Really Enjoyable

I am not a hot weather person. I tried to convince myself that I was, that I was sad when it started getting cold up in the mountains at the end of camp, but the truth is, I can only handle it for a couple of days. That's with the promise of air conditioning somewhere in the house.

I am slowly getting back into the life and mindset of a film major. I'm checking up on the blogs I follow, buying new yellow legal pads, playing with ideas, trying to convince my brother my website needs to go up now, doing research (gasp!). Most of my ideas for independent-of-class projects seemed to just slide away in improbability, but a couple of nights ago I got a new idea for a stand alone short. It's pretty depressing, about as opposite from "Join This Group?" as you can get, but it's sorta dropped into my head fully formed. Might as well write it down. I'm having trouble with some of my feature ideas, hashing them out, finding the tension, getting a handle on good pacing. Sometimes there are so many decisions to be made about a story, I'm not sure what direction to take it in. Part of this is...

I have the attention span of a hyperactive puppy. Though I'm not really hyperactive. This makes focusing on a story long enough to work out what the best plot is really really difficult. I've always been sort of an impulsive and impatient writer. My screenwriting professor last year labeled me a "binge writer." It's true. I really enjoying writing "Collapse" last semester when I had five hours before class and half an act to write. Because I have no choice but to focus then. Still, part of me thinks it's a little bit silly to focus while I'm at home. Why start working on a new project when my second screenwriting class is going to start in a week or two? Especially since I'm hoping to convince the professor to let me take two scripts through the rewriting coursework, instead of just one...

I'm also reading a book, which is, with my fore-mentioned attention span, sorta a thing of the past. But I'm reading Card's Ender's Game and really enjoying it. And listening to Coldplay's new CD, Viva la Vida, and really enjoying that. And as much as I said I hated hot weather, it's not too bad today, so all in all, this has turned into an enjoyable afternoon.