i write with pictures

Download.

2012-01-20T13:11:00.003-05:00

Since it's awards season, there's been a plethora of great scripts made available to the public. I went on a downloading spree, snatching anything that remotely grabbed my interest.

I've never been a very good 'script reader.' It wasn't until about halfway through my Screenplay as Lit class that I read a script I felt could have been a movie. And they all had been made into movies. So I've resolved this year to read more scripts, both to educate myself on how to be a better script reader and how to be a better right.

Earlier this week I read Beginners and Black Swan. I have seen neither movie. I was reflecting on them today, and here's what stood out to me --

1. As soon as I had finished Black Swan I wanted to watch the movie. It's now at the top of my 'To Watch' list.

2. I couldn't remember if I had actually finished Beginners or not.

If that was all I took away from this week, I still think I'd have learned plenty. When a reader finishes your script, you want them to be anxious to see the movie. You need to end on such a strong note that your story in their head for days.

Granted, these are two completely different types of scripts. And I really did enjoy them both. But I had two big concerns with Beginners. 1. It didn't seem to dig deep enough. The most interesting part of Beginners was Oliver's relationship with his father. I felt as if there was unexplored potential there. And 2. Ana is a manic pixie character (I mean, she's French). I'm just over that.

Black Swan made strong story choices. And yes, Beginners was a completely different genre and was aiming to tell a different sort of story, but I felt that it could have made stronger choices. It's actually a point V and I discussed the most recent time we met. We were trying to decide if one character should just offer to do something or really do it. I think if you're going to offer, if you're going to hint, if you're going to suggest, you should just commit all the way and jump in with the stronger choice.

So. What's next?

Review.

2012-01-14T09:29:00.005-05:00

Michigan's screenwriting program is a hidden gem of the Midwest. I myself would not have known about it if I didn't have friends who already attended Michigan. When I was considering film schools, Michigan came out comparable to NYU and UCLA (at least in regards to screenwriting. Michigan, from what little I experienced as a short on time transfer student, has a great production department as well, and one of my Michigan professors always talked about how Michigan was so much better than his alma mater, USC).

And then the kicker -- Michigan, unlike most of the other schools I was considering, took midyear transfers. Sold and enrolled.

I promise the commercial for Michigan is almost over, but first let me explain the structure of the feature writing classes. Screenwriting I is open to everyone. You are taught structure and format and you write your first script. HALF of you are invited into Screenwriting II. Screenwriting II is a unique class where you're taught to rewrite. You come out with a new draft of your Screenwriting I script. Half of THOSE students are invited into Screenwriting III, a master workshopping class where you write a new script under the mentorship of head of the program. (Side note: I went through all three classes, which makes me feel pretty good about myself. Some people I know when through all three classes and won huge cash awards, which helps me keep my ego in check.)

In a week and a half, V. and I will be presenting Consideration to the Screenwriting II class. Their homework is to take the script, read it, and come back the next weeks with notes. At which point I will sit down at the table, pull out my laptop, and record the tidal wave of notes. Then our homework is to come back the next week to show how we incorporated the notes into our script. It's supposed to get their head in the game for rewriting (which can be a bit of a shock, the first time you're expected to do more than just edit) and it's supposed to give us an opportunity to get input on the script.

I am a little bit nervous about this. One, I know what kind of egos will be a room of 12 screenwriting students who just got into an invitation only class. I know, because I had one of them. Two, because I'm just nervous about showing Consideration to anyone yet.

Maybe that's because I'm not even through the second draft yet, I don't know. But I only wrote one new script since graduation (I was also rewriting other scripts and writing lots of first acts), and I didn't show anyone that until I had written three drafts. And I was going to wait until draft four, but I decided to send it to a friend with my intended changes to see what she thought. That's it.

So to hand off a baby script to a dozen over zealous college students makes me a little nervous. I have a pretty thick skin, but V. has been very patient and maybe I've gotten soft and -- sensitive.

But what really makes me nervous is not the screenwriting students. The head of the screenwriting department teaches that class, so he'll read this draft too. It's the first work of mine that he'll have read in three years. I desperately want to have improved. I'm totally not looking for validation or anything.

I would have liked to wait until draft 3 to show anyone anything, I really would have. But that's not the case, and I am grateful for this opportunity anyway. I'm sure a room of screenwriting students is not unlike a room of executives, so it'll be good practice for getting studio notes in the future. Because I do expect to get a lot of those.

Killing and Cutting.

2012-01-08T16:27:00.003-05:00

I've never worked with a writing partner. I try to harvest my bff D.'s brain as often as possible, and once I got through a first act based off an idea we had, but I've never worked straight on with a writing partner.

Working with V. is the closest I've ever been to writing with a partner. We meet every week and discuss the story, I get notes, I take notes, etc. Usually I just nod and write down what he says. I need to ruminate before I give input, so usually my voice comes through just in my writing, not when we're actually discussing the script (which means that if V. disagrees with me, I'll most likely have to rewrite it).

I usually agree with the notes he gives me. Then again, he hasn't given me a ton of notes yet so I don't have much fodder to disagree with yet. But last week, he asked me to cut a scene that I liked, that I thought was necessary, at the very least, addressed a question we needed to answer. I actually didn't mind cutting the scene, as long as the protagonist had to wrestle with the question at some point.

Most of our meeting was preoccupied with that problem -- do we have to have this scene? And do we have to have this problem at all? And I thought I won. I really really thought I had proved my point.

And then he emailed and he found a way to bypass it, all together! I was disappointed. I thought the problem presented a moral and ethical conundrum that it would have been interesting to see our main character wrestle with. I wanted to test her. And I was disappointed that we weren't going to test her to that extreme.

But I said yes, I said I would cut it. Because we're shooting ultra low budget and by cutting that scene we cut a character and a location. I want to see this made and I don't want making it to be difficult. If I was writing this story as a spec, maybe I'd argue this point. Maybe I'll consider it some more, how passionate I feel about this particular problem for our character.

But this script is already over budget. I've populated it with so many characters and so many locations, I'm going to have to cut a whole bunch of scenes anyway. So, in the interest of the movie -- perhaps over the interest over the script -- I'll cut the scene and I'll barrel ahead.

Reboot.

2012-01-04T12:43:00.002-05:00

The holidays are over. Cut the fun. Back to real life.

V. mercifully released me from my self-imposed pre-Christmas draft 1.5. He had something like 32 screenplays to grade and apparently did not want to read a 33rd. Fair. I had a really fab holiday. I tried to shop local and small business for all my gifts and ended up having the most fun Christmas shopping that I've ever had. In what I consider resulting good (and ironic) karma, I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas, which has already proven its worth twice, once when I was stuck in the airport for five hours and last night when I realized it was the only way I could watch the Michigan-V. Tech Sugar Bowl.

Ah, Michigan.

I'm not going to do an end of the year post. 2011 was fine but tumultuous, and I probably don't remember half the events anyway. But I will do 2012, a year in preview --

1. Michigan will be mighty.

2. I am going to Israel. I feel super lucky that I'm getting to take a trip to Israel with my aunt and dad (er, and Mike Huckabee). Israel and New Zealand have spent the last five years jostling for top spot on my Top 184 Places to Visit. Guess New Zealand will have that trophy all for its own now.

My mom said she wouldn't come with us because she didn't want her children to be completely orphaned.

3. I will drink more water. Well, maybe.

4. We're making a movie. More precisely, a movie I wrote. It may be cold and dark now, but in just a few short months I will be breezing from my desk to set, where I will huddle in a corner, since I doubt we will have those fun movie set chairs, and watch people act what I wrote. Expect pictures. 'Cause I'm taking a lot.

5. There will be a wedding, and I reign as MOH. That's Maid of Honor, suckas!

6. If I feel like it, I will rewrite and e-publish my NaNo novel. I like it. It'd be fun. You know, if I feel like it.

7. I will watch more movies, read more scripts, write more pages. Scott Meyer's has a great 1, 2 , 7, 14 plan that I will emulate.

And that's it for now. There's other stuff, waiting in the wings, that will make an entrance at the right time.

I know on New Year's Eve, people always think the next twelve months will be a good year. Everyone has a 'feeling.' I don't have a feeling. I have a knowing. How could I look at that list and not know?

However, I do have a 'feeling' that there will be a lot of dance parties.

FADE OUT.

2011-12-14T22:26:00.002-05:00

At 6:58 pm (I know because the coffee shop closed at 7, and the barista was loudly and deliberating cleaning up around me) today, I typed the two most beautiful words known to screenwriters everywhere -- FADE OUT. Draft 0 of Consideration, my script assignment for V., is done.

I have spent the evening celebrating by watching TV and not caring about the drool sliding down my chin. The last two months have been some of the most productive of my writing career but also some of the most draining. I have neglected friends, sleep, and the holiday season, and I am not all that sorry. I am just tired.

No rest of the weary, though. Tomorrow I meet with V. to discuss this week's pages, and I'm sure, since it's the end of the script, the notes will run long and deep. I will give myself the rest of the night off (off to handle other responsibilities), and then Friday comes around swinging. I promised V. a draft before Christmas, but I want it to be a readable draft, a draft we can give people for notes. So this week's goal is to do a complete pass of the script with the notes he's given me during our weekly meetings. I am basically going to attempt to rewrite the script. In 5 days.

But it's ok. This script is going into production next summer, and if it costs me a little bit of sleep and a tiny bit of sanity to make it the best story I can deliver, I'll gladly count the cost. Not many writers get the chance to see their words on screen. I already got paid for this assignment, but I'm still here to earn it.

Eyes.

2011-12-10T10:50:00.004-05:00

I don't know what working with a producer or creative exec is like on a Hollywood movie, but this is a bit of how it's worked on the script I'm writing for V.

We meet weekly (and with the exception of Thanksgiving, we've been pretty good about making this time every week). The first few weeks we did some brainstorming together, developing the characters, outlining the plot, discussing theme. Because I am not a very quick thinker (which I'll have to conquer when I move to LA, I know), I would usually just nod and take notes and go home and really flesh out the characters and story on my own time. We did character profiles and an outline and beat sheet for the first half of the script. We talked about a treatment but never did one. That was fine with me.

When we got to the actual writing, I would work on the pages during the week, email them to him the night before our meeting, and go discuss and take notes the next day. If I was surprisingly motivated, I would rework previous pages to incorporate notes and send those along as well. That happened twice. V. would give me his notes, I would argue them if I felt strongly, we'd discuss what we think happens next, and then we'd adjourn.

We started working on the story at the end of August, and as of today I'm hovering on the precipice of the Act II break. My goal is to have the script finished by next week's meeting and then do a quick run through to incorporate the notes I've gotten the past few months and have a draft 1.5 ready the following week to hand over the night before I leave for Christmas.

And then we start giving it to other people for notes.

And then we'll rewrite it.

And THEN we'll start preproduction.

It all seems very fast to me. I told V. how difficult it was to come to our meetings sometimes, nervous about what he was going to say about certain pages. I haven't shown any a 'draft zero' like this since I was in college, and then it was expected that everything we wrote was going to be rather crappy. In fact, the only people who have read any of my scripts since graduation have been family members, and none of those scripts were at 'draft zero' stage. With V. I (am beginning to) feel comfortable showing pages that are that rough, but even with a quick pass/rewrite, it goes against all my instincts to show anyone a script that's fewer than 3 or 4 drafts refined. When I personally know that there are ways I can improve and rewrite it, it's difficult to hand it over, knowing that it has problems, even just to a friend for notes.

Getting notes sometimes makes me nervous. Actually, GETTING notes doesn't make me nervous. Harsh criticism makes me nervous. Hearing that something is unfixably terrible makes me nervous. Hearing that I'm a talentless hack makes me nervous. I don't I will be receiving those "notes" this time, but there is this anxiety of hearing that, not only is the script not where it should be, but that I won't be able to be the one to get it there.

I am sharing a draft of The Exit Strategy for the first time. A film friend who's been asking to see it for about 9 months has a copy, along with a long list of questions and thoughts that I have. I was planning on rewriting it one more time before sending it to her, but then I figured it'd be nice to have someone as a sounding board for the changes I was going to implement. I love this script dearly and I know she won't be mean, but at the end of the email I asked her the big questions --

Is this story worth it? Is there any potential here? Were you invested? Were you bored? Could you see this as an (indie) movie?

Should I spend my time rewriting and rewriting and rewriting it? Or simply move on?

I texted the Hockey Player to tell him I had sent the Exit Strategy to my friend, and he responded, "Great! Now send it to a producer! If that's the next step." I said, "Rewriting is the next step."

Because 98% of the time, rewriting is always the next step.

Snow.

2011-12-06T22:25:00.004-05:00

We had our first real snow last night. It rained all day, and then suddenly I came out of the coffee shop to see my car covered in these gorgeous fluffy flakes as if the minivan had been part of a you-grow crystal kit. I wish I had taken some pictures, because it was truly a winter wonderland.

Then I had to drive in it. Driving in the snow at night is kind of like driving through an optical illusion. Living in Michigan has some real pro/con moments.

I have crested the midpoint in my script for V. and am now hopefully barreling down the hill into Act III. We didn't have a solid plan for the second half of the script and writing it feels a little bit like driving through a snowstorm at night. I feel like I'm holding on to my ambiguous outline with the same tense relaxation that you grip your steering wheel with in bad weather. It's terrifying and you're thrilled that you're just staying on the road.

I'm feeling stressed and good -- stressed when I think about writing and good when I actually am writing. I have a (semi self-imposed?) deadline of finishing the first draft before Christmas. I am fully confident I can pull this off. I am also fully exhausted.

I basically replaced NaNoWriMo with Finish Script Now Month (FiScriNoMo?). I took a weekend to catch up with friends I hadn't seen since pre-Thanksgiving and then refocused. I've been using a lot of mantras to help keep me on task. Get words on page. In it to win it. The only way out is through.

I'm not incredibly competitive, but the thought that someone out there wants exactly what I want, the same jobs and assignments I want, and is prepping right now by putting in the time and the effort and the lonely frustrating hours at the keyboard motivates me. At the end of the day, I don't want to miss out on my dream career because I failed to prepare. That's not going to happen.

Overnight success is years in the making. And those who stay will be champions.

50,109

2011-12-02T12:55:00.003-05:00

Oh hello.

The non-stop hellbent ride that is November is over. I have stopped buying sketchy sandwiches from coffee shops, feeling guilty about not working on my script, and exhaustion-based drooling. Thanksgiving was a hit (both in fun and to my word count), so I had to make up 16k words in 3 days. Basically, I'm a winner AND a baller. This novel is a hot mess, but there are some moments and/or characters that I'm fond of, and after I take a break I'm going to attack it with a highlighter, lift the three moments that actually work, and structure something new.

I mean, that's the plan so far.

In the meantime, I have some very specific goals (I outlined day-by-days goal about a week ago, in an attempt to productive to the max. I didn't write for the subsequent two days).

1. Finish the script for V. We are halfway through and I promised the script before Christmas. I'm confident that I can get it done. Every meeting I go into with him I'm expecting to get fired. I don't really know why I feel this way, but I have this mental picture of us sitting down, him looking at the pages quietly, and then saying, "Yeahhhh, this isn't going to work."

But not so! We had a great meeting yesterday, and he's even secured a DP already. Every time I think about him talking to someone about the film, I get a little hyperventilatey-nervous. It makes it super real. It also makes me feel a little bit famous.

2. Rewrite The Exit Strategy over Christmas break. This seems unreasonable when I say it, but I'm going to prep for rewriting all this month, reread the script, figure out the new elements, restructure, replot, reoutline. I have a week and a day off for the holidays, and I can knock through a prepped script that quickly. I think.

3. See some movies. There are some great indie films out that I want to catch, and the holidays are going to bring both popcorn flicks and award nominees. I'm down.

4. Blog about screenwriting more. The novel distraction is over. It's back to work.

Other Things.

2011-11-19T09:38:00.005-05:00

1. I am still behind on my novel. But it's going to be ok. I just killed off a character, it's good.

2. I don't remember the last story I wrote where the main romantic pair got together in the end. And when I last wrote a happily married couple, I killed one of them in the end. Er. Is that a reflection of my psyche?

3. Let's keep moving.

4. I saw Mat Kearney in concert last week. Amazing. I'm a little resentful that he's got a super cute wife, but whatevs. We all move on.

5.

6. Have you been to Whole Foods lately? I went yesterday to get some chocolate covered espresso beans and I caved and bought some chocolate covered toffee almonds as well. The one in town has this cute little wine bar in the middle of the store. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make the Hockey Player take me there on date night asap.

7. I cannot wait until he and I jump in my bullet-holed minivan on Wednesday and start weaving through the Thanksgiving day traffic like the accident prone people we are. Route 80, all the way! [along with about 90,000 other people, awesome.]

8. If you had to choose between moving to LA asap or living in the middle of nowhere for a few more years and shooting your own ultra low budget mumblecore, what would you do? 'Cause I've started saving for either of those options, and it's getting to be a conundrum about which to get excited about.

Right Through.

2011-11-15T19:01:00.003-05:00

About 5k ago I realized that I was on a dangerous road. I was leading my motley crew of four underdog characters straight into the heart of the opposition. Even if they were the most powerful, talented, amazing characters you had ever met, they were destined to lose.

It was sheer numbers.

