Finally...a BREAKTHROUGH!

If you are still there, gentle reader, I can finally report that I'm on my way again. And now there are only 10 more sleeps before I leave home and begin my 2010 vacation which includes the all-important activities in Los Angeles. Hollywood, even.

There are two kinds of being stuck for this writer.

One is just the regular there's-a-blank-page-and-I-can't-go-on, which is normally handled with good old-fashioned procrastination. Laundry to do, bathrooms to clean, plants to transplant all become more important when you're that kind of stuck. Eventually you just sit down and write the thing because while you are planting plants and upside down in toilet bowls, your mind is working on something that you can write down.

This particular term of stuckedness was not this variety at all. It was a deeper, scared-y-cat, I-can't-do-this kind of stuck. When you believe that you can't do it, your mind doesn't work on anything at all, and in fact you think you'd better just lie down rather than clean the house. This is the worst kind of stuck, because you don't really see a way past. The energy I have been using for sheer determination has run out. I'm tired.

In desperation I called out to my former writing partner, long since lost to cancer. No, he didn't answer, and no, I didn't feel his presence. I didn't even think about him again. I just sat down and began to add the ones, then the twos, and compared them with the script I've already written, which gave me some threes, and before you know it, I had broken through! Four straight hours and the elusive "beat sheet" is done!

I was so happy I did a little happy dance around the apartment, even though it was after 11:00 and I actually chortled, and laughed out loud, and yes, I remembered to thank Alex, justincase, and Zoooooooom! I am back to loving what I'm doing!

Assignment 11 came out today, and I "only" need to make up 7, 8, 9, and 10! And meantime I'm making lists of what to pack, and trying to get other things ready for my trip. And that's okay! I feel now I have a complete story, and guess what? I can see the humour in it!

Great to be back at Script Work!

It's not the joy of getting assignments done so much, as it is the joy of discovering what the assignment is meant to show you. I think that must be the sign of a well-constructed course. Or a writer hungry for instructions. Or both.

Thinking about the part each character plays individually brings another level to story. If I keep discovering more levels, I don't know when the actual script will get written. I have a decent starter kit, but the opening scene has already changed, which changes the all-important first ten pages, and because of what I'm inventing for the characters, the rest will change quite a bit too. My hope is that with all the groundwork in place, the script may pretty much write itself. Then all I have to do is wordsmithing. Tra-la.

Of course, if you stay tuned, you may find that this is not the way it goes at all, but this we will discover together. Anyway... assignments 4, 5, and 6 are completed and have been posted for feedback from a colleague. Now I must take the time to get some groceries in the house and then I need to back-track to assignment 3, which is the full screenplay beat - by - beat. When I accomplish this, the darn thing may just be able to write itself. Ever onward, I am proud to report this progress, and I remain truly yours, gentle reader.

In the Light of Day

Okay, now we have direction, we will get on with the next assignment. It is to have another look at your beat sheet. A beat sheet is the story, step by step, scene by scene. I never really did have a full beat sheet, as things kept changing, and before I got to the end of the story, beat by beat, I would be moving things around, or changing the flow, and so now here goes.

I am very much looking forward to getting this finished (I did get a start on the weekend) as I really need to know the story from front to back and inside out by the time I get to Hollywood.

As the end of April nears, I realize only May remains to do the work necessary.

That's okay. I get done exactly what I need to get done to have the level of success I'm supposed to have in June, and that's a high level!

I love you for being here. Bye bye for now...