Saturday, April 24, 2010
It's Here!
Final Draft 8 actually arrived yesterday...thanks to UPS for leaving it in a spot where I never look for small packages. So it sat outside all night on a stormy night, but seems to be running fine. Everything is installed and once school stuff is done next week, I'm off and running. Or, well, off and typing anyway.
The History of Writing and Waiting
I'm not sure when my copy of Final Draft will show up, but I keep watching for the mail. I'm on a route that gets mail near the end of the day. I don't remember if it's being shipped by U.S. Mail or UPS...
Not that I could do much other than install the program on my laptop and then get back to the school work. Fortunately, the semester will be over soon (two weeks) and I can then think about the script project. So hard to focus what's important at the right time. That's the procrastinator in me. I have to ask myself that question daily, what's the most important use of my time today? When it's a paper due in a few days, it's the paper, not the script. But the characters and events are usually not far from the front of my mind.
Writing is a strange activity. Part of the drive to write is the feeling that something has to get out, for me, it's getting something out of my brain and turning an idea into "something." I remember the feeling I had after finishing my first script. I had to make three copies at Kinko's, binding them with brads and them shipping copies off to the small screenwriting contest I was entering. My script didn't win, it effectively got fourth place, the first of the honorable mentions after the big prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd where handed down. Actually, none of the prizes were "great" it was just a nod in the right direction. For me, the contest served as a deadline to finish the project. To commit to something new from beginning to end and put my work "out there." The feeling of being in the game was uncomfortable at first, but that awkward feeling is now gone. There's some confidence in that this isn't my first attempt at writing for screen.
My writing background...
Always a writer or one type or another. Stories as a kid. But at five, when asked what I was going to be when I grew up, my answer was "a director." My first career was as a journalist. I took a playwrighting class early in college but never got past writing short scenes and one-act plays. Yet it was good for learning classic structure and the rules of stage writing. As a journalist, the writing was different yet interesting because the topics changed daily and I got to meet interesting people and as a crime reporter got to hear the details of creative crimes of white collar criminals that are more clever than some are given credit for.
After a long break from work and school, I returned to school and got a B.A. in Political Science studying international relations and American politics. When entering grad school, my initial areas of study were international relations and public policy, but I've since dropped the IR component and changed it back to American government keeping the policy. It's an amazing breadth of knowledge that has given me way more to write about than I probably could in my lifetime. The original plan with grad school was to stay and get the PhD. But life changed and so did plans. I'm absolutely OK with the decision to stop (for now) with the MA. There is a large part of me that is tired of the semester schedule, the workload, teaching incoming freshmen and all their drama...the long hours of little sleep, the grueling exams. In September, I'll take comprehensive exams and if I do well enough to be recommended to continue at the PhD level, at least I'll have left the door open to return. But for now, I'll be more than happy to have completed the MA. Graduation is in December if I pass comps and get my thesis done.
Back to watching Life on Discovery. Amazing pictures even on my non-HD TV.
Not that I could do much other than install the program on my laptop and then get back to the school work. Fortunately, the semester will be over soon (two weeks) and I can then think about the script project. So hard to focus what's important at the right time. That's the procrastinator in me. I have to ask myself that question daily, what's the most important use of my time today? When it's a paper due in a few days, it's the paper, not the script. But the characters and events are usually not far from the front of my mind.
Writing is a strange activity. Part of the drive to write is the feeling that something has to get out, for me, it's getting something out of my brain and turning an idea into "something." I remember the feeling I had after finishing my first script. I had to make three copies at Kinko's, binding them with brads and them shipping copies off to the small screenwriting contest I was entering. My script didn't win, it effectively got fourth place, the first of the honorable mentions after the big prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd where handed down. Actually, none of the prizes were "great" it was just a nod in the right direction. For me, the contest served as a deadline to finish the project. To commit to something new from beginning to end and put my work "out there." The feeling of being in the game was uncomfortable at first, but that awkward feeling is now gone. There's some confidence in that this isn't my first attempt at writing for screen.
My writing background...
Always a writer or one type or another. Stories as a kid. But at five, when asked what I was going to be when I grew up, my answer was "a director." My first career was as a journalist. I took a playwrighting class early in college but never got past writing short scenes and one-act plays. Yet it was good for learning classic structure and the rules of stage writing. As a journalist, the writing was different yet interesting because the topics changed daily and I got to meet interesting people and as a crime reporter got to hear the details of creative crimes of white collar criminals that are more clever than some are given credit for.
After a long break from work and school, I returned to school and got a B.A. in Political Science studying international relations and American politics. When entering grad school, my initial areas of study were international relations and public policy, but I've since dropped the IR component and changed it back to American government keeping the policy. It's an amazing breadth of knowledge that has given me way more to write about than I probably could in my lifetime. The original plan with grad school was to stay and get the PhD. But life changed and so did plans. I'm absolutely OK with the decision to stop (for now) with the MA. There is a large part of me that is tired of the semester schedule, the workload, teaching incoming freshmen and all their drama...the long hours of little sleep, the grueling exams. In September, I'll take comprehensive exams and if I do well enough to be recommended to continue at the PhD level, at least I'll have left the door open to return. But for now, I'll be more than happy to have completed the MA. Graduation is in December if I pass comps and get my thesis done.
Back to watching Life on Discovery. Amazing pictures even on my non-HD TV.
Friday, April 23, 2010
A Clockwork Orange: reading
About half way through my reading of "A Clockwork Orange" and really looking forward to watching it. It is a totally different experience to read a script for a movie I've not seen.