Sometimes, in NaNoWriMo, when you've written yourself into a corner or you realize that you're going down a tangent that will never make it past the first draft, you're encouraged to write a one sentence transition --

"And then they rescued/killed/bamboozled the roommate/mob boss/Puff the Magic Dragon and found themselves back in New York City/Candy Land/a galaxy far far away."

While I was tempted to do just that, I couldn't. I've never been a writer who can jump around in her story. Even if I'm struggling for a detail, I don't just put [INSERT HENRY'S COMPANY HERE]. I pick a detail and continue. Half the time this means that I end up forgetting to go back and change the things I need to, but that's the way I do things.

I've hit a couple spots in my novel where I've thought, "This is a terrible idea. I know they say no deleting in NaNo, but clearly they had never run into an idea this abysmal. I'm about to solve the whole story/kill my main characters/introduce a dinosaur. This is really quite horrid."

But I've run with it. The only way out is through, right?

And the thing is, while running through plot points I will surely never revisit again, I've met characters and developed themes and expanded ideas that are creating the foundation of my story. When I realized I had written myself into a corner, that my ragtag band of four characters was about to storm a fortified citadel, I realized there was no way they could get in, get their friend, and get out alive. Not in a million years. I was really stressing about it, until I realized--

They don't get out. They are captured almost immediately. I mean, you'd have to be an idiot to try what they did, and it only made logical sense for them to fail. Which suddenly opened up so many questions for my characters. Was my protagonist really who she said she was? Were the other characters going to believe her anymore after this? Was she going to have any faith left in herself?

Every time I have powered through a difficult section, I have come away with useless plot but a richer story. Every time I force the story forward instead of avoiding it, I discover something new. And if that is all I get out of this month, if I have to rewrite my whole novel based on my month long investigation of these characters and their story, then I will be satisfied with NaNoWriMo, declare it a success, and then delve back in to rewriting the whole dang thing.

November?

2011-11-11T13:22:00.004-05:00

Hey, guys.

I have so much I want to write about. So much. So little time.

I want to tell you about my script on assignment, how we're almost to the midpoint and how some days I feel like I'm writing crap and some days I start out feeling like I'm writing crap but at some obscure, undefinable moment I realize that I feel good about what I'm writing and I have for a few scenes. I want to talk about the lessons I've been learning and what it feels like when you look at a scene and realize you've implemented years of lessons and practice without even knowing it.

But we don't have time for that (but it feels good to be a gangster, that's what it feels like).

I want to tell you about the huge colossal kitchen fail I had. Guys, it was bad. And super disappointing. And yet still I managed to pull it back around to writing, because that's apparently all I think about now.

But we don't have time for that, and it's still a bit painful.

I want to tell you that if you manage your company's Twitter account, double check to make sure that you've signed back into your own before commenting on a blog or Tweeting or any such thing that can be traced back to you/them.

Really, that's a PSA I always have time for.

I want to tell you about NaNoWriMo. How I am behind because I missed a few whole days earlier this month. How I wrote a thousand words in fifteen minutes yesterday, punks, and how when I made it harder for my characters I made it a bazillion times more interesting. I want to tell you that this novel is going to need significantly more work than I expected post-November, but I think there's a pretty good chance I'll let other people read it.

But we don't have time for that, because I'm still 4,000 words behind.

I want to tell you that if you're looking for a roommate, pick someone who wears your size. It's like instantly doubling your wardrobe.

No brainer.

I want to tell you about the amazing amounts of talented people I've been meeting recently and how you should be meeting as many people as you can, even now. The other day I realized how many talented people I knew that would jump at any chance to further their career, and the amazing opportunity we have right now to do something together.

But we don't have time for that 'right now' right now, sometime after November.

I want to tell you that I haven't been this immersed in the culture and physical act of writing in so long and that I'm being immensely productive. And that the longer I do this, write ten pages of my screenplay then switch to my novel, cram as many words into fifteen minutes as I can, do nothing besides work/write/occasionally see the Hockey Player, the more I love it. Some days it sucks to be a writer. Some days it's difficult and everything comes out clunky and you're uninspired. But if I could do this all day every day, I would be over the moon.

I think I'm in love.

Word Count.

2011-11-04T21:33:00.004-04:00

I just hit 5k. That seems very refreshing to say, and I consider it a big enough milestone that I get to take a short noveling break (even if I hit that milestone after writing in Starbucks for 10 minutes).

5k seems like a lot, except I skipped all of Wednesday to work on my script and have date night with the Hockey Player. So even if I wrap up today's word count with another 700 words, I'll still be 1,667 words behind. Have I mentioned I'm throwing a party tomorrow?

I met with my director yesterday and he asked how I was going to do it, work full time, write a screenplay, AND NaNo. I think I said something along the lines of not sleeping and stop hanging out with my friends (see above party plans). The truth is, I have no bleeding idea. I see more than one all nighter in my future, and I'm way out of practice with those.

I had high hopes for this NaNo Novel. I don't know if it's because I'm "officially" a paid writer and now I expect everything I produce to be a money maker or if because I'm just tired of writing and writing and never progressing, but I was ready to do something with this novel. And I've been telling people that too, "I'm going to e-publish this when it's done" and "Ask for a Kindle for Christmas so you can read my naaaaah-vel." (PS. I legit do what a Kindle Fire for Christmas, so whoever's paying attention to those sort of things... yeah.)

But I've been discouraged. This novel has not been shaping up. My writing is rough, awkward, and overall subpar. My characters feel unfamiliar, my world undeveloped, and my plot thinner than a high wire (the circus is in town). I'm enjoying the noveling. But I'm not sure I'm enjoying the novel.

But today we got a pep talk from Erin Morgenstern in our NaNo Mail. And she talks about ninjas and circuses and how your NaNo novel might not even be the point, but the point at which you start.

This may not be the novel I publish. It may not be good enough. But at some point along the journey, I might find myself not just writing but writing my novel, that the real story has begun and the preceding 49,000 words have just been brainstorming. Lord above, I hope it doesn't get to that, but if that's what it takes to get there, I'll do it.

And now, it's back to the novel...

Most Culturally Relevant Halloween Ever!

2011-11-02T06:41:00.002-04:00

Courage.

2011-10-31T20:38:00.006-04:00

Dear writers.

We're on the precipice of an adventure. We stand outside a dark cave of uncertainty. We wait for the trumpet that rallies us to the call.

We wait on the eve of NaNoWriMo.

We are a small band of devoted storytellers, impassioned voices, slightly unbalanced characters. We feel the urge to do what few would find even rational -- 50,000 words in 30 days? During a month of a major family holiday as well? Would a normal person attempt such a thing?

The answer is no -- but we are no normal beings.

If any of you fellow NaNo-ers out there are like me, you have the mere inklings of a plot, the foggiest visions of a character, and nary an idea what to do after chapter three. But NaNo-ers depart from weather outlines and other conventional wisdom. We believe in the compulsion of artificial deadlines, the longevity of caffeine, and the power of a story. And we will sacrifice our sleep, our fun, and our sanity in order to run the race set out before us.

For those waiting for the gunshot of midnight, best of luck. God speed you through your caffeine-tripping and sleep-deprived haze to the 50,000 word finish line. It's time to sparkle, little dreamers.

Here's to your literary abandon.

Christmas and Comedy

2011-10-26T12:57:00.007-04:00

1. The She & Him Christmas album is wonderful. Does this mean that I've already begun listening to Christmas music? Unconfirmed.

2. While Deadline Hollywood is proclaiming that "the spec market is as dead as disco," Scott Myers just reported the 84th spec sale of the year. Spec sales are up 84% from last year. So, um, yeah. Drop down the disco ball, 'cause I guess disco is coming back too.

3. I have three major projects rolling right now. My assignment for V., NaNoWriMo, and rewriting The Exit Strategy. My goal for this draft of The Exit Strategy is to make it funny. REAL funny. As close to Bridesmaids funny as I can get. I'm reading "Show Me the Funny!" from Peter Desberg & Jeffrey Davis to help. I've already found some nuggets of wisdom, and I'm only in chapter two.

Something I'm definitely going to keep with me while rewriting is something that came out of an interview with Walter Bennett (The Bill Cosby Show, The Steve Harvey Show, In the House, etc. and more). When asked what he does to make a story funnier, he said, "If it's not funny, it's usually because it's not the worst thing that can happen."

I've employed this strategy already, subconsciously. I bumped character relationships up to the next "awful-ness" level. I picked out dialog that could be more inflammatory. I tried to utilize the setting to get the most embarrassment out of situations that i could. I really want to push this next draft so that the worse things that can happen to my main character, do happen. Because, like Bennett says, it works. If you're working with a scene that's moderately funny and you want to know how to kick it up a notch, ask yourself -- is this truly the worst thing that could happen to my character?

This is also so helpful when writing any kind of story and figuring out the main conflict/problem. Figure out what your characters fears or faults are, and play your problem into them. If your character is a coward, require them to show courage. If they are shy, make them step out of their comfort zone. If they are proud, humble them. Find the opposites in your story and use them to create conflict.

And when you need a little serenity from all the craziness that you're instigating, listen to a little Christmas music. It soothes the soul.

Bad News.

2011-10-21T12:55:00.003-04:00

Kurt Kuenne gives advice on what to do when you get news of a sale that's similar to a script you're working on. I'm looking at you, Young Adult.

Coffee shops, my second home.

2011-10-20T19:22:00.007-04:00

We're 17 pages into the script I'm writing for V, and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm hoping to have Act I finished in a week for next week's meeting with V. He thinks we'll have a first draft done by mid/late November. I'll be happy if it's before Christmas.

And then we're sending it out for notes.

This is where I get concerned. V and I meet (nearly) every week, and I'm sure if he had any huge concerns he would bring them up. But most of my changes so far have been cosmetic. Maybe that's because we're still pushing through Act I, where the drama is more situational instead of character driven. But I'm a little worried that we're going to drive through the first draft, and I'm going to be oblivious to any big problems, and then we're going to show it to other people (like other of my former professors) and they're going to think it's awful.

But I know I've only gotten better in the last two years. Sometimes it's just hard to remember that when you're sitting alone in a coffee shop, your tea getting cold and your page count barely inching along.

I am excited about NaNoWriMo, though. I'm trying to put some thought and planning into my novel this year. I'm hoping this year I'll come through with something more than just a self published paperback I only let blood relatives and the occasional Hockey Player read.

Want to read it? Sometime in February? Yeah? Well, we'll see.

I thought I had finished my zombie story. I'm trying to prune the list of short stories I have in their various states of disarray. The zombie story had been through two drafts and I thought only need a polish. And then I had a better idea for it. Work is never finished. You can always be improving...

It's so cold everywhere.

Seasonal Fun.

2011-10-14T13:12:00.002-04:00

I've never considered myself a horror writer, but since I'm writing a zombie story I found this apt and timely -- 25 Things You Should Know About Writing Horror.

Ready? GO.

2011-10-10T18:54:00.009-04:00

So, I just had to read my own blog to figure out where I left off. LAME. I think I'm figuring something out. I think I can either have fun in my life, football games and wedding planning (my best friend's) and concerts and hosting wine tasting dinner parties -- or I can be a writer.

Guess it's time to stop having so much fun.

I'm not even able to properly analyze the new fall shows because I can barely keep up with them [except I'm totally going to plug the ones I HAVE been keeping up with -- The New Girl and Community! I'm kinda feeling Pan Am too].

I have been making steady progress on my writing assignment for V. We've moved past prewriting and I've started writing actual pages. The only problem is that I boasted I could write 8 pages an hour if I was focused. I totally can, it's just finding that hour. I ran into another former professor while working with V. last week. He told V., "Amy Butler is fantastic." Yep, been feeling pretty stellar since then.

But I had best utilize October, because I'm doing National Novel Writing Month this year! I haven't participated in NaNo since I was a living in England, 5 years ago. But I've been feeling the siren call of fiction for the past several months, and I think NaNo's just the thing.

I've been working on other fiction projects, though. Speaking of steps I haven't taken in a while, I just submitted a short story to Glimmer Train, the first submission I've made to a market in a very long time. Glimmer Train is pretty prestigious, and the tone of my story is a bit excessively tongue in cheek, so we'll see how it goes. I'm going to pull out the other piece I wrote over the summer and clean it up too. And lastly, I've started writing a short zombie story. It's called "One Sad Zombie." I have a lot of time to think at work.

I am also ready to update the layout of this blog. Totally not a fan. However, the domain I wanted is already taken on both Blogger AND Wordpress, so I think we're stuck with the same old format for a while.

I also want to buy a leather jacket. Non writing related goal.

Get me the Laughs.

2011-09-27T07:03:00.004-04:00

Sometimes life gets busy. Super busy. And, well, when you're having this much fun and sleeping this little, sometimes it's tricky to maintain a blog.

Luckily, today we have a guest post from Peter Desberg and Jeffrey Davis, authors of Show Me the Funny! I'm excited to delve into this book as I revamp the comedy in The Exit Strategy, but first, here's a snippet of what their book is like.

Dialing Up The Darkness

By Peter Desberg and Jeffrey Davis

In our book, Show Me The Funny!: At the Writers Table With Hollywood's Top Comedy Writers we asked twenty-seven comedy writers to take a generic premise we created and develop it. We told them there were no limits, no rules and no boundaries. We worried that they would duplicate each other…it’d be like the famous episode where Ethel and Lucy show up to a party wearing the same dress. We worried needlessly. We were excited to discover that every writer, whether a team or an individual, attacked the premise in his or her own unique way. That’s one important definition of a professional. Show Runner for Roseanne, Bob Myer made the story into an episode of a situation comedy. He effortlessly created a network-style story. He began by casting the story in his mind so he could picture who he was writing dialogue for, and to make sure that it would be acceptable to a network…That’s another definition of a professional…he expects to be paid for his work.

Then we asked: “If you didn’t have to worry about networks and executives, how would you darken it?”

Bob gave us a choir boy’s smile. We pictured him with his hand on a dial about to turn it as he asked, “How dark do you want it?” We told him he could make it as dark as he wanted. He went to work with glee turning an average, mid-twenties corporate woman into a drug-addicted private detective. The treat for the reader is watching as he goes back-and-forth between developing the story and explaining his rationale as he builds and deepens it.

When we asked how he planned to get the audience to root for a drug addict, he said: “I think her dependency makes her likeable and she’s funny. And we like funny people…she’s pretty. You like pretty people. But she’s also got a struggle and you’re rooting for her. You want her to survive…you want her to pull out of this. And she’s good enough at what she does and entertaining enough in how she behaves…she can keep her friends strung along, her friends haven’t given up on her yet, and you don’t either. And because of her habit, she’s an underdog…and we root for underdogs.”

With great skill, Bob created a pilot episode in which his troubled detective is headed to meet her “deep throat,” a guy with information that will break her case wide open. She runs home to pick up a few things… a file…a hat…a quick fix, and as she opens her apartment door, everyone she knows is there for an intervention.

As soon as he said the word “INTERVENTION” Bob sat up straight and said, “I’m thinking of pitching it now.”

You can find out more about Show Me the Funny! at www.showmethefunnyonline.com or www.smtfo.com. And, hey while you’re at it ‘Like’ us at www.Facebook.com/SMTFfans.

# # #

Author Bios:

One out of every 150 people in America bought a copy of a joke book that Peter Desberg has written. Unfortunately, Scholastic sold the most popular one for $1 each, so he still has to work. Counting his five joke books, he has had twenty books published. In addition to this lucrative writing career, he is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in the area of stage fright. He has worked with many top stand-up comedians, who are regularly confronted with massive cases of flop sweat. He also has been moonlighting as a full professor at California State University Dominguez Hills for over thirty years.

Jeffrey Davis's earliest memories are of sitting around the writers' table at Nate & Al's Delicatessen, where his father and his comedy writer cronies gathered over corn beef and Doctor Brown's Cream Soda, told war stories, and tried to fix third acts. He began his own career writing jokes for Thicke of the Night. Among his situation comedy credits are Love Boat, House Calls with Lynn Redgrave, Give Me a Break, Diff'rent Strokes, and Night Court. He has also written for such shows as America's Funniest People, America's Funniest Home Videos, and Small Wonder, and has had film projects developed by Bette Midler's All Girl Productions, among others. His plays have been produced in New York and Los Angeles. His most recently published play is Speed Dating 101. He is the Screenwriting Department Chair and associate professor of film and TV writing at Loyola Marymount University. His one night of stand-up at the Comedy Store convinced him that he should stay permanently seated at his desk.

Hot Famer's Daughter.

2011-09-15T22:01:00.004-04:00

Boy am I tried! [EDIT: That should be tired. But I left it up there just to support my statement.]

It's been a busy life. I saw the most amazing football game of my life on Saturday and had a complete excitement hangover the next day. Literally, my voice has just recovered from the cheering.

I previewed an early sneak of Fox's new show, The New Girl with Zooey Deschanel. Don't ask me how. I'm a paid writer you know. I've been so stoked every since hearing it had been picked up. Zooey Deschanel is a favourite actress of mine, and it's sweet that she and her sister get to share a network.

But I was worried. With all the hype and adorable-ness that is Zooey Deschanel, would the first pilot show of the season disappoint?

September 20th, at 9 pm, get thyself to a TV and flip on Fox. This show wins.

