i had began writing it thinking i knew what i was doing. but looking back on it now, what a HOT MESS. no narrative arc, no character goals, just choas, chaos and more chaos. (thank God for save the cat tehe)
but- there are some decent nuggets in there. a couple scenes that still have some poignant value to them, i feel. so why not share an excerpt for the substack? potentially, this could be a series. i post excerpts from scrapped screenplays- and maybe if they’re received well enough i’d go back to the drawing board and see if there’s still some air to breathe into them. welp, without further ado i give you:
moonswing (in part)
FADE IN:
EXT. WARREN FAMILY SHED – REAR – DAY
ROME is seen with his next door neighbor and friend, RICKEY. The two are building sand castles in the mud while the older boys are playing football and the girls are gawking over them. WILLY is seen captivating everyone with his athletic prowess. RICKEY’S older brother KENNY walks away from the boys over to RICKEY and ROME.
KENNY
Rickey, come play football.
RICKEY
Really? YES!
ROME wears a look of naivety and nervousness.
RICKEY
Rome, come on!
YOUNG ROME
I’m playing here still!
RICKEY
Well have fun
RICKEY speeds off leaving KENNY with ROME. KENNY analyzes the castle ROME is building and sees a paper-mached tiara besides him.
KENNY
(scoffs) Queer.
YOUNG ROME
Huh?
KENNY
I said look here, you have to play today. Your big brother said so.
YOUNG ROME
But-
KENNY
Get up.
KENNY steps on the tiara while grabbing ROME’s collar pulling him up to walk over to the field. WILLY sees ROME walking over with KENNY and gets enthusiastic to see his brother join the team.
KENNY
Alright, guys. Now that everybody’s here- Let’s play.
WILLY
Ahhhh yeah, let’s go! Who’s picking teams?
KENNY
Nah, no teams. SMEAR THE QUEER!
KENNY throws the football to ROME immediately after announcing the game. ROME frightened catches the ball then ultimately drops. Bending over to pick it up, he gets tackled brutally by every player. ROME cries out to his brother.
YOUNG ROME
Willy, I don’t wanna do this anymore!!
WILLY
Rome, it’s football you’re gonna get tackled.
YOUNG ROME
I don’t like football!!
ROME cries speed walking back to the rear of the shed. Upon arriving, he sees his tiara destroyed.
CUT TO:
The boys on the field rough housing. The girls are seen heckling them.
GIRL 1
Kenny, Carla thinks you’re hot!
GIRL 2
Shut up, Tati!
KENNY
Yeah, yeah whatever you say.
KENNY smirks then quickly breaks into a sweat. HE starts walking towards his house.
RICKEY
Is it curfew already?
KENNY
No, dummy. I’ll be back in a bit.
RICKEY runs back over the group as WILLY throws him the ball.
KENNY notices ROME staring at his tiara, he walks over and stops right behind ROME.
KENNY
You know you can just make another crown.
ROME is silent. HE bends over to pick it up and turns around to KENNY.
YOUNG ROME
My grandma made it… She’s not gon’ wanna make it a second time. Grandpa got mad and yelled at her when she made this one.
KENNY
I’ll fix it for you.
YOUNG ROME
(excited) You know how to do that?
KENNY
Yeah, come on.
KENNY walks towards next-door going through ROME’s backyard, jumping the fence and gesturing towards ROME to do the same. ROME obliges.
CUT TO:
INT. KENNY’S ROOM
KENNY’s room is typically that of a seventeen-year old’s. Trashy and girls in bikinis on the walls. He begins showing ROME his video games, older kids’ games- with car stealing, risky women, guns and gangs. ROME notices one in particular that inrigues him. A dazzling woman is seen on the cover making a kissy face.
YOUNG ROME
What’s this one?
KENNY
(chuckles) Ah ha! This one’s sick, you get to see her boobies.
YOUNG ROME
Boobies?
KENNY snatches the game from ROME’s hands and puts it in the gaming console. ROME watches as he plays the game in order to get the boob shot. After a couple of minutes of fidgeting his controller and cursing his way through most of it. A poster is seen on the game’s early digital quality so it’s a bit blocky but there are in fact, boobs. Nipple and all. A busty woman with dirty blonde hair is baring her computer rendered chest in front of the two.
KENNY
Nice right?
KENNY moves his character back and forth to emulate kisses on video game hottie’s pixelated milkers.
KENNY
It’s giving me a boner!
KENNY begins rubbing his crotch while looking over at ROME who’s just staring at the girl in the game. KENNY presses pause on the game and the menu comes up shifting ROME’s focus from the screen over to KENNY.
KENNY
Come feel it.
ROME gets up and walks over to KENNY reaching his hand out. The screen CUTS TO BLACK.
An audible white noise builds for about thirty seconds.
FADE FROM BLACK the MOON center frame. It begins to get smaller and smaller throughout the following monologue.
ADULT ROME (V.O.)
Loveliness exists in every single place, if you think about it. Every nook and cranny. Every street corner. In every less than charming man or woman. Loveliness exists. I guess to see love, your soul has to be familiar with love. For me- Where I go, love goes. It’s a gorgeous thing. It connects strangers, turns them into friends. It smiles out to the world and even the evil forces that be.
Tells them- I’m unafraid to love. I’m not scared to love myself and all that I am. All that should’ve left me scorned and confused… The mental distortion that followed each of my shortcomings… All the times I questioned my identity, my integrity, my morals. Those insecure moments… They don’t scare me. They can’t scare me. My heart, beating fast, is eager to display love. What an intense feeling of faith. This love for others remains even as they’re burning themselves alive. And I’m getting burned by association.
The MOON is now a white dot in the middle of the screen. Then it explodes.
moonswing started as a tale of dive bar woes. it centered around rome who after deciding to stay home alone from a concert with his friends is encountered by disruptive childhood memories that threaten his present way of life and also throughout the night-in, his paranoia increases as he begins to believe somebody or somebodies are outside his home trying to get to him.
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i have about 70 pages of it written and it’s kind of like my little heirloom now. i like reading over it and comparing it to my writing now. my voice has definitely stayed in tact but it’s far more sharper. and aware of it’s self. anyways, bella’s still out there. but i feel her in my heart. thanks for all of your support in this difficult time.
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also, if you want to read more excerpts from moonswing or any other unfinished projects of mine just let me know in the poll.
thanks for reading guys and take care. let’s have a good week!