What it is, what it's not
Just to get a few things out there in my never-ending quest to postpone working on my research. Here are a few things of what I want this blog to be and what it's not.
What I have in mind:
What I have in mind:
- This is not a "How to Write a Winning Screenplay" nor is it written by someone who even knows what that is. I think I know a good story, I enjoy good movies and I'm a writer. I know lots of details about lots of things and I think I can turn some of that useless knowledge into a good story.
- This is not a "How to Make a Million Dollars Selling Your Movie Idea." Frankly, I have no idea how to make a million dollars but I'm quite sure it shouldn't be all that difficult. That's a different post, but for now, just know that I don't know the secrets, I do have any insider information and I don't have it all figured out. I do expect to figure out a few things along the way, and I'll share that here.
- This is not going to be strictly about my work on my script. My life is too full and busy for that. I have the same complications everyone else has. Some days I'm just going to write about coffee or vent about school. That's just the way it is and this is going to be my place to vent. If you don't like that, go read something else.
- I'm not writing for you, I'm doing this for me. It's a selfish way to get things out of my head, vent a bit and then move on. It's my own way of keeping myself accountable. Back in my journalism days, I wrote an occasional column about life...I miss those days. This is my outlet. If I'm lucky, it'll help me keep up on the things I have on my plate: my kiddo, relationships, grad school AND my script.
Letting go...
At some point in every paper, it's time to say, yeah, it's done. I want to be at that point right now. I think it's done. It feels done. It is concise and has all its parts. It's not my best work -- nothing is these days, grad school doesn't allow for that. Not with parenting tossed into the mix.
I'm going to consider this paper done, but since there's another six days before its due. I'll let it percolate. Moving on to the last research project. Time to build a dataset and see what's missing before running the regression. Yeesh. Due Wednesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to see if things blow up in my face.
Back to work.
I'm going to consider this paper done, but since there's another six days before its due. I'll let it percolate. Moving on to the last research project. Time to build a dataset and see what's missing before running the regression. Yeesh. Due Wednesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to see if things blow up in my face.
Back to work.
Powerball
Almost forgot to check my ticket. But looks like the guy in Missouri needed the $258.5 million more than I did. OK, back to work.
Work day
Today I'm being a grad student. After coffee, that is. Two weeks left of the Spring semester, then I can split my time between screenwriting and academia.
Adding links as I go. I am going to read "A Clockwork Orange" next. Chose it because I have the movie saved on my DVR. Read it first, then watch the movie.
OK...get to work.
Adding links as I go. I am going to read "A Clockwork Orange" next. Chose it because I have the movie saved on my DVR. Read it first, then watch the movie.
OK...get to work.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Reading Scripts
In my spare time, I'm reading scripts. Last week, it was "Meet Joe Black." Today I'm reading "Witness." The next one I read has to be one that I've not seen the movie. All this visualizing is getting in the way of reading, slowing me down.
Day 1 -- Procrastination
Last summer I came up with an idea for a movie. No, I'm not going into details. I don't trust you. Not "you" a specific you, but "you" the aggregate of anyone and everyone who might come across this blog, or overhear a conversation I may have with someone about my idea...ok...forget that...I don't talk about it with just anyone because it's back to the point that I don't trust you or anyone else not to steal my idea and run off and make $25 million from it.
It's that good.
But that's not the point. The point I'm trying to make is that right now what I should be doing is writing. Not the script, but a paper for school and I'm really good at procrastinating, which is why I'm building a blog -- ok, it only took 10 minutes -- but you get the picture. The point is, I'm blogging instead of finishing up a research paper that's due in a week. Oh, yeah, lots of time. But that's only one of three projects coming due in a week, followed by a final exam the week after.
Grad school. Seemed like a good idea two years ago. But it's coming to an end soon enough. In the meantime, in that spare time between papers, reading, research, a thesis and comprehensive exams, I have this screenplay to churn out. Research has gone well. Character development has been slow. Plot points are coming along. A few scenes sketched out...so-so progress there. I had a huge conceptual problem that was resolved with a scientific (re)discovery earlier this year, so I should be able now to progress without anything more than the usual bumps in the road.
Final Draft 8 has been ordered and it should be here by the time I finish the last paper and take the last exam for this semester. I'm tired of freeware. I had a free template for the last script I wrote (2000) that worked in Word, but it's no longer available. I'm ready for something more robust, more serious. Yeah, I know, it has its problems...
This is a start. I'll keep filling in the blanks as I go.
It's that good.
But that's not the point. The point I'm trying to make is that right now what I should be doing is writing. Not the script, but a paper for school and I'm really good at procrastinating, which is why I'm building a blog -- ok, it only took 10 minutes -- but you get the picture. The point is, I'm blogging instead of finishing up a research paper that's due in a week. Oh, yeah, lots of time. But that's only one of three projects coming due in a week, followed by a final exam the week after.
Grad school. Seemed like a good idea two years ago. But it's coming to an end soon enough. In the meantime, in that spare time between papers, reading, research, a thesis and comprehensive exams, I have this screenplay to churn out. Research has gone well. Character development has been slow. Plot points are coming along. A few scenes sketched out...so-so progress there. I had a huge conceptual problem that was resolved with a scientific (re)discovery earlier this year, so I should be able now to progress without anything more than the usual bumps in the road.
Final Draft 8 has been ordered and it should be here by the time I finish the last paper and take the last exam for this semester. I'm tired of freeware. I had a free template for the last script I wrote (2000) that worked in Word, but it's no longer available. I'm ready for something more robust, more serious. Yeah, I know, it has its problems...
This is a start. I'll keep filling in the blanks as I go.
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