Jess, Deschanel's character, is so wonderfully awkward. Like, really awkward. She's that offbeat kinda-not-cool-but-it-works-for-her character that usually appears as your female protagonist's best friend. Maybe I just love it because she reminds me of me and my girl friends.

The guys are not quite as solid as Deschanel, but I can see their personalities develop. But, so sad, the strongest character of the three in the pilot, Damon Wayans Jr., will be replaced because he already has a commitment on Happy Endings. That makes me UN-happy.

It is funny. The Hockey Player almost missed his bus home because he was trying to stay as long as possible. My only cavaet is that there seems to be a lack of complexity, but pilots usually have to cram in so much they have a unique tone. I am so looking forward to the rest of this show -- and the rest of the fall season.

The Big News.

2011-09-08T19:34:00.004-04:00

1. I still fit into my high school graduation dress, suckas!

But that's not it...

2. I am about to be a paid screenwriter.

Money. In my Pocket. For words. That I wrote. I am about to get paid. For words.

Here is the story -- I still keep in touch with my old screenwriting professors, and one of them floated an idea by me and asked if I would help develop it with him. Yes and yes. I expected we would meet a few times, spit ball ideas around, and just sort of break the monotony of writing alone by developing the idea together. I was a little nervous about having to be brilliant on the spot with a former professor, but I was excited to work with someone for a change.

It was like a small town Hollywood courtship meeting.

He bought me my drink (lemonade, but I kept it medium, no need to be flashy), and we small talked. We hadn't seen each other since he had given me notes on my TV pilot. And then it got down to business. We would develop the idea together through weekly meetings, and once we had nailed down a treatment, we'd register with the Writers' Guild with joint story credit. Then I'd take our treatment, outline, and beat sheet (yeah, way more prewriting than I ever do) and work out the screenplay. I'd register my first draft with the Guild and get sole writing credit. He'd shoot the script low budget next summer and edit it in the fall.

I was set to go, by this point. The prospect of having my words filmed was motivation enough for me. But then he flattered me even more -- he offered me money. It wasn't an extravagant amount (he's a professor, guys) and at first I waved my hand -- unnecessary, Professor -- but he was insistent. He said, he thought about what he would want in this situation and that the money was an investment in the project that he wanted to do. We reached an agreement.

Guys, I'm going to write a script, and then I'm going to stand in front of a video feed and watch those words. There's going to be a script, and then there's going to be a creative team, and then there's going to be a cast, and then there's going to be locations and sets and a shooting schedule and footage and hours and hours in the editing room.

And then there's going to be a movie.

That I wrote.

And sometime after that, there'll be another. And another. And another and another and another...

In Deep.

2011-09-04T19:10:00.003-04:00

The Hockey Player wasn't wrong when he said writing takes a long time. I started writing The Exit Strategy last late summer/early fall, just finished draft three, and am hoping to get through a couple more drafts before the Nicholl rolls around in May. That's nearly two years, and I have little idea if the draft I send to the Nicholl will be the final draft.

This is why I try to be careful when picking projects. If you're going to dedicate years of your life to a project, you've got to be convinced that 1. this is a project you like enough to get you through those years and 2. this is a project that will help your career. [I fully believe that faith in #2 is more difficult and uncertain than faith in #1.]

There are a lot of stories I could write. But I feel like there are a few kinds of stories I am meant to write. One kind of story that I like to explore is the redemption story. The redemption of people, the redemption of situations, how the bad becomes good. But when it comes to writing the bad before the good, I'm a little squeamish. When I write about the gray areas of life, how do I show understanding without sanction? Shouldn't I raise the stakes? How "bad" am I willing to go? Or am I afraid of the judgment on me if I write something deemed inappropriate?

The problem is, if I gloss over hard situations, if I keep things just partly cloudy, how powerful will redemption be? Isn't it the greater the fall, the greater the grace? If someone is saved from just a slightly harrowing situation, how much faith will I inspire in redemption? Isn't it true that the greater the debt forgiven, the greater love inspired?

Too bad I didn't want to become an accountant instead of a writer.

Teaser.

2011-08-31T20:22:00.004-04:00

I could have some really big news. Maybe. So I'm not going to tell you. But here's some lesser news.

I finished the third draft of The Exit Strategy! I'm going to let it ferment a little and then dive back in for a fourth draft. After that, I do believe it'll be ready to show to a few close friends. And then rewrite it more. And then I'll send it to others (Carson? I'm gunning for you). And then I'll rewrite it more. And hopefully I'll get it polished in time for next year's Nicholl.

The Hockey Player thinks writing takes too long.

I've recently gotten my hands on a copy of Show Me the Funny! edited by Peter Desberg and Jeffry Davis. Since I'm really hoping to vamp up the comedy in this next draft of The Exit Strategy, I'll be looking for some applicable tips.

Football season is about to start. That's GREAT.

You know what else comes with fall? Pilots. There are several new shows I'm excited about (Awake, The New Girl, Once Upon a Time), and I will be reviewing. It would be a great time to pull out my own pilot.

I've also been thinking about the end of the world a lot recently. The Hockey Player and I are forming a plan. The only tips I can give you are familiarize yourself with local emergency headquarters, get a bike, and plot the sneakiest route into Canada.

Submission.

2011-08-25T18:44:00.004-04:00

People often ask me, in the screenwriting process, what follows full completion of a script? If it's done and I know it's done and I'm ready to let it go, how do I get it to the people who have the money? And my answer always is, "There's fellowships and blind queries and contests and secret lists and really I have NO IDEA."

I don't. I don't know what the steps are from finished script to first day of production. I suppose that's something I'll figure out in the next few years (hooooopefully). In most of my imaginary scenarios, it involves moving to LA.

Screenplays, I'm shot at. But short stories. I know what you do there.

I wanted to get back into fiction this summer. I have two stories that I'm pretty proud of, and I just got one to DONE status. It's finished. It's ready to go. This sucker is ready to sail.

So. Once I have the time. I'm going to start researching short story markets. And then I'm going to start querying. I am nervous but excited. I am savoring the anticipated rejection. I'm having trouble typing with my fingers crossed.

I haven't had a fiction piece published in at least five years. I haven't tried. But I'm tired of typing and typing and typing and stuffing the pages into my pockets. Time to bid them farewell (and good luck). This could be the beginning of my failure as a writer.

Or it could go really well.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Not so nice.

2011-08-21T22:09:00.005-04:00

I have a problem.

I was hoping it was just restricted to the film industry, which is dominated by bull-headed adolescent man boys. But apparently it's just something about me.

People think I'm nice.

I did everything I could think of, short of actually being mean and standoffish. I thought maybe it was because I suddenly look young (seriously, I was never told I look young for my age until I graduated college). So I cut off all my hair. I got a new job where I can dress like an adult. And yet, last week, a couple of my new coworkers (literally, they're a couple. Husband and wife) told me I reminded them of their nice, who is just SO sweet and SO nice.

You think this wouldn't be a problem, people thinking I'm nice. But the problem is, people think I'm just so nice, and then they don't take me seriously. Which is an actual problem. Just because I'm pilot and reasonably courteous, I'm not timid or dumb. In the film industry, you can just give off a lot of attitude and get some balance that way. You can't give off attitude in an office setting.

Maybe I just have to wait it out, until people can believe a person can be nice AND young AND competent. Maybe I just have to wait until I get old, and people start believing I have graduated college. The only thing I know I am going to do is bring in my fresh batch of French macarons to work tomorrow. I'm sure baked goods are just going to compound my problem, but if I didn't get rid of the things I baked, I'd have an all new personal problem.

EDIT: I'm not saying I AM nice, mind you. Just that that's how people perceive me. I'm just nominally polite and apparently young looking, and I am not responsible for how people interpret that.

Sometimes I say things to not look like an idiot, but instead I just prove it.

2011-08-13T12:32:00.003-04:00

Last weekend I went to a goodbye party for a friend who was moving to China. I got to meet a lot of new people, which allowed for the always long story of where I'm from, what I'm doing, and what I want to be doing (seriously, I never think my life is complicated until I start telling this story. And usually I just skip the bit about England).

I got talking with my friend's dad about how I wanted to be a writer, and he said, "That's a tough career. A lot of people try it, and very few can make any money off it."

And I said, "That's true, which is why I think the key to having a sustainable writing career is to diversify, produce everything from screenplays to short stories so you can tap into the market from all angles."

And as he was nodding his head, all I could think was WHAT? Where did that come from? I've never said that before in my life, and I don't even really think it's true. I said it because I was to scared to admit to this person, who has relatives in the film business and legitimately knows how difficult it is, that I'm gambling a whole lot of time and energy on something that could turn out to be a big black hole. I couldn't say, "Yeah, screenwriting is more commonly a source of frustration than money but I'm going to do it anyway," because I didn't want to sound like some starry-eyed high schooler with her fingers crossed for NYU. So I made something up and just sounded dumb.

I do write more than screenplays. I write short stories and sometimes novel excerpts and these amazing blog posts, but it's not because I think I'm going to make a career out of them. It's because I enjoy all those modes of storytelling. I'm still learning not to be embarrassed about being a writer, even about being an unpublished/unproduced writer. I hope that next time someone says, in essence, "Oh you want to be a writer? That's a tough field," I'll be able to say, "You're right, it is. And I'm going to rock it out anyway."

PS. I finished that short story I've been working on. It's 18 pages of mess, but it's also 18 pages of awesome. Maybe you guys can't tell from my blogs, but I'm really not half bad.

More Soon.

2011-08-09T21:21:00.005-04:00

It's been a perilous past couple days.

Actually, that's not remotely true. It's rather settled at frustrating, with my room remaining stubbornly hot while the outside part of the world becomes surprisingly cool. Every season I forget how Michigan weather goes.

Also, apparently it's a thing to bring your TV camping now? I did not know. But while on a twenty-four hour camping trip with friends (which, now that I think about it, was less than safe at times), we saw several families huddled around a TV set -- in their tent! What is wrong with the world!

Can we talk about spec script sales for a minute? According to Scott Myers, spec script sales are up 84% this year to date. I honestly don't know what else a writer would do to try to break into the industry BESIDES write a spec [EDIT: Ah, I forgot, Tumblrs and Twitter Feeds], but hallelujah for the resurrection! To all the people who said the spec market was dead, eat 84% of your little heart out. Go us! [And by us I mean you real people making money off this crazy thing.]

Are you guys following ScriptShadow? Are you? Because what I'm trying to say is, he said something really great last week, and I'm trying for the life of me to figure out what it was, but I'm drawing a blank. It might have been how truly hilarious comedies always seem to need that one character who will "go there" to ridiculous lengths [a la Zack Galifinikas]. This character, interestingly enough, is rarely the main character. And in female driven/targeting rom coms, it is ALWAYS the best friend of the career driven, detail oriented, Miss Lonely Hearts protagonist. Wouldn't it be great if we had a rom com where the female lead was the ridiculous one? Kind of like Juno, at 25? Or my own script, The Exit Strategy? [Please email for read requests.]

I'm on the fourteenth page of my current short story, and I'm getting that delicious feeling of tumbling down toward the end. Any day it could happen. It's inevitable. It's set up, I'm prepared, all we need is an afternoon or two at the keyboard and away from Facebook. I've been reading old Nebula winners too. Writers should be readers if only because it inspires us to be better writers.

I'm sorry about the excessive punctuation tonight. I don't know what came over me.

Finish.

2011-07-30T14:31:00.003-04:00

I was a fiction writer once. I have four Kinko's bound volumes, two LuLu published novels, and stacks and stacks of full yellow legal pads. I used to have that half-enchanted writer quality, and I would grab paper napkins to scribble on while out to dinner with friend's families.

"She's a writer," my friends would whisper to their perplexed grandmothers.

Then, when I discovered screenwriting, I gave fiction up for a while. And I found the longer I stayed away, the more trouble I had reconciling the brevity and austerity of screenwriting with the description and mood of fiction writing.

Now a days, I like to pretend I'm a fiction writer. This summer I decided I wanted to return to my roots, crank out some fiction, and perhaps see about sending it out to magazines. I had some great ideas, and I actually made sizable dents in a few pieces. But I was collecting beginnings. I would run out of energy or have difficulty finding the right tone or start with nothing more than the opening line. It's become more difficult for me to finish fiction pieces than to finish screenplays.

Still, I could delude myself into the belief that I was making progress.

Another thing that I do to convince myself that I'm developing as a writer is to not write, but read. But what I was using as a method of procrastination was pushing me back to productivity. I have a nasty habit of taking more books out from the library than I ever have intentions of reading, but the behemoth of my last visit was a collection of short stories from one of my favourite authors, Dreamsongs by George R. R. Martin. I love this anthology because 1. it starts with some of his earliest work, making the legend a man. It's refreshing for an amateur. And 2. he prefaces each section of stories with an introduction of his life and career at the time he wrote the stories.

In one introduction Martin describes his determination to finish. "Every day after breakfast I would drag out my Smith-Corona portable electric, set it up on my mother's kitchen table, plug it in, flick on the switch that made it humm-mmm, and set to writing. Nor would I allow myself to put a story aside until I'd finished it. I wanted finished stories I could sell, not fragments and half-developed notions. That summer I finished a story every two weeks, on the average."

Sometimes a story deserves to fade. Some ideas aren't strong enough to carry a story, some don't have enough life to develop into something interesting, some are just bad. But sometimes I think the real reason my stories peter out is because I am too fickle and careless. Sometimes my follow through is just pitiful. It's the classic writer problem of getting my butt in the chair and my brain off Facebook.

So I have a new philosophy. Finish. Detours are only allowed as far as jotting down new ideas that I am guaranteed to forget. Besides that, I stick with the story I am writing. And there I plug away, day after day.

I've already finished one story and am halfway through another. It's refreshing, the world of fiction, a delicate foil to my screenplays. There's a lot more freedom in fiction writing than there is in the utilitarian world of screenwriting. It's an indulgence, I do think, but hopefully one that pays off in the end.

Things that Have Happened in the Last 6 Weeks

2011-07-25T18:43:00.005-04:00

1. I thought my boyfriend died on vacation.

A couple weeks ago we got a chance to spend some time with my family in the mountains. It was good. I built a most awesome fire, we canoed under a bridge that we totally probably weren't allowed under, we crashed a small town Fourth of July parade comprising mostly emergency vehicles from four different towns. We also hiked seven miles along a mountain ridge over a cabin, which was pretty sweet. It's here I thought tragedy struck.

My dad, brother, the Hockey Player, and I had branched off from the main group to do the more hardcore hike (it's true). At one of the small scenic overlooks, my brother and the Hockey Player thought it'd be a good idea to throw rocks over the cliff. I did too, until it became apparent just how bad of an arm I have. When I got tired of being lame, I suggested we move on. I was barely back on the path when I heard another rock go over the cliff -- a LARGE rock. Like, a rock that somebody thought was stable enough to step on but totally wasn't and was now crashing down the mountain with its unfortunate mis-stepper to his death. I turned around -- and did not see the Hockey Player.

For about half a second, I was convinced we'd lost him. And then he wandered out from behind my dad. I was relieved. I didn't want to have to explain that to his mom. She bought me a really beautiful pair of shoes last time I went to see her.

2. I quit my job. I am pretty stoked about that.

3. I had a great idea for The Exit Strategy. It was the perfect development, the extra layer that makes this story different from the rest of its genre, the answer to so many problems. Basically, I just made things worse for my main character. That always seems to work. Truly, I was thinking about my own life, and realizing, "Oh man, I really hope THAT never happens. That would suck to the max." And when you have a thought like that, the best thing to do is make it happen to someone else. Someone made up, preferably.

The last time I wrote about The Exit Strategy, I was working on the outline for the second draft. I'm now halfway through that second draft. I'm about the kill the midpoint. In a good way.

4. I started writing fiction again too.

Early Days and Years.

2011-06-13T17:34:00.003-04:00

Today I got out of work early -- I think that's one of the best feelings in the world, getting out of work early. Even if you're still fatigued from being sick all weekend and you have to dive head first into car mechanics that you clearly have no clue about, it's still one of the best feelings. After topping off my coolant (duh duh duh da! I am so accomplished!), I stopped by my old university department to see if the screenplay library was open. It was not, but it was so very calm and peaceful and oh so quiet that I decided to stick around for a while and "write" aka keep my laptop closed on my lap while I rested my eyes.

I always feel awkward when I go back to campus. I love my alma mater and could easily pass as a student, but I always have this uneasy feeling of not belonging. It's only been two years, but I feel ancient compared to students today (seriously, the freshmen look like tweeners. I betcha they don't even know what POGs are).

I'm already in this nostalgic mood, and as I'm leaving the department, I see my reflection and realize the t-shirt I'm wearing is from 2005. That was six years ago. And as I'm thinking, "Holy cow! This t-shirt is ANCIENT" I'm also realizing how radically different my life is now as opposed to six years ago. Things were way different than, my geographic location, my goals, my university, my friendships, my plans, my knowledge of car engines, everything. Things have changed a lot.

I hope life is always like that. I hope every once in a while I wax nostalgic and get to marvel at the way I travel from point A to B to C to Q. And it's inspiring to think that in five years my life could be just as radically different as it was five years ago.

Not That I'm Counting--

2011-06-07T18:59:00.003-04:00

--but yesterday I had my 13,000 visitor. If you subtract the 3,000 times I've read my own blog since I've started counting four years ago, that's still an impressive 10,000. That's kinda cool. Also, I've just realized I've been blogging for seven years. That's kinda... I'll let you decide.

I've been floundering in the pre-writing for my second draft of The Exit Strategy over the past few weeks. It's tough, this stage. I would so much rather be churning out pages. I felt like I wasn't making much progress in actually restructuring my story. But then yesterday I decided to plot out the emotional journey of my protag, and suddenly I had a malleable structure to work with. Now I'm halfway through my beat sheet, and once that's done, I can start writing again.

I feel like the beat sheet is almost superfulous. I know the story and I'm itching to start writing it, but having every scene plotted out will make the rewrite so much smoother and cleaner. And I do feel that everytime I've gone through my script in prepping for this rewrite, every time I've reread it or note-carded it or plotted it out, I've come up with at least one new idea or gained one new insight into the story or the characters. I hope that all the good ideas make it in to the next draft.

Also, I love this song [though pardon the fan-made music video] --

Smart People Saying Things.

2011-05-28T12:36:00.002-04:00

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Some luminescent golden orb has popped out of the clouds here in Michigan and has inspired a sudden cult of pale sallow people to wander around outside. I hope you all have relaxing, fun-filled plans.I have a wedding tonight--not my own, obvi, though my two high school best friends always said I was most likely to elope. I suppose that's truer now than ever, since they're both on their second year of marriage.

I'm halfway through Bossypants, after a week and a half of anxiously awaiting its arrival and fearing that the infallible US postal system had laxed off just in time to lose my first book purchase since the text book years. It's wonderful and amazing. It also makes me feel wonderfully productive on a Saturday afternoon, when all I've done is relax in bed with my computer and a book. I honestly don't understand how reading feels productive, but I plan on spending more of my free time being lazy that way so I can later brag about the books I've read to my boyfriend, who doesn't understand leisure reading in the way that he doesn't understand why I don't move to LA and start work as a writer immediately or exactly how big my hair can get.

I should probably write something about movies to make this post relevant--

Memorial Day Weekend Box Office Blow Out : If you're interested in movies, you should check Nikki's blog daily for biz news. I don't really get (or read) most of it, except for the posts about writers or that give me more reasons to love-hate Lena Dunham or that have lots of updates with massively large numbers in the titles. Pirates 4, $500 mil worldwide?

But the thing I like most about this weekend box office is that Bridesmaids is projected to rake in another $20 mil. That's three weekends over $20 mil for the underdog comedy of the summer. Take that, studio fatcats! (I'm bringing back old school insults. It's part of my whole retro thing.)

Why do I love Bridesmaids so much? One, it's hilarious. Two, it's a female powerhouse. Three, it's amazingly well written, as Carson demonstrates.

And lastly, my dad forwarded me this article by Timothy Dalrymple on Christianity in the movies. With a script that gets more and more theological every time I rewrite it, I found it very interesting, especially as it talks about the general critical bias against Soul Surfer and its Christian messages. The thing is, I watched Soul Surfer in theatres too, and whenever they started to talk about God or faith, even I started to feel vaguely uncomfortable.

And I believe it's because of Dalrymple's second argument, "Hollywood has excised faith from feature films for so long that when a robust and unapologetic faith is included in a film it seems jarring and unseemly." And it does. Whenever Carrie Underwood started to talk, I thought to myself, "This is the Christian message." The problem is, however, that vagueness about a film's core theology makes for vague movies. I was so excited for The Adjustment Bureau, but I was just as disappointed when I actually saw it. The movie tries to include God without including God, and the result is simply a weak (and somewhat laughable) story. Angels wear hats for teleportation? What?

It makes me think about my own stories, not just the one has the overt theological legs The Chronicles of Narnia was accused of, but of the ones without Christian messages. When characters (especially Bible Belt dwellers) go through physical and emotional pain, of course their theological worldviews are going to crop up, even if it's just to say that their pain is their proof against the divine. Suffering draws us to God, either to defy Him or to defer to Him. It is the point of our lives where we wrestle most with the question--is this all there is?--and we have to decide if our human experience is the greatest force in the world or if our stories are told for the glory of Someone Else.

(And yes, I capitalized that to indicate God, just in case you had doubts.)

And lastly, from Scott Myer's real Saturday hot links and Candy Land screenwriters, "We envision it as Lord of The Rings, but set in a world of candy.”

And since writing this post, the sun's disappeared again. Hope springs eternal, though, that it really does exist.

Thoughts versus Words.

2011-05-20T19:18:00.003-04:00

I am not the most productive writer in the world. I can't sit down and write 10,000 words in one sitting like Amanda Hocking can do. I don't sit around my apartment all day in my pajamas plunking away. I don't have a membership to a place like The Office or whatever that private writers' club in LA is. But considering the demands of the rest of my life and the fact that I write by stealing time at coffee shops and bakeries and not in my home office, I think I do ok. I finished a new screenplay draft a couple weeks ago. I'm over 11,000 words in my novel. I sometimes update side projects I'm working on.

However, I'm most productive with my stories when I'm actually writing in them. I think it's because 1. it's easier to monitor your progress. I can know how many words I've written or how many pages I've advanced. I get closer to a defined end goal. And because 2. it's easier to make up stories than it is to analyze them.

After the requisite emotional break from The Exit Strategy, I've pulled it back up to rewrite. The difficulty with rewriting is that you usually need to know what the problems in your story are in order to rewrite them. You have to find problems, come up with a solution, and then implement it. This requires analysis, brainstorming, more clearly defining characters and choices, grappling with your theme, finessing subtext, deeping conflict, manipulating more complexity, coming up with new scenarios only to discard them, figuring out how to set up jokes, constructing set pieces--building up support for your structure at all.

Structure? I think I forgot about that in all the writing.

I can spend my typical hour or two writing just thinking... and have only a couple pages of notes to show for it. It's difficult to believe I'm making progress when I look at my scribbles and find myself just as unsure in my choices as ever. If I'm lucky enough to spot a problem, my solutions are generally vague and not implementable strategies yet.

I.E., I know my opening is weak. My notes are as follows -- "What is the BEST opening possible? What am I trying to set up? The story? The setting? Hazel's character? Hazel's current situation or the absence of her dreams? Her relationship with her family? What is the best set up for the pay off?"

See? I know what the problem is--but I don't even know what the question is.

My favourite note to myself? "This scene needs more punch." What does that even mean? And how am I supposed to make something more "punch-y"? I obviously failed at it the first time around. Did I suddenly get more clever in the past month?

Another note I starred (stars show importance. This is an important note.) -- "How does Hazel's FLAW feed into her PROBLEM?"

Not only do I have to give my protag a flaw and a problem, I have to CORRELATE them.

I'm not good at this part of rewriting, this ethereal staring off into space while I just conjure up brilliant edits to my story. I am, as a 20 year old family Christmas letter prophetically suggested, not a thinker. I am a do-er. It's very hard to believe that all this thinking is writing. It's too unsubstantial for me. And sometimes when I look at my own handwriting all I see are loops and swirls. I get very antsy and want to just go back to the actual page writing.

But I'm trying to make my rewriting process better, more efficient. I'm trying to slow myself down, take time to consider characters and motivation and conflict and set ups and payoffs and theme and subtext. I'm reading scripts in the same genre and might even watch some older classic movies to give me a good grounding in the style I'm trying to acheive. In an ideal world, after one more draft and a polish, I'd be able to start showing this script to people who are better than I am at anaylsis and who can give me real, intelligent notes.

And then I can start rewriting. Again.

'Cause the Box Office DOES Matter. [to the people I need to sell scripts to]

2011-05-13T17:48:00.004-04:00

My best friend and I are going to see Bridesmaids tonight. Simply because of this Huffington Post article. Just saying.

Fade Out on Script 6

2011-05-02T15:57:00.006-04:00

When I made my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days (which I was nowhere near completing at the end of 1001 days, but I am still working on), I made one of the items to have finished seven feature length first drafts. I'm one closer to my goal of 7 which--illogically so--seems like some magic number. When I hit 7 completely scripts I'll have learned something or mastered something or at least come up with one marketable idea. And in some sense it's true--I've noticed a slow but steady development of good concept and craft with each script. Nearly all of these projects have been documented in some way on this blog, but here's a recap. Cause I'm narcisstic.

1. The 4:05 -- My first script ever, I wrote it while living in England in my semester between my two universities. That sounds very romantic, and it was. I sat in pubs in the middle of the afternoon--drinking soda, mom and dad--writing on yellow legal pads, a hastily scrawled paragraph as an outline. I love this story, probably because it is my own, but it's not a fresh enough take on the coming-of-age romantic dramedy. It placed in the top ten screenplays at the University of Michigan's most prestigious writing competition, warranting some of the harshest comments I've ever received on a piece. I have a soft spot for this story but currently have little intention of revisiting it.

2. Making It -- A very terrible coming of age story. I didn't like it very much even when I was writing it, so if it's ok with you, we'll just acknowledge that this one happened in order to make it count for the tally.

3. Whatever You Ask -- 2007 Script Frenzy project. A romantic comedy with three male protagonists. Because I know so much about the male mind. While I was very excited about the idea when I was gearing up for it, I honestly don't think I've looked at it since I finished it. I have zero desire to revisit it.

4. Collapse/In Memoriam -- I wrote this script for my first screenwriting class. I wrote it for a friend. Since our second screenwriting class as a rewrite class, I took this script through a couple drafts. It might be good. I don't know. I haven't really looked at it since then. It's a story about death, and right now it's just so damn depressing. I'd need to figure out a way to make it more light-hearted without making it a Big Chill rip off (thought that would be a bit fitting). But after the flops that were Making It and Whatever You Ask, this script did good things for me. I again entered the Hopwood Awards and again placed in the top ten, where the comments were not AS mean as they were for The 4:05 [improvement!]. This script also got me into the master screenwriting class, where I wrote--

5. The Garden [Even Angels Swear] -- I can't really call it that, but I wish I could. This script is definitely my passion project script. I wrote it for my master class, had pages workshopped by Tom McCarthy and Pamela Gray, and spent many hours in my professor's office trying to make it work. I finished my third draft of it last summer. It was a shredding rewrite, and a fourth draft is definitely needed. I will get to it--I think I'll always return to this project--but I'm hesitant about how marketable it is. It'd be a big budget movie with strong religious themes and a real cliff hanger ending. I've got to make it phenomenal before anyone takes a risk on that.

6. The Exit Strategy -- Clocking in at 75 pages, this is the first feature length first draft I've completed since graduating in 2009. It's an incredibly personal project, though if I had to pitch it I'd say it's My Best Friend's Wedding meets Tiny Furniture. Meets Forgetting Sarah Marshall meets (500) Days of Summer. I wrapped it last week and am taking a break before diving back in for the rewrite. I have a couple friends who I know would be willing to look at it after I get it to the best I can by myself. And I have secret hopes for this script.

7. Found Footage Story -- My next project. Am I jumping on this bandwagon? Heck yes I am.

I remember after I wrote Whatever You Ask, I had this terrible wave of self doubt. I had written three scripts, and the last two were real bombs. But looking back I can see the gradual improvement [and this isn't counting the numerous ideas, loglines, shorts, first acts, pilots, and tv specs I've banged out]. They say it takes ten years. Or is it ten scripts? A million words?

Whatever it is, I'll get there. Eventually. Cause I just keep on typing.

Holidays and Hostages.

2011-04-27T19:27:00.005-04:00

I don't have anything to say about hostages. Let's just say it's better than the first consonance I thought up.

Since weekend holidays aren't lengthy enough to justify the trip back home, I spent Easter with the Hockey Player's family. It was nice, and I ate a lot. I did not much get writing done, but I'm pretty sure I got a pass.

There was one moment, as we were sitting around before dinner on Saturday, that I kinda felt like an idiot. I was talking with one of the other women, who was bouncing her newborn, her third son, on her knee when she started to ask me about my writing. I told her I was working on a screenplay and a novel. The trouble started when she asked me what my novel was about.

I hate. hate. hate summarizing what I'm working on. Because this is what I sound like--

"Oh, you know, it's like a fantasy."

To her credit, she continued to ask. "So are there dragons and things?"

"No, you know, it's more like a subtle fantasy." Really? Subtle fantasy? Who am I, some emo high schooler pretending my swords-and-sorcery novel is literature?

And then, because I have to divert the conversation away from my writing but keep it on me, I start to justify my choices.

"Genre novels, paranormal, fantasy, are actually doing really well on solely virtual platforms, like Kindles and e-books. So if it works well, I'd really like to look into self publishing through the internet. People actually make livings that way."

If I had been that articulate, at least I only would have come across sounding like a pompous big-headed nerd. Since I sorta stumbled all over my words, I came across sounding like a dumb pompous big-headed nerd [the Hockey Player insists this wasn't so, but I'm pretty sure he was sleeping on the couch at that point].

And this woman, bless her heart, was nodding along like what I was saying actually made sense, all while I felt like a fourteen year old blathering on about my first novel attempt and how it was going to be brilliant enough that I'd actually make MONEY off of it.

But you know what? I really like this story. The more I think about it, the more excited I get. And whenever I figure out how to talk about it, I for sure WILL be talking about it.

Speaking of fantasy, while we were away for the holidays, George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, based on his Song of Fire and Ice books, some of my favourite books, premiered on HBO. Since one of the reasons I'm dating the Hockey Player is because he has HBO, I asked him to record it for us to watch when we got back.

I've literally been waiting for this series for over a year.

Needless to say, when we sat down to watch it, I was stocked. I broke the bank and bought name brand ice cream for the event. But when he pulled it up on the DVR, I was suddenly alarmed--

"Why is the description in Spanish?"

There was this silence, and then a very quiet, "Uh oh."

The Hockey Player doesn't just have HBO. He has HBO Latino. And guess which one he recorded.

Let's just say, lucky for our relationship, the episode was being offered on demand too. And the Hockey Player changed his DVR settings so that he'd record it in English. And it was pretty funny, too, watching the first five minutes, which has no dialog, and then to hear that dramatic first line--in Spanish.

I'm loving the series and wishing more and more that I had beyond basic cable [we don't even get TBS anymore]. Game of Thrones has already been picked up for a second season, so I told the Hockey Player that as long as he keeps his cable subscription around, he's got pretty good insurance on keeping me around too.

2011-04-25T18:49:00.001-04:00

Sunshine and Sunburn.

2011-04-16T22:58:00.004-04:00

I have not been writing.

I also have not been trying to wrangle a dozen babies, dodging rainy Michigan weather, or sleeping.

But I can tell you what I have been doing--

I've been bike riding on a palm tree-ed island. I've been paddling on a Yolo board in the Gulf. I've been renting a car for the very first time ever. I've been kicking it in to die for gold heels. And I've been eating insane amounts of ice cream, cinnamon roll french toast, and other delicious foods that are not seafood. Because I don't give in to peer pressure.

The Hockey Player planned a trip to Florida to visit his family, and I was invited to tag along. And I have to say, I don't feel guilty about not writing this belated spring break weekend, not even a little bit, not even at all.

Nerves and Nerve.

2011-04-07T21:09:00.004-04:00

Apparently, someone recently found my blog by Googling "single unmarried childless Christian."

Welcome, friend. You've...come to the right place.

So a couple months back my dad forwarded me this article about a young writer named Amanda Hocking who's sold nearly a million copies of her novels, largely through e-publishing. Like any decent writer of our generation, she has a blog, which I spend time reading through when I'm procrastinating on writing. She says some interesting things about indie publishing, about traditional publishing, and about writing in general. But here's what impresses me most about her--

She's got straight up nerve.

This is part of writing that I just can't comprehend anymore. The ability to let go of a piece, to say, "this is ready to share with someone else," to summon the guts to pursue publishing--and success. Amanda pursued traditional publishing but finally decided to take control of her career by e-publishing. And now she's a full time writer.

I am timid when it comes to sharing with others. I believe I'm a decent writer, but I know that nothing I've written is in the best possible shape it can be yet. I haven't even shared anything with the Hockey Player yet, though he persistently asks to read something I've written.

I'm not saying e-publishing is the way to be a career writer. I believe that anyone who's pursuing a career in the arts can find success a myriad of ways. Or, that they may never find financial success at all. But, as someone who's retreated to "work on her craft" for the past several years, I find the drive required to declare your work ready for others inspiring. Whenever I reach that point, however I pursue publication and success, I hope I have the sheer moxie needed to seize the opportunities when they come along.

Also, Amanda Hocking links this website that analyzes your writing and compares it to famous authors. Here's what I found out--

Novel: Edgar Allan Poe (um. I will definitely take THAT)
Blog: Douglas Adams and HP Lovecraft (are you freaking kidding me?! That would be the highlight of my life)
Anthology Fiction: James Joyce (no way. He's like a serious writer, and...these pieces are not)
The Exit Strategy: David Foster Wallace (I don't know who that is, but I also don't think the website can really handle scripts, 'cause, you know, it was designed to compare you to novelists)

PS. Amanda Hocking's made 2 MILLION dollars from sales. In the very best scenario, who doesn't want to be a twenty-something author with 2 mil in the bank? That is all.

Tightropes and Acrobatics.

2011-03-28T17:37:00.005-04:00

"People of the sidewalk! We can't give up on the written word! We need stories--because I don't have a Plan B!" - Liz Lemon, 30 Rock

When I was an undergrad, I had a few problems with time management. Or, as I like to think about it, I knew what my priorities were. Sleep was never a high one. Dorm living, while delightfully appealing to my social side, is probably not the most ideal situation for me. There were definitely nights where I'd hang out with my friends--building relationships, I like to call it--until they went to bed around, oh 1 AM, and then I'd go back to my room to work on my homework.

Before anyone judges me, I graduated with honors. I think I did ok.

Since becoming a REAL person, I find myself with an abundance of free time. Probably because I'm unmarried and childless. I'm not saying I do nothing. But after I come back from work... I have no obligations. I have plans, friends to see, activities, but... no homework.

It's probably the thing I like best about being a grownup.

But in the last couple months, my schedule has exploded. And without the painfully delightful confinement of syllabus deadlines, I have to make sure things get done on my own. And I do get the things I need to get done. It's the extra stuff, baking, finishing books, phone calls, etc. that I have a problem finishing. Or just doing.

When I get off work I'm exhausted, and I still have to make sure I'm juggling keeping in touch with friends and family back home, seeing friends here, church activities, doing dumb grown up stuff like my taxes, baking for birthdays and bridal showers, and--occasionally, when our conflicting work schedules allow it--going out with the Hockey Player.

Oh, and writing.

Back when I wasn't working, I eventually developed amazing discipline. I'd write 8 pages a day. I could FLY through a draft. Now I consider it a victory if I can write a full page of fiction or three screenplay pages. And sometimes it's stressful, like today, when I finally finished a page, and I realized that with my current pace, to finish the first draft of a novel it'll take me a year. At least. And whenever I think about screenwriting, my mind balks at the amount of craft I know that I don't know. I just keep plugging away, hoping that this time personal passion will help me get a lot of things right just naturally.

And it's not just making sure I have the time to write--it's what I'm writing. I currently have a screenplay and a couple fiction pieces I'm working on. I don't usually get to work on more than one piece a day. I have to split my writing time among them, as well as any research I need to do on the business side of things.

To be honest, it'd be a lot easier not to write. Not only would I have hours of my life back to read, bake, or enjoy the slowly brightening weather out here in Michigan, but I could finally stop fighting the tiny voice of discouragement that I have to confront every time I sit down and open a story. I could stop trying to power a dream with my laptop extension cord. I could stop supporting a dubious hope with black tea and sugar cookies. I'd have less weight if I could stop carrying my laptop with me everywhere.

But I don't see that happening anytime soon. I may not have the most amazing discipline, but there is something definitely ingrained in me when it comes to writing. Maybe it's the conviction that comes when you don't have a Plan B.

I'm Back.

2011-03-24T17:34:00.005-04:00

Well, maybe. We'll see how it goes. Blogging should probably be the least of my priorities...and yet it always seems to be the thing that gets done. Probably because it's pretty narcissistic.

How are you? What's going on? Things have been changing a lot out here. I don't think I realized it at first. Here's the run down--it involves a lot of cake--

I interned on a film called The Giant Mechanical Man in December. The film stars Topher Grace, Jenna Fischer, Chris Messina, and Malin Ackerman. It was rather surreal, seeing Jenna Fischer walking and talking in our production office. All the actors that I interacted with were so nice. But, over all, it was a very educational experience. Being an office intern, I got to observe a lot of the inner workings of the production office. The office staff was great at their jobs and willing to answer any of my questions. I did a lot of menial work, running errands, ordering lunch, data entry, and yes, getting coffee. Perhaps my favourite story is the time I had to take a producer's cat to the vet to get his health certificate for their flight home.

But when the film wrapped, I was broke and burnt out. It was an EDUCATIONAL experience. And, while I love working on set, I was no longer sure it was a career path that I wanted to pursue. When you're working on production, it's all consuming. I was interning, and I was still working 8-10 hour days, 6 days a week, doing airport runs at 4 AM. The other things that were important to me, my friends, writing, church activities, were pretty much cut from my schedule. I have a strong desire to live a balanced life, and maybe I'm in the wrong industry entirely for that, but I know at least working production doesn't allow for real, day to day balance.

One of my friends is working on Ides of March, George Clooney's movie that's in town. I asked her if she was having fun. Her face tightened up and she said, "It's stressful." I don't think I want my work to make my life stressful like that or at least not to be the first comment I make on it.

So, since I had gotten a small taste of (indie) film production from the two films I worked on, I decided to try the other route and take a non film job. I have a job in my fall-back career, childcare, and have (barely) enough time for writing, friends, church, and everything else I just enjoy doing.

I don't think I'll do any more production work for a while. Mostly because our new governor is adamant about shutting down the tax incentives (too bad about all those studios that are just opening here). But I am glad I got a chance to work in production. And when The Giant Mechanical Man comes out, look for my name in the credits.

Part of the reason I took a non-film job was to get more time to write. I definitely don't have the discipline I had this fall when I wasn't working (what a blissful time that was), but I'm slowly getting back into the groove. My writing focus has shifted a little. While I'm still plugging away on my current draft of The Exit Strategy (which, if I ever mentioned this story before, now has a completely different articulation), I'm starting to spend some time back in fiction. The goal of this year is publication, even if it's a tiny e-zine or an online newspaper. Baby steps. I think I'm just tired of being a writer who's always writing and revising and never seeing the end of any work. Also, I keep talking about how I can't wait until I can write for a living, but I spend all my time in a specific field of writing that is the most unstable for a real career. I'm not saying I'm going to be making my income solely off writing, or that fiction writing is more lucrative than screenwriting. Basically none of it's lucrative. But I've spent the last couple years focusing on my craft, not on business. Now that I'm supposed to be a real person with a real job and a real life, it's time to think about how this really pans out into a career. IF it really pans out into a career.

And the rest of life is going pretty great too. Winter is (supposedly) over, my roommie and I are talking about staying in Michigan another year together, and I'm dating a super great guy. He's in school and working at the ice rink driving the zamboni, which means when apocalypse is upon us and climate change causes Michigan to freeze over for real, we'll still be able to get around.

I'm not where I thought I would be six months ago. But I'm finding out, it's not so bad here either.

Oh life.

2011-03-20T22:13:00.001-04:00

Get ready for an update soon. It's coming.

DTRs and Breaks.

2010-11-07T17:53:00.002-05:00

This blog is going on temporary hiatus. Check back in 4-6 months for [what will hopefully be] exciting updates on my life and career!

Theories and the Reality.

2010-10-28T10:52:00.002-04:00

I hate the way people in Jersey drive. It's not just the massive amount of people on the road. There's zero consideration for anyone else. Cutting people off and braking, drifting over from an exit only lane without a turn signal, ridiculously bright lights on fancy cars. I have mixed feelings about driving as it is, and being in Jersey doesn't highlight the good qualities.

Tomorrow I pack it up and head back to Michigan. Another ten hour drive. I don't think I anticipated doing this so much. Next time I'm flying.

I try to go over to see my niece and nephew as often as I can. I have to say, I think I want a big family, but trying to manage a toddler and a newborn with both parents at home seems like a challenge. The difficult thing, my sister explained to me, is that at this stage, both of your children need all of your attention all of the time. Perhaps the only time my sister can get to herself is if both children manage to nap at the same time.

I've mentioned to her before about how I plan to continue writing when I have a family, and her response was, "Don't overestimate the free time you'll have." And even if I do get the time--will I have the energy? Last year working at a school, I had zero energy for writing after wrangling 23 2nd graders all day long.

I know there are ways to manage, schedules you can get into and routines you can form that will get you at least a few minutes a day to write when you're also raising a family. But other times I wonder if I'm selfless enough to be able to make that compromise. While a family is something I theoretically think I want, I've been mostly on my own for the last five years, pursuing something I know I want.

For now I'll enjoy being an aunt, spoiling my niece and nephew, babysitting for a few hours, and then returning them to their parents at the end of the day.

TV again and Nieces.

2010-10-25T08:46:00.004-04:00

Hello, I'm adorable.

That's my niece would say if she could talk. I know newborn babies are usually ugly, but she is decidedly not. And yes, I am biased.

Since we're now a good six weeks into the fall season, I thought I'd reflect back on my insane week of TV premieres. I watched a lot of TV that first week to get a good sample--here's what remained.

MONDAY NIGHT--

What I watched: Lone Star, The Event, Castle
What I still watch: Castle

Well, I really didn't have much of a choice with Lone Star. I think The Event will go the way of FlashForward. It's safe for the rest of this season, but I think it'll slowly continue to fade. On the other hand, even though I ditched it after the pilot, the previews have gotten more interesting and occasionally I consider catching up to see if it's improved at all. Then I remember the pilot and how most episodes are probably following the same format--little character development and a giant plot tease. If it really does end up becoming the next Lost [or even making it to a second season], I'm ok with playing catch up.

TUESDAY NIGHT--

What I watched: Glee, Detroit 1-8-7, Running Wilde
What I still watch: Glee, Detroit 1-8-7

Running Wilde, another show that I did not make past the pilot. I'd rather watch reruns of Arrested Development.

Detroit 1-8-7 is the only true freshman show I'm picking up. Other than the two that got canceled. Maybe because so many of the new shows are cop/lawyer/US marshall shows. How many of those do you really want to watch? In truth, I probably wouldn't have even watched Detroit 1-8-7 if it was set in our fair city. I like it for reasons beyond that, especially the characters they've created, but I wouldn't have gone looking for a new cop show just because I like cop shows. The other freshman law enforcement shows--Chase, Outlaw, Blue Bloods, The Defenders, The Whole Truth, Law & Order:LA, to name a few--couldn't compel me to turn them on. Geez, guys, so many. Do you really think America wants to watch that many cop/law shows?

Glee I watch with my flatmate. Glee has me all confused about my feelings. On one hand, the story telling has improved vastly. This season they've actually started digging into the lives of their characters. And they've stopped threatening Glee Club every episode. That was my number one complaint last season--every episode the story was the same--Glee Club was going to be shut down. And, as an audience, we aren't stupid. We know it's not going to be. So stop giving us the same tired plot. This season the stories are new [if sometimes... odd. What was up with the Britney episode?] but the song integration sucks. At least half the songs are song just standing around in the classroom [in fact, ALL of them might have been sung there in the duet episode]. The beauty of musicals is that people break out in choreographed song and dance all over the place and it's treated as completely normal. If a good third of your show is going to be taken up by songs, make them actual performances. Otherwise you're just slowing down your story. One friend recently confessed that she's started fast forwarding through the songs. Yeah, because they're boring!

I forgot about The Good Wife for two weeks. Then when I tried to watch it on CBS' website the audio was messed up. That, combined with my guilt over how much TV I watch anyway, gives it a pass.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT--

What I watched: Undercovers, Top Chef: Just Desserts
What I still watch: Top Chef: Just Desserts

Undercovers played it safe, both in plot and character relationships, and it was boring. It wasn't edgy enough to be the next Alias, and it's not fun enough to get me to keep watching.

Top Chef: Just Desserts is just brilliant.

THURSDAY NIGHT--

What I watched: Community, 30 Rock, The Office, Bones, The League, Big Bang Theory, My Generation
What I still watch: Community, 30 Rock, The Office, Bones, The League

As these are all veterans for me, they were automatic go's [Big Bang Theory I tried and decided to forgo. Also it's nearly embarrassing how much TV I watch on Thursday nights]. My Generation was the only true freshman show, and that got canceled. I watched the first two episodes, and I might have stuck with it. Showrunner Noah Hawley did an interesting interview about blurring the lines of scripted TV and reality in My Generation, like including footage of one of his characters being on the Bachelor [I wish I could find the interview, but I can't], and I respect what he was attempting with My Generation. I'd like to see something that pushes the boundaries of entertainment work out. Except--since I've been thinking about it more--three of the four love stories they were building up would have involved infidelity. I mean, personally, that's not really the kind of love story I am inclined to root for. Didn't a lot of people cite that as the reason that Lone Star failed too? Too much moral ambiguity? People like innocent love stories.

[On a side, this is why I think Lone Star would have worked. Bob was such a poor morally deluded man, there was something very sweet and innocent about the way that he wanted to preserve his double life in order to do the best he could by both women. Maybe for Bob it worked because you had to realize a childhood of being raised by a con artist dad messes you up. For the characters on My Generation it didn't work because they had just gotten married without love and their boredom and lack of fulfillment in their marriage is what spurred them towards other options. Definitely not so innocent.]

And when it comes to comedy, 30 Rock is queen, Community is my favourite court jester, and The Office is that awkward but funny uncle who never knows when it's time to leave.

Hey-yo.

2010-10-23T09:43:00.003-04:00

I'm an aunt twice over!

My sister [finally] had her second baby last night, this time a girl. [And this time, instead of a 36 hour labor, it lasted 2 hours. Nice.] We're going to go see her in just a few hours!

And yes, I've already bought her something.

Returns and Hobbitses.

2010-10-22T10:00:00.005-04:00

Today I went back to the school where I worked last year. I hadn't seen any of my coworkers since I left last spring, so I met them for lunch. [I also stopped by to see the students. My Favourite Student offered me an invisible contract to come back and teach 3rd grade. I told him I'd have my lawyers look it over.]

The inevitable question came up--so what are you doing? [This came right after "Where are you?" with the answer of Michigan surprising some.] I realized very quickly there was no glamorous way to answer, "Nothing." I am literally doing nothing. I'm not even looking for a job right now. Granted, these two week "vacation" back to Jersey put a pretty definitely stop on any job searching.

If it was more than a passing conversation with the former coworker, I'd go into more detail, the probability that I'd be looking for a non film job soon, how I've been able to write obscene amounts since unemployed, my concerns with juggling a film career, a life, writing, and eventually, a family. However, I felt most conversations boiled down to one sentiment--Yes, remember when I worked here? Now I'm a bum.

I don't mind. Maybe because I watched a Scottish movie last night and am more persuaded than ever that what I really need to do right now is live in the UK. Also, I'd like to learn Italian.

The New Zealand actors union has lifted their ban on working for The Hobbit. Smooth move, but you might've waited too long. New Line is using the union's blacklist as leverage to say it's looking at different locations. Nikki Finke thinks Peter Jackson is too personally and professionally invested in New Zealand to make the move, but one Kiwi said on Scott Myers' blog that "it's nationwide panic."

Way to go, guys. You not only made a decision unpopular with your members, but you've also managed to upset an entire country.

Trees and Nerds.

2010-10-21T16:26:00.002-04:00

I finally caught up with the rest of the world. I finally saw The Social Network.

It was great. And it was great for a whole bunch of reasons, the actors, the directing, the writing [yes, I have a celebrity writer crush on Aaron Sorkin]. I didn't have a problem with the portrayal of women. Maybe that's because it's a true story, and if there weren't really any women involved, then there weren't any women involved. [I've noticed something about people who objectify women anyway. Usually they just have a problem with objectifying everyone. Everyone is reduced to what they can offer instead of being recognized and treated as real multi-faceted people--male and female alike.] Besides, Erica Albright was spunky and I liked her.

I think my favourite part of the movie, though, was this surprising mystery element. The film jumps between three different storylines--what happened and the two lawsuits that followed. And the entire time, as accustations were made and explanations were offered, I was trying to figure out what really happened, if Mark really stole Facebook or not. If I was on a jury, what would I conclude? It was like a who-dun-it. It was excellent mastery of story that completely engaged me.

If you haven't seen it, I completely and highly recommend it. I wish I had seen it before Aaron Sorkin's lecture. I'm going to see if I can get my hands on a copy of the script.

My dad put this sheet of metal around the trunk of our tree in the backyard. It's to prevent the squirrels from building nests in the tree and taking over our backyard. I feel kinda bad for the squirrels though. Can you imagine one day you're out at work, winning bread for your family, and you come back to find a sheet of metal preventing you from every returning to your comfy bed? Eviction without notice. I'm not sure if I'm cool with that.

Scripts and Rockstars.

2010-10-19T11:26:00.004-04:00

The other day I managed to procure a copy of Gravity, a script by Alfonso Cuaron, Jonas Cuaron, and Rodrigo Garcia that's trying to find a lead actress. I don't read enough scripts. Reading scripts helps set a standard for your own writing, for pacing, conflict, structure, beautiful but concise prose. The deterrent is that usually scripts come via my computer, and it's really no fun reading 90+ pages on a computer screen. However my alma mater has a fantastic script library that I'm going to be spending more time in.

Gravity was a great read. It has high stakes and fantastic constant tension. Anything that could go wrong, did. For that lesson along, Gravity's a fantastic read. Murphy's Law should be a constant in every script. There was no good place to take a break from reading. Something was always happening, and it was always bad.

Gravity is having difficulty finding a female lead, Dr. Stone. Stone is the main character and spends at least half the script as the only character. And while I'm usually all about casting unknowns, I think Gravity would work best with a star attached. Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman were approached but declined. Sandra Bullock's name has been floating around. But it's been difficulty to get a commitment. I think its because Dr. Stone isn't necessarily an actor's character. The great moments in the script aren't great character moments, they're great life or death suspense moments. It's a screenplay/directing Oscar nom, not an acting nom.

But it's a fantastic script. And a excellent standard to match before I assume I'm ready.

Distractions and Research.

2010-10-18T15:21:00.005-04:00

Since the breaking of CBS' script order for Dear Girls Above Me, I've tried to get some reactions from the screenwriters or industry people I follow. When The Bitter Script Reader rolled his eyes at the screams of sexism, I asked him to read my blog post about it and respond to the concerns I had. [I told him I wasn't pandering, but I was. Whenever you ask someone to read your blog, you're pandering.] Anyway, he did read and respond, and here is an excerpt--

If DGAM was instead about a man writing letters to every woman he meets about all the various ways they are inferior THEN it would be sexist. Instead his ire is directed at two such individuals (and idiots of either gender tend to run in packs) who just happen to live above him. It's not Charlie vs. womankind - it's Charlie vs. the co-occupants of his dwelling, who just happen to be women.

If it is a show where EVERY female character in every setting is equally vapid, then those railing against it might have a charge. At this point, we don't know enough to make that call. But it wouldn't be the first time that a sitcom used an execptionally dumb set of characters (both men and women) for the purposes of humor...

It's just the way I see it. Shouldn't we at least wait until a pilot script is written before we tag it as sexist?

Amanda the Aspiring Writer's response was similar--let's wait and see. And to that I say--

Fair enough.

Fair enough, Amanda. Fair enough, Bitter Script Reader. I see your points. And I don't really think McDowell is sexist--but I believe even less that we need this TV show. As Emily Blake said--"Oh, terrific. Girls everywhere get new role models."

I'm still not thrilled about this pilot. I still am unimpressed by the source material [which I think is my main issue--I don't find it funny. Not because of it's portrayals, but because I just don't think it's funny]. I still thinking making a TV show out of a Twitter account is pretty ridiculous. I still think that, if taken to series, DGAM is going to have a difficult time finding an audience. And I still feel bad for TV writers trying to sell TV ideas.

As for my ideas, I spent an hour researching World War II espionage the other day until to decide to set my story in the Cold War instead. Also I realized how suspicious it might appear to the people in the very public and diverse setting I was in that I was reading summaries of Hitler's Mein Kampf. Cold War it is.

Nightmares and Hell.

2010-10-16T11:11:00.006-04:00

I drove the 10 hours from Michigan to my parents' house yesterday. It was beautiful yesterday, and I made it in record time. I didn't tell anyone I was coming. It's nice to surprise people.

Unfortunately, all I dreamed about for the first half of the night was that I was driving through endless speed traps and past a plethora of police cars. Nothing like driving 600 miles only to dream about more driving when you finally get to sleep.

Deadline Hollywood broke a story about yet another Twitter to TV deal, "a comedy series based on Charlie McDowell's feed and Web site Dear Girls Above Me, about a single man who gains insight into the female mind by eavesdropping on his upstairs neighbors." This is CBS' third Twitter-based script order according to DH, along with Shh... Don't Tell Steve and $#*! My Dad Says. Dear Girls Above Me has gotten a script order to be cowritten by McDowell.

I hope this dies in development hell.

Look, I have no problem with web-based content being picked up for more traditional media, blogs turned to books, YouTube stars getting spots on talk shows, Twitters turned to TV shows [ok, that does sorta bug me]--if the content is any good. The $#*! My Dad Says feed is kinda funny. But I haven't bothered to watch the sitcom, so... Distribution is completely changing, and I'm not anti-progress. I think it's completely fair to "discover" talent online. And I wish McDowell continued success. But I do have some problems--

1. Just because you're internet popular doesn't mean you're Hollywood popular. McDowell may have a respectable following. I know if I ever broke a hundred followers I'd be thrilled, and he's near 35,000. Fine, I respect that. I respect that he's got a decent corner in the 140-characters of humor market. But if you make a TV show based on his Twitter feed and put it on network television--how are those 35,000 followers going to fair against competitors' programming? With Monday night football or The Big Bang Theory or Glee? How are you going to go from 35,000 to millions?

2. It's still a different format. A good writer is a good writer, true. I think all writing helps you improve your story craft. But the skills that go into making a Twitter feed funny are completely different than the ones that go into making a TV show funny. Networks do recognize that, I believe, which is why McDowell is only co-authoring the pilot and $#*! was mentored by sitcom veterans. However, just because something is funny in one format doesn't mean that it will translate effectively into another format.

3. Dear Girls Above Me isn't funny. I thought I'd check it out before I rail against it. It's not not funny. It's just not--anything special. And, I hate to be the humorless feminist in the room, but what a terrible portrayal of women. They are ignorant, self centered, and completely brainless. They're flat, one dimensional characters. Sometimes that works--Sue Sylvester from Glee was wonderful before they gave her the sister angle. But the way the Girls Above are depicted makes me cringe. Or, as one commenter at DH hypothesized, McDowell's going to inadvertently and unknowingly meet one of the Girls Above and fall in love with one of them. And that would just be tacky.

I don't think this is sexism on the part of the network because it works both ways. Shhh... Don't Tell Steve is about an idiot boy roommate. [I'd like to say people just being stupid isn't funny anyway, but the Jackass 3D box office proves me otherwise]. It still bothers me, and I think it's because men are continually drawn as fleshed out, full grown characters, but female characters regularly get slighted. Women are repeatedly depicted in TV and film not as characters but as plot points, foils, and objects of desire and ridicule. They do not exist except for how they are viewed and perceived by men. And that kind of characterization--not the one dimensionality--I strongly protest.

[EDIT: Elizabeth Banks posted this on her Twitter. I don't know where it came from, but it's fascinating. Not completely accurate, maybe--I'd argue some characters they don't list as being well developed as excellent examples of great characterization--but fascinating still. Female Character Flowchart.]

4. An audience? How many women do you think are going to be tuning into this show?

5. Really, CBS? All the material you get pitched and spec-ed and bombarded with and this is what you order? Now I just feel bad for all the talented television writers who just got screwed.

Speaking of people I feel pity for, as much as I love the Yankees, I feel kinda bad for the Rangers.

Fall and Road Trips.

2010-10-14T19:36:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I was working on plots for the contest I mentioned a couple days ago. Even though you only have to write the first 15 pages, for those 15 pages to be killer you really need to know your whole story. Since Best Friend D. is a history nerd, I decided I'd float a few ideas past her.

Within two seconds she had pitched me the most beautifully twisted premise.

It's so unfair. But, I am blessed to be her friend and steal all her ideas from her since she has no designs on a story career. My dad also has this talent. I'll be pitching a story at the dinner table, and my dad will say, "What about..." It nearly sends me into a sulk. I mean, I'm the one who has a useless degree in story telling. I should be getting more mileage out of it.

Professional writers say that ideas are cheap and easily come by. I find them elusive and ethereal. However, I'm trying to be less aggravated by other people's genius and more inspired by it. Sometimes the best twist on a nearly perfect plot comes from a fresh perspective. Now I just have to learn how to have all those perspectives myself. This must be how writers go crazy.

My sister's about to pop with her second baby any day now. I've been waiting for the call to come home for the new little niece/nephew, but I'm thinking about forgoing the phone call and just heading home now. This is completely anxiety-inducing. I can't imagine being the pregnant one who has to deal with the waiting. I almost went today, but I had to spend time and money becoming a little bit more of a Michigander by surrendering my New Jersey driver's license to the DMV. Today would have been a perfect road trip day too. The weather was perfect and the leaves are beautiful [fall is my favourite]. I'm actually looking forward to the drive through Pennsylvania for once.

Also 30 Rock is live tonight and I didn't want to risk missing it.

Motels and Surrender.

2010-10-13T11:53:00.005-04:00

Specs versus pilots continues. Kyle Killen, writer of Mel Gibson pic The Beaver and showrunner of the late Lone Star, said that when hiring writers he prefers to see a pilot but has also hired candidates off of outstanding specs. And on the topic of TV shows, New York Magazine recently ran an article, This Platform Is Not Yet Rated, discussing the difficulties in tracking ratings with the rise of online and DVR viewing. Neilsen is making some changes to their tracking system, but not until next year. The second page of the article has a couple interesting charts breaking down audiences of various shows by which platform they consume content on.

As far as last night's TV--Glee, I like your stories so much better this season. They're actually different from episode to episode. I don't think the existence of the glee club has been threatened in two entire weeks! But--song integration has really gone down hill. Every single song was set in the classroom as students perform for other students. The beauty of musicals is that they're set in a world where spontaneous eruptions into song and dance are not only tolerated as normal but encouraged and choreographed. Get it out of the classroom--make the song performances just as interesting as the stories are becoming.

I also watched Detroit 1-8-7 last night--which everyone should--and I was excited to see a location we had shot at when I was working in July. They had changed the name, but you could still see the real name in a window reflection for a quick shot. It was pretty cool. Probably because that location was so sketchy. Detroit 1-8-7 kinda makes me want to be a detective, but maybe that's just because I'm about to open up my career options.

I moved back to Michigan with the hope of breaking into the budding industry here. It has not been so easy. I worked on one film in July, but unfortunately the important contacts I made all went back home to LA at the end of the month. Which is too bad, because getting jobs is all about contacts, and I know I'd be working if I was in LA. HW Guy was telling me the other day about how the Key PA from our July shoot was considering moving to LA for a while and how if I could get out there, he would take the two of us on every shoot as his 2nd and 2nd 2nd. We'd be the dream AD team. And that people would actually like the AD team for a change [ADs are usually obnoxious. In fact, I told HW Guy so. I told him I thought 1st ADs were all supposed to be tools and that I was surprised when he wasn't].

But the truth is I haven't been working here in Michigan. I have had two other jobs lined up since then, and they've both fallen through due to poor communication and, frankly speaking, unprofessionalism. And now winter's coming and productions are not. I'm thinking about shifting my focus, taking a low stress non industry job for the winter, and keeping up my high productivity on my writing. I don't want to, mostly because I'm kinda a proud person and there were people who didn't think I could get film jobs here and I don't want them to be right. But I need to get a job, if only because I'm turning into a writer recluse and feel pretty boring.

I am being insanely productive on the writing side. I finished the first draft of Places yesterday. It took me two weeks to write that draft. Granted, draft one of any script isn't the hardest. Usually it writes itself or it falters and flails and I give up. It's rewriting that takes more stamina. But if I can get a first draft banged out in two weeks, I should be able to get a pilot done from brainstorming to reader-ready in six to eight weeks. I wouldn't be able to do that if I was working 12+ hour days, 6 days a week on a set. Maybe it's worth it to take a non film job for the next six months if it means that I'll really be LA ready at the end of my year in Michigan.

Candy and Characters.

2010-10-12T12:42:00.004-04:00

E. generously supplies our apartment with candy. It's wonderful, except that it sits right in front of my on our dining room table where I do my work. It's vaguely reminiscent of the opening pages of The Princess Bride [most amazing book ever] where the Duchess de Guiche tries to bring down Annette the scullery maid [the most beautiful woman in the world the year Buttercup was born] by filling their palace with chocolate. And it works. I try to ignore the mounds of candy before me. It's an excercise in self control.

Also, if you've never read The Princess Bride, put everything else on hold until you do.

In the never ending battle of TV specs versus pilot, Bones creator Hart Hanson has extended the tie, saying that when he's looking to staff, he wants to see both a spec and original material. A point for both teams, and maybe it's time I pull that spec off the bookshelf.

Except I'm knee deep in two pilots as it is. I have maybe two full days' work left on the first draft of Places. I know already that I have a lot of work left to do on it, mostly stemming from the characters. One doesn't get enough interaction with the rest of the crew, one just isn't likeable at all [which is weird--since I sorta based the character on a friend... Oh, and don't everyone get paranoid, geez], and overall, they just aren't distinctive enough. I believe that characters need to be more than people; they need to be personalities. And they need to shine in ways that make us compulsively drawn to watch them. This doesn't mean that characters have to be over the top. They just have to be able to pull an audience in, and I don't think my slate of characters can do that yet.

And then I have a pilot out to friendly readers. It's been out for a while, and I haven't heard anything yet back, which inspires this terrible dread, mostly a fear that it was so boring that everyone read the first five pages, got distracted, and never returned. I think I'll be miserable if I found out I bored people.

I'd be miserable, and then I'd try to fix it.

In the meantime, I'm mulling over this contest from the Writer's Store. I haven't done a contest in forever, but I'd love to dabble in the spy genre. Also, what better way to procrastinate writing the Western I have percolating than by writing 15 pages of material that is unsellable and unuseable except for this contest? Perfect, I think.

Recovery and Subtext.

2010-10-11T18:06:00.006-04:00

I had a great weekend [minus that really really horrible and embarrassing football game]. But it was not relaxing. Today it was a struggle to get back into productivity mode. But I did it! [I am very proud of work done on Mondays.] I wrote my 8 page quota in Places, a segment of another project, and had a lengthy phone call with my mother concerning my next trip home, relationships, and leftovers.

I watch less television than I could. That's what I would say if anyone ever asked me if I watch a lot of TV. Maybe, but less than I could. It's all research, anyway. I mean, it mostly is. Scott Myers' mantra is "Read scripts. Watch movies. Write pages." One thing I've been picking up on recently is the lack of subtext in television.

I feel like when I'm working on a film script, the biggest pitfall I want to avoid is to have my dialog be too on the nose. Characters shouldn't say exactly what they feel or mean because as people we don't do that very often. However, when I'm watching TV, that seems to be all they're ever doing. There are usually two extremes--either burying their emotions completely or just coming out with them. Scenes with subtext shine at a low percentage.

For instance, on Bones this season, nearly every single character has asked Brennan if she's ok with Booth dating Hannah. Or Daisy and Sweets have real conversations about their relationship status instead of having scenes with subtext. On Grey's Anatomy last week [and this was the first time I ever watched Grey's], no one felt any inhibitions about stating their opinion on whether or not Cristina Yang was ready to work in the OR again. In Sex and the City, the girls go out for drinks or lunch for complete disclosure at least three times an episode. In Modern Family, Jay and Gloria fight about what's really bothering them as it is, not disguised as something else.

Does television get away with more on the nose dialog? Usually honest dialog comes up in scenes of strong conflict, which makes sense. Yeah, the stakes were there in Glee when Terri was trying to conceal her fake pregnancy from Will, but things got really good when he actually found out that she was lying. You can have characters dance around an issue to make it engaging, but when they start getting raw is when the emotional stakes jump to a different level.

Also, there seem to be way more confident characters in television. How many times an episode do Lorelei and Rory Gilmore rehash their problems and advise each other towards a solution? How many plans did the boys in The League come up with to get Rafi out? How many episodes of the Undercovers will it take for the main characters to talk their way into a balance between being partners and being married? A character may be hesitant to broach a problem with the character they have it with, but they always have a friend who they can hash it out with, and the audience is always privy to that council.

Sometimes it's strange to write those on the nose scenes. But at the same time, they feel right. Because my heart doesn't pound when I'm dodging an issue with someone. It starts thumping right before I get terrifyingly honest with someone. And TV is drama, so it's going to capture those moments right as your emotions are exploding out of you, making a terrible mess of whatever you've been trying to be polite about.

Nine and 140.

2010-10-08T10:12:00.003-04:00

Cell phones are a big problem in TV and movies. One, it just wrecks suspense when one character can get a hold of another immediately to warn them of impending doom, danger, or apocalypse. Two, having two characters just hanging out talking is boring enough--having them hanging out talking in different places, where they can't really interact with each other or their environment organically is beyond boring. Why don't you just go watch a play?

Not that I am saying anything bad about plays. They are just fundamentally different from TV and movies and can support dialog heavy scenes in a way that TV and media cannot.

One of the things I had to do for The Garden was separate the characters from their cell phones. It wasn't terribly difficult to do, but then it proposed an entirely new problem--

People don't know phone numbers anymore.

Even though my character had lost his cell phone, he still needed to call a friend. And then this was when I realized, I myself know about three phone numbers. Two of those are my parents' cell phones. I don't know my parents' house number, I don't know my sister's number, I don't know my best friends' phone numbers. So cell phones provide infinite frustration. Either they create excessive accessibility or they completely cut us off from contacting anyone.

I mostly stalk showrunners and bump industry news, but if you'd like to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at AmyRButler.

Planning and Babies.

2010-10-07T10:23:00.002-04:00

You win, outlines.

I started writing Places one week ago, last Thursday. I'm now on page 39. The first day I moved from prewriting to real writing, I wrote 8 pages, and that became the standard. Every time I sit down to work on this pilot I have to write at least 8 pages. I skipped some days, but when I did work--it worked.

Tuesday I went hiking, and I didn't write. I try not to skip writing on weekdays, because when you skip it's harder to get back into the routine. And it's like the one productive thing I do. But I skipped Tuesday, and Wednesday I did not want to write. Not for any of my projects. I dragged my feet and procrastinated and watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie [which, PS., I liked]. Finally, at 9 PM, I knew I couldn't fight it anymore. I thought, this is going to be lame. Maybe I'll get four pages out, and then I'm going home to watch Top Chef: Just Desserts.

I swear, I don't think 8 pages has ever come easier. In under an hour and a half, I was on page 39. And I've noticed--it wasn't just yesterday. These pages have been a breeze. And I know it's because I have an outline. I'm just more efficient. There's just not as much staring into space.

Man, I hate outlining. Now I'm bitter. But a little contrite.

While I was at the coffee shop plinking away at the keyboard, the girl next to me was telling her friend how she had just seen The Social Network and she really liked it but now she's worried about people stealing her brilliant ideas. I think you're ok, girl.

My sister is having her second baby in the next week and a half. I didn't see my first nephew until he was two months old, so as soon as I get the call that she's gone into labor, I'm throwing a suitcase in my car and flooring it back to Jersey. The upside of being unemployed.

Cold Air and Asthma.

2010-10-05T17:05:00.003-04:00

Today I went hiking. Some people love getting out in the spring when the weather turns warm. Spring weather just makes me want to take a nap. But when fall comes around I love getting out and hiking and going to cider mills and gallivanting about. Maybe I'm acting on my last chance to get out before winter comes.

I did this last year too, the day before I started working at the school. I went to a state park in New York. I was thinking about that as I started today, and I realized that it was exactly a year ago today that I went hiking in New York. Maybe I have a weird internal hiking clock.

I'm not a very hardcore hiker. I passed only one other group of people while I was out there [because it was a midweek October day]. They had windbreakers and backpacks and hiking boots. I'm more like, Woohoo, I've got my Converses and my messanger bag! And here's my water bottle and my OREOS!

I think this is the witch's house that Hansel and Gretel tried to eat--

And a snake!

Comedy and Error.

2010-10-04T12:48:00.004-04:00

My mom and oldest younger brother came out to visit me a few weeks ago. They got to see my new apartment, go to the football opener against UConn, and eat our way through as much of Ann Arbor as we could fit into our stomachs. At the end of Sunday night, exhausted from our gallivanting and carousing, we went to this tiny hole in the wall ice cream place. I've gone on and hosted many a weekend visit, and by the last night, you kinda run out of things to say. So, as we sat there spoon-licking our ice cream, I did the only thing that came to mind.

I made fun of our basketball team.

It's not that our basketball team is bad [though I think they probably are], it was just that there was a poster on the wall next to us. It had not only last year's schedule printed on it but also a picture of every single team member. These guys clearly were not used to standing still in front of a camera. They were easy targets. One of my favourite things to do is make my mom laugh, and luckily for me, she's pretty easily amused. I got at least fifteen minutes of material from that out dated poster, and yes, I do plan on repeating the routine.

There's a scene in Walk the Line where Reese Witherspoon as June Carter is talking about growing up in an all around talented family and finding her place there. She says, "My sister Anita's the one who really has the pipes... That's how come I learned to be funny. So I'd have something to offer." I don't try to write comedy. Whatever grace God gave to me when He gave me a sense of humor doesn't translate well to the page. But as I've been tracking the trends in television, box office, and online content, I've become more and more convinced that comedy is the future of the writing business.

Broadcast television--I'm convinced that it's just hard to find an audience for a drama. Television is not interactive entertainment. The viewer is completely passive [except when they're fast forwarding through commercials]. We don't come to television looking to be challenged--we come for entertainment and amusement. If you're going to relax after a long day, are you going to choose an hour long serialized emotional drama? Or a light-hearted comedy with a built-in laugh track? What gets easier than having someone else clue you in to when you're supposed to laugh? I personally follow way more comedies than dramas. And clearly it's not as finely split as serialized dramas versus sitcom comedies. There are plenty of successful episodic dramas such as Law and Order:Spinoff and CSI:Everywhere, as well as single camera comedies like The Office or Modern Family. And drama does a whole lot better on cable than on network television, ie Dexter, Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire.

Perhaps this seems too subjective. How about this--there's no freshman break out show. Solid shows, yes, but there's no Glee or Modern Family [comedy breakouts from last year]. But the first two shows canceled--Lone Star and My Generation. Two serialized dramas. And the rumors floating around of what's on the chopping block next--dramas. There's been no talk of canceling any comedies, even those with disappointing ratings.

But television is old news. New media is where it's at. Scott Smith over at Screenwriting from Iowa recently posted about new opportunities for writers penning advertisements as content. The writer's strike made an important point that online content and other new media does require an author [and therefore payment], opening up new possibilities ranging from web exclusives, such as The Office has on both their website and Hulu, to character Twitter accounts, like the promoting stunt Community performed before their premiere. Kurt Sutter has been promoting an iPhone app for Sons of Anarchy that will include a great amount of new content. I don't know who's writing all this extra material. I don't know if it comes from the writer's room or if they hire extra staff to create this content. But television is a whole lot more than a weekly half hour episode.

And then, as Scott describes, there's "branding entertainment." Advertisers, trying to adapt to a business model of new media and DVR, are creating content themselves. It's the step beyond product placement. He gives an excellent example of a five minute clip Orbit gum created. I watched it--

And promptly forwarded it to my friend.

1. Because it had Jason Bateman and Will Arnett in it. Automatic go. 2. Because it was funny.

There is so much stuff out on the internet. I believe that, if you're going to put content on the internet, the best way to get it seen is to affiliate it with an already established brand [which is why television based extra content is successful] or get it to go viral. And here's the honest truth--drama doesn't go viral.

I've wanted to be one of the 2.6 million people trying to take advantage of the "democratic" nature of the internet. I've thought about developing a web series. Making another short. But I always run into the problem that whatever I brainstorm--it's drama. And comedy rules internet success.

Shawna at Shouting into the Wind is about to plunge into web series, and Scott Meyer at Go Into the Story recently wrote an update about web series. Internet content is going to be increasingly important to writers.

Also, this my new favourite band, Mumford & Sons, an English folk band. But don't let that deter you--they're awesome. Check out their songs. Collect 'em all.

Writing and Routines.

2010-10-01T09:54:00.004-04:00

Guys, I was excellently productive yesterday. I wrote 8 and 1/2 pages for Places. And it wasn't all bad. I mean, it is most definitely rough and most of the time I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but I have 8 and 1/2 pages down. And E. kinda snickered at one of the jokes, and it's not even a comedy! It was a good day.

I have a job next week, which I'm both excited and bummed about. I've gotten into a real routine here, being unemployed. I get up, check my email and stuff, write a blog post [I used to exercise during this time. I considering blogging the day's warm up for my fingers. Also I hate exercising], and then I move onto the day's writing project. Sometimes I watch TV. For research. Ok, I'm not Josh James. I'm not up at 5:30 and at my desk [which is the dining room table. I'm sure E. will appreciate when I finally make up my mind about which desk chair I want] by 6:00. That sounds worse than exercising. But during this past month or so I've finished a draft on The Garden, nailed down a TV pilot and sent it to readers, and plotted and started another pilot. I will never be that productive while working. I don't think I wrote a word when I was working on that feature in July.

Writing usually makes me very nervous. HW Guy thinks it's endearing. I think it's neurotic. It is, sometimes, stressful. But I cannot wait until this is something that I get to do for a living, and I'm determined to make it happen.

There are trade offs. I've been noticing more... writerly behaviors. I am typically a very social person, but writing requires being alone for several hours a day. There was one day last week where E. left early for work and didn't get back until I was in bed. Between a short phone call and a trip to the coffee shop, I think that day I had a grand total of ninety seconds of human interaction. Sometimes E. will get home while I'm thinking through a story, and I'm sure it appears that I'm distant and quiet while really I'm just still working. I'll find myself chatting up strangers at the RedBox. I'll fake distress at the self scanner in the grocery so an associate will come help me. I'll hug random people. [Ok, I made those last two up. And the RedBox one--she started talking to me first.] I'm just saying, this lifestyle. It changes you. I just hope it's changing me into a better writer.

I want to work--I need to work. But this past month reminded me of how every other career I ever planned for myself was always to support me while I was writing, whether it was nursing, education, or publishing, it was always just a day job until I could be a full time writer. And I discarded each one of those, because I didn't really want to be a nurse or a teacher or a publisher. I wanted to write. And I love working in the film industry, it's tons of fun and I can't imagine what else I would do, but at the end of the day, if I had to choose, all I want to do is write.

Laps and Short Cuts.

2010-09-30T09:41:00.003-04:00

Yesterday after school, a whole gaggle of elementary ed kids came over to the park next door to my apartment for soccer practice. Though somewhat noisy, I appreciate these kids a whole lot more than the teenagers who come loiter in our parking lot and who never say anything distinguishable but manage to shout at each other for forty-five minutes straight. Anyway. I was in the kitchen getting something to drink, and I glanced over at the park. I immediately felt a surge of sympathy because these super cute mini soccer players were in the middle of running laps [being a slow, asthmatic runner myself, I think those laps contributed to my eventual renouncing of involvement in all sports]. Except, as I watched, these kids started cutting corners. Really blatantly too. Running in front of the goal instead of behind, making the field an oval, all sorts of not so sneaky tricks.

This reminded me of my writing life and how I've stopped trying to get out of laps.

See, I hate prewriting. It feels very inorganic to me. And it's boring. And, it sounds like a waste of time. Isn't it fun when you dedicate a couple of hours to writing and all you end up with are pages like this--

I feel like I'm always prewriting or outlining or restructuring. Not writing. Even HW Guy once said, "Wow, it sounds like you prewrite a lot." I don't. I hate it. I think I just end up doing it more slowly than everyone else, so I'm doing the same [or less] amount of than everyone else but it just takes me longer.

Here's the thing, though, the truth that I'm trying to swallow--it works. When I wrote my first screenplay, I had a page long summary scrawled out on yellow legal pad paper and that was it. I flew through that first draft. And I still adore that story. You should never take your first screenwriting experience as the rule for the rest of your writing life. I think that very rarely will any other script flow with the intensity and ease and life that you're first screenplay does. The rest of the time, greater degrees of planning should be involved to help you get through a first draft, let alone make it something readable and enjoyable.

Now that I'm working on a new TV pilot [tentatively and terribly named Places], structure is aggressively important, more so than in a feature. How many acts do you have? How much screen time does each story line get within an act? How are you going to structure the story so that each act ends on a climatic note? And then, you start getting nit-picky. What's the best way to introduce all the characters? Is this the best setting for this scene? Will this conflict play out too on the nose? What's the overarching theme and how does it play into each of the story lines?

It's not a lot of fun. When I heard Aaron Sorkin speak, this was the time he referred to as being full of pacing and wall climbing. But I'd rather struggle with questions here instead of in the draft. If I'm stuck on an outline, how much more lost would I be in the script? I feel like I saved myself a lot of work not only in the first draft but also in the rewriting stages. I worked structure, pacing, and plotting issues out in my outline instead of my script, draft 17. I even refined character relationships and nailed down something resembling a theme.

I still don't enjoy prewriting. I still try to move on as soon as possible. But I also try to pace myself. If an idea can't translate into an outline, how is it going to translate into a script? But a story ain't a screenplay until there are words on the page.

Write Well Everywhere You Go.

2010-09-29T12:24:00.004-04:00

I had really productive plans for this morning. I was going to mount some shelves with E. my flatmate, do laundry, and make awesome delicious pancakes with butterscotch chips and walnuts and bananas! Well, now it's 1:00, and I'm just finishing my pancakes. I did do everything I wanted, I was just sidetracked by my computer going on strike. See, I hate deleting files off my computer. And, well, it's sort of cluttered in here. And I ran out of space. I couldn't even save files anymore. I have an external hard drive that has a complete back up copy of my computer. Still, I don't like deleting anything. But I spent some time combing through my folders, carefully deleting things I knew I'd never need again, just so I could have a little space to save the current draft of The Garden.

Scott Smith from Screenwriting from Iowa gave me a shout out on his blog, which was very nice. I like the screenwriting community outside of LA, and Scott is very encouraging to the writers who write outside of Hollywood. He referenced my "Spec Scripts and Powerball," giving his own input on the spec script market. I've been thinking more about this fairly well propagated theory that the spec market is dead, that hoping to sell a spec is a more vain wish than hoping to win the lottery. But really, I've decided, it's not analogous. Winning the lottery depends solely on luck, whereas there are numerous factors involved in selling a spec script, chiefly of those, how good your script is. It doesn't matter how brilliant your lottery ticket is--you have the same chance as anyone else of winning. But if you have a terrific script, your odds are terrifically better than everyone else's.

And so it all comes back to the same thing--write a great script.

I've been watching Detroit 187 while writing this post. And it's been hard to multitask. If you haven't seen this show, you need to start. Not only is it a great procedural, but the characters are wonderful. Here's the thing--The Event's been taking the criticism of being a weird hybrid of Lost and 24 and turning it into a promotional tactic. You think a show that's a cross between Lost and 24 would be great, right? I DVRed The Event. I meant to watch the second episode. But I haven't. Because quite frankly, there's not much character there. But on Detroit 187--a procedural show--there's a moment from last night's show with Fitch and Sanchez that'll make your heart bleed. That's good writing.

Stunning Upset.

2010-09-27T17:07:00.003-04:00

You know what baffles me? Why does microwave popcorn have two nutritional facts columns? One for popped and one for unpopped? Who eats popcorn unpopped?

You know what also baffles me? How a TV show is already in danger of being canceled, after just one week. If you'd like to see a critically acclaimed, under rated TV show by an award winning writer, if you'd like to help promote good scripted television drama over crappy reality TV concepts, tune into Fox tonight at 9 pm for Lone Star.

Spec Scripts and Powerball.

2010-09-27T10:23:00.004-04:00

On Friday night, I did what all the cool real people do and went to a lecture at my alma mater. The speaker was Daniel Pipski, an alumnus who works in development and writes on the side. [His wife is also a writer, which all seems very Sylvia Plath to me. Except most writers are better adjusted than she ever was.] Pipski's most recent project was Ben Affleck's The Town, which was #1 at the box office its opening weekend and has been getting great reviews. So this guy is legit. Here is some advice he shared--

Ensemble pieces don't sell. I try to fight this one all the time. I like ensemble movies. But when the guy who buys screenplays and gets them made says he's not buying, you gotta listen.

Nobody reads query letters. I can't get any consensus on this. Richard Walter's book definitely recommends writing query letters. And it's not like he's disconnected from the business. The only way I've been able to reconcile this so far is that Pipski's a development guy and Walter was talking mostly about agents. Maybe agents are the only ones who still read query letters. But development guys do not.

Don't write TV specs, only pilots. Pipski said he's never seen House, but he's read so many specs that he thinks it's a pretty great show. People reading your TV script want to hear your voice and see that you have ideas. The idea of specs, to me, is at the same time brilliant and really really odd. It's great if the spec really reads like an episode of the show--I personally feel like that really demonstrates a writer's skill. But it's weird because you never show your spec to the show you wrote for. And does CSI really care if you can mimic a perfect Bones spec? Would they even be able to appreciate that aspect of it? What if they don't watch Bones? Pipski's basic point was that a writer's creativity and craft shine better through a pilot not a spec, and original material is what people are going to ask to read. I would say you should at least have one really brilliant spec in your arsenal. One, because I've heard enough people say you should have a spec. Two, for contests and fellowships that only allow specs.

Write a movie that people will see. Pipski is in the process of making a well-funded company successful. The man behind the money like art. Pipski likes a company that's not going to lose money. He's looking for scripts that'll make money at the box office, that he can sell overseas, that will be packed on a weekend night. He used to make art movies. He has a long list of award movies he helped make. But award movies lose money. Now he's interested in making movies that people go see. Which is completely legit. As writers, we can get a little caught up in the art of the story. Which is fine--if you're not interested in making money off your work. As soon as you print your script out, brad it up, and hand it over, it's not about art, it's about business. Pipski's wife once pitched him an idea she was working on. His response-- "It sounds great, honey, but do you want to write this script or one that will put our kids through college?"

The spec market is dead. If you follow Scott Meyer's blog, he announced three spec sales last week. Which could be considered an explosion in spec sales. The most recent spec sold is a script called "Family Getaway," and it's the 33rd spec sale this year. I don't even want to speculate about how many scripts flood Hollywood each year, but being one of the 33 that was purchased this year is probably akin to winning the Powerball.

At this point, I had to ask--if the spec market is dead and art movies are vanishing, how do you make a career as a writer?

Write one brilliant screenplay. It always comes back to this, which is at once the most inspiring and frustrating thing a person can say. All the odds, all the luck, the gate-keepers and nay-sayers, they don't mean anything when you have a terrific script. Hollywood wants great scripts. That's where their business starts. And Pipski talked about projects he loves that he's been champion for years. Writing a fantastic script will get you noticed and get you in. [Sadly, your script won't always get made, but that's another issue.] Which is all very empowering--Yeah, all I have to do is write a brilliant script! Not fifteen, not one in every genre, just one really awesome script! And then you take a step beyond that--Wait, how do I do that? What if I think it's brilliant but it's not? What if I don't think it's brilliant but it is but I keep it forever, rewriting and rewriting and rewriting? Once I've got a brilliant script, then how do I get it sold? I feel like there are steps missing between write a brilliant script and cash a check. But you don't even get started on that road unless you have one truly amazing mind-blowing script.

I love hearing professionals talk about the business and craft of movie making. You can read all the books you want, discuss your trial and errors with your peers, commiserate with other semi-working writers. But to hear from a Hollywood player who buys scripts--that's an insider scoop you don't normally get in the middle of the Midwest.

Also, J.K. Rowling's Epic Fail

D is for Date Night. Disillusionment and Disaster.

2010-09-26T09:28:00.009-04:00

The other day my dear friend K. informed me that she had started reading my blog. Another one of my lovable friends perked up, interested in suddenly getting a deep scoop on my life. I turned to K. and said, "It's mostly about writing and working in film. I don't really talk about my personal life, do I?" She said, "Well, you sorta do."

I haven't in a while, so I thought I'd expound on my personal life unnecessarily.

Man, this was not a kind weekend for your poor fearless single girl from the wrong part of town [I don't really live in the wrong part of town. That just seemed like the best way to end the sentence. I kept trying to think of a better ending, and this is what I kept coming up with]. To be honest, I'm always AMAZED at how many people are in relationships. The odds of getting two people to like each other enough to out-of-hand sight-unseen rule out being with anyone else is mind boggling enough -- but you also have to get them to that point at the same time.

For the first time, I've started thinking about being a little more intentional in my dating life. For the past several years, I've been way more laissez-faire about it. Whatever happens happens. It worked pretty well. But I'm definitely thinking about changing my approach. Maybe it's the fact that my 25th birthday is approaching, and I'm way weirded out by that. In my personal life plan, the "get settled down" part should happen in the next five years. If I look back on the last five years of my life, that suddenly doesn't seem like a lot of time. [On the flip side of this, sometimes I worry about the way some people seem to decide to marry a person just because they've gotten to that point in their life time line when they think they want to be married. Just because you're with someone and you're thinking "Man, I'm getting old. Maybe I should get married" doesn't mean that you should. I'm not crazy like that].

In my new, more thoughtful approach to dating, I've come up with three obstacles that need to be overcome--

1. Meeting new people. This is way harder than it sounds. Especially after you're out of school in "the real world." I was talking with a friend from the film I shot in July about his friendship with another girl from the set. He said, "Look, I just like to keep things professional." [Also, we were no longer working on that set, obviously. Months afterward.] I told him, in all my world weary wisdom, that now we're real people working real jobs, work is where we're going to meet people, so you can't rule out someone just on the basis that you worked with them once or might again. He said, "That sounds like something Hollywood Guy told you." He did not. But he agrees with me.

2. These people not being weird. Or, not even not weird. Just meeting someone and thinking you could spend lots of fun time with them. I gauge my interest in a guy by the end of the first date--what did I want as I was walking away? Did I secretly want to spend more time with him or did I want to go do something else? Back when I was in Jersey I went on this one date, and as I left the restaurant I called Firefighter Friend to see if he could hang out that night. Seemed pretty clear that I was not interested in a second date. But, I never heard from the guy I went out with, which leads me to...

3. Having equivalent feelings for each other at the same time. Timing's like the wicked step-mother of relationships. That's all.

To me, these are the three major hurdles to a relationship. And this weekend, I attempted to jump over each of them and instead ran straight into every single one. I wasn't at all upset. Dating is all about taking risks. And luckily your investment level in a person is pretty low until you run into obstacle #3. And honestly, for the most part I like being single. I know that some day I want to settle down, but for now it's a good thing. I do what I want. I go out with who I want, I don't have to deal with any awful nit-picky fights because both of us were grumpy at the same time, I don't have to try to make my life plan match someone else's. The other day I asked my friend if she wanted to do something later that night. She said, "Sounds good, but let me just check with my boyfriend." It seems like such a strange concept to me now, checking in with someone else before you make plans for yourself--even just for the night. But being single takes stamina, and all you couple-y people should appreciate the leisure track that you're on.

Thursday night.

2010-09-24T10:14:00.005-04:00

Here we go. The star night of premiere week. Here's what I have to say. Plots discussed in detail, so if you're like my darling best friend D. who is using 30 Rock quotes to threaten my life if I spoil the episode for her, come back when you've caught up.

COMMUNITY--

Community did a little Twitter promotion right before the premiere. It was clever and led perfectly into the first second of the show. Whether it actually attracted new viewers or reminded people who forgot about the premiere, I find doubtful. If you were aware enough to pick up on the promotion, you definitely were aware enough to know there was a premiere later that night.

Community is hilarious. It wasn't the best episode of Community ever, but I love how self-reflective it is. How many times did Abed talk about how he wished the year was starting off with a bang, like a paintball war. Which is one of the most popular episodes of Community from season one.

At first I didn't like how the group was fighting for most of the episodes -- but if you're going to do an episode like that, it's best to do it once and get it out of the way. Glee is an example of how that's a tired threat. When every other week the group is threatened with disbandment, it becomes boring. And the exchange between Starburns and Jeff near the end of the episode, which motivates Jeff to reconcile, reinforces how the study group has gone beyond a group of strangers to a family. Jeff isn't in the group in order to get Britta -- or any girl -- anymore. He's in it because he really cares about these people. It was sweet.

I don't know how I feel about Senor Cheng in the study group. His character is so much more interesting when he has power over the study group. Not when he's pandering to get in it. Then he's just pathetic. I did like his Gollum-esque split personality monologue though -- maybe it means that his plan to get into the study group is all just a rouse to take it down from within. THAT would be interesting.

BONES--

Excellent permiere. I loved the twist on the usual case format, how they ended up having the remains of one child but not one that fit the missing persons report and yet they managed to solve both crimes. That's cause they're amazing.

But let's be honest -- we don't watch Bones for the murder cases. Angela and Hodgins--we knew that was coming. And that, I think, is an excellent plotline for them to follow this year. Can you imagine Angela, free spiritied cool girl Angela, dealing with pregnancy and impending motherhood? It's going to be excellent.

I'm glad Wendell is back, but I have to wonder about the other interns. Will Daisy come back to work from time to time? Will we get new interns? Or is boyishly handsome Wendell going to replace boyishly awkward Zack? [Wendell is *not* the squintern that I have in my spec. Which is partially why I hope some of the others are coming back.]

Booth and Brennan. Unlike many Bones fans, I am excited about adding Booth's new love interest Hannah to the mix. Someone said it, and rightly so I think, that it's now Brennan's turn to pine over Booth. I think that the writers manage to create some excellent moments out of Brennan and Booth's suppressed feelings and that Hannah will allow even more opportunities for those. Also, I am delighted that Brennan seems to have regressed in her social skills since leaving DC. Her awkwardness in the early seasons was hilarious, but as she spent more time with Booth she definitely normalized to some extent. I'm glad to see more of her socially unaware tendencies resurfancing in this episode. Because that's who she is.

I'm just glad it looks like Sweets is going to cut his hair and get rid of the scruff. Maybe we'll let him keep the hat.

30 ROCK--

Potentially the best premiere of the week. But I'm not going to give my votes out yet. One thing I love about 30 Rock is how the writers manage to get so much mileage out of each plotline. With the Jenna/Pete story, for example, at first Pete was disappointed Jenna was a producer. Then he was delighted because she could do all the heartless things he couldn't. Then he was scared that she was going to have him fired because they had one extraneous producer. Then she surprised them all by abdicating for the greater good. Or Jack and Avery's power struggle. The one-up-manship, the attacks and retreats, and the eventual reveal of the master plan. Superb writing like this keeps the story going at a pace that engages and retains the viewer.

Oh Carol and Liz. I hope you get married.

30 Rock also does an excellent job of carrying its jokes from episode to episode. Pete's strained relationship with his children pops up subtly every couple episodes. As does Liz's fear of dying alone in her apartment.

But where is Kenneth? I forgot he was fired! He had better come back from CBS ASAP. Because he is the funniest character on this show.

THE LEAGUE--

I hope one day to have a marriage as perfect as Jenny and Kevin's.

THE OFFICE--

Well, awkward Micheal Scott is definitely back. Sometimes watching The Office makes me feel weird. Like I'm really not sure if I can laugh--if I want to laugh--at it because it's just so awkward. Awkard has ALWAYS been The Office's MO.

Excellent opening. Everyone was so--them.

I thought Andy and Erin got back together at the end of last season. But clearly I was wrong. This has potential.

Pam and Jim, was that a real fight? Because, it's sweet that Pam can tell when Jim's mad by his subtle cues, but guess what, none of the rest of us could.

I like The Office. But this is Steve Carell's last season. It will most likely be my last season too.

I like Kelly's pink power suit.

THE BIG BANG THEORY--

I don't understand, guys. I DVR'ed it and watched it. It was funny. But I just don't find it as engaging as Community, and the writing is definitely not as sophisiticated as 30 Rock. It's funny but why is it winning?

Countdown and Celebration.

2010-09-23T19:28:00.004-04:00

Ok, I know I've been talking television all week, and we're about to start the most anticipated night of premieres yet [good thoughts tonight to the inventors of the DVR. Do you remember taping shows on VHS? I DO!]. But I think it's fitting, since it's all about television this week, to tell y'all that I've finally got a piece showcase ready. My hour long TV pilot will be going out to dedicated readers as of tonight. This is the first time that I've shown a piece that I am not workshopping. This is the first piece that I've felt is solid enough for some serious feedback. It'll probably get ripped to shreds, but I am ok with that.

So I can, with pride, reassure my devoted parents that I really AM--not just saying that I am--getting writing done while I'm not working. I know you believe me anyway. But now I've got the pages to prove it.

Wednesday Night.

2010-09-23T09:43:00.004-04:00

I love premiere week. It's like your first week of college classes, when you're deciding if you liked the classes you registered for or if you want to switch over to SciFi and Horror Film or Frauds and Myths in Archeology [that was an actual class I took. They taught us all the un-true things in archeology. Kinda a different approach]. Thursday night is like your star class, your most anticipated, the one you're most excited about.

But first let's talk about Wednesday [again, spoilers included].

UNDERCOVERS--

The best part of this show is the acting, Gugu Mbatha-Raw especially. I struggled with the tone. It didn't quite have the charming cheese of Chuck or the grittiness of Alias, leaving it somewhere in the middle. And in the middle is not always a place you want to be because it often reads boring. I also didn't feel like the Blooms recruitment was justified strongly enough. There was a throw away scene with Carlton Shaw where he says that the Blooms don't suspect the real nature of their reinstatement. Unfortunately, neither does the audience. And why did they take the offer? Where they just bored in their marriage and their normal lives? Because I hate when TV shows and movies do that. Like marriages without spy missions and life endangerment are lacking something. That excitement validates a relationship. I can see how the Blooms, in their earlier lives, had qualities that attracted them to each other that probably faded over time as they switched career paths into catering. I can see how they might miss each other's bravery and ingenuity and daring. But I still find it irritating when, especially after just five years, a couple rejoins the CIA just because they need a little shake up in their married lives.

Undercovers gets a week two from me, but I'm worried that it'll be one of those shows that I don't find compelling enough that I make a point of watching and that it will eventually just slip off my radar. Especially with the explosion of spy and CIA pilots that have recently been purchased and ordered by various networks.

TOP CHEF: JUST DESSERTS--

This was not premiere week for this Top Chef spin-off. It's first episode aired last week, and I jumped on this bandwagon faster than a kid grabbing for mellocreme pumpkins at Halloween. I love baking shows. And there is SO MUCH DRAMA. Oh man, there was more interpersonal conflict in last night's episode of Top Chef: Just Desserts than maybe any other hour of television I've watched this week. It was INSANE. It's wonderful, it's like you get a world class baking competition and an episode of the Real Housewives of Hell's Kitchen all in one.

Seth went freakin CRAZY.

And the wrong person got sent home. But you can't send the person who had TWO emotional meltdowns in one week home. That just looks cruel.

Even if it's fair.

MODERN FAMILY--

Modern Family. Are you funny? Yes. Did you manage to beautifully and poignantly work in themes of family and identity into each storyline? Yes. Did you win an Emmy for Best Comedy? Yes.

Mmm, are you REALLY the best comedy?

Modern family is hilarious. And I will most definitely continue to watch it. But NBC Thursday night is where the award-winning comedy is for me.

BETTER WITH YOU--

It has been so long since I've watched a traditional three-camera laugh-track sitcom. It feels old. I know there are shows that still use it, right? How I Met Your Mother? The Big Bang Theory? Two and a Half Men? I think...

Better With You felt like a cross over between What I Like About You and Modern Family. It was funny, but the acting felt awkward and forced at times. And the humor definitely came from jokes and one liners, not from characters and scenarios. The characters and situations drove the plot, but it was what the characters SAID that created the humor. Look, I'm not saying one kind of comedy is better than the other. I'm just saying that if I gave you a logline of Better With You it wouldn't read inherently comedic whereas if I gave you a logline for a 30 Rock episode, the comedy stands out immediately. The humor of Better With You was definitely more organic and character driven than Running Wilde, but I'm not sure this is a enough of a stand out show in a season when we have so many wonderful comedies.

I am just so excited about Thursday night television. I am going to catch Bones, Community, 30 Rock, The Office, and The League, while also at some point relinquishing the remote to E. the Flatmate for Grey's Anatomy. Might DVR a few other shows, The Big Bang Theory, Outsourced, and %*&^ My Dad Says. It's William Shatner, guys.

Tuesday Night.

2010-09-22T11:57:00.006-04:00

First of all, before we get any further, let me just say that if you have an opportunity to go see CATFISH in theatres, you need to. It's an exceptional movie. And it's a Cinderella story for the indie filmmakers. But really, it's wonderful. It deserves to be a hit.

Ok, let's talk Tuesday television --

[So, if you haven't watched all your shows from last night yet, you'll probably not want to read my following reviews because I talk about plot and characters and all that.]

GLEE:

Glee. Glee, Glee, Glee. You delightfully surprised me. If you have been on the fence about this show, which I have for most of its run, you will find the premiere to be surprisingly fresh. Of course, there is the tired plot line of -- Glee is in danger of not having enough members! -- but for once I feel like the stakes are real. The writers are introducing problems that don't get solved before the end of the show. Glee is still one member short. [Which is too bad, because I was really hoping Sunshine would stay around. She has got a killer voice.] Power dynamics are shifting. Finn is off the football team with little hope of being reinstated. Quinn is back to her life as a head Cheerio. And Artie and Tina -- aww, so sad! Finally I feel like both Glee Club and the kids in it are risking and losing and NOT getting everything resolved neatly in the last act. A show where the stakes feel fake is a show with no real drama. And for once -- there was no love interest for Mr. Shu.

I do wish the songs were a little more integrated into the plot, but at least I didn't throw anything at the TV when they did "Billionaire" [cannot stand that song anymore]. And let's be honest -- IS there a more unlikeable character than Rachel?

RUNNING WILDE:

Will Arnett. David Cross. Keri Russell. Cute little girl with interesting facial expressions. Oh how I want to like you. But at the end of the pilot, my flatmate and I looked at each other. "Eh" was the consensus.

What was it that failed to resonate? I think part of it was, sadly, it just didn't seem that funny. There were funny moments, but it felt like comedy I would write. Forced. Humor seemed not to stem from characters but rather from weird scenarios the writers could throw in. I'm not saying there weren't funny parts. But in Running Wilde humor comes from Will Arnett investing in a tiny pony and giving himself a humanitarian award where as in an excellent show like Arrested Development, humor comes from the things the characters say and do that come from just being who they are.

Running Wilde, I'm sorry that you'll be uselessly and detrimentally compared to Arrested Development for most of your run. That's the blessing and curse of hiring Will Arnett.

Worth a second shot, if only because I desperately want to like it.

DETROIT 1-8-7:

I have ulterior motives for wanting this show to do well, it's true. And I have to admit that I was a little distracted when I was watching it [it's a cop show. Procedurals give you an excuse to multitask]. But they have definitely reeled me in for a second episode next week.

First of all, who doesn't like a good who-done-it? And like I said yesterday, L&O has left a hole. Detroit 187's pilot followed Detective Washington on his first day as a homicide detective, an excellent entrance into the homicide world. And I think they did a great job keeping true to their cop format but drawing in little things about the characters, their work lives and their home lives. You can tell they've put a lot of thought into developing their characters and their relationships. Washington and Fitch have a great awkward relationship going as the green detective and the stern veteran. And you just have to feel for Fitch's crush on Sanchez. Especially now that she's got Mr. February John Stone riding with her.

But the thing that really brought me in was the last 30 seconds. These writers showed that they aren't afraid to take risks and raise the stakes and leave us in a cliff hanger. Way to go, procedurals!

THE GOOD WIFE:

I forgot to DVR this and it's not on Hulu yet [EDIT: Because it premieres NEXT week], so instead I'll offer you...

LONESTAR:

Lonestar was the scaping goat of Monday night. I myself opted not to DVR it though I was mildly interested [I don't know why. Was I afraid we were going to run out of room on our DVR?]. I wish I had because, though the ratings were bad and the trades were calling it DOA, the people who saw it had only excellent things to say about it. So I watched it on Hulu instead of my excellent television to see how I swung in the controversy around it.

Lonestar deserves a shot, people.

This was an hour of good television. You have a likeable character [in MY opinion, though people will disagree with me] caught in a terrible situation that is mostly the fault of the emotional manipulating of his father where he is really trying to do the best he can and follow his heart. This kid is morally CONFUSED yes, but you can still see him trying to do the right thing, which doesn't make him completely reprehensible.

At first I was annoyed that his dad let him out of the con that easily. And then confused and disappointed by the last minute where he takes his girlfriend to Vegas to marry her. Then I realized why I had a problem -- I wanted to story where a reforming con man must struggle with his oppressive, manipulative, and blackmailing father to establish himself as a legitimate businessman with a sacred marriage.

This is not the story the writers are telling.

Instead, they're telling a story about a morally confused man who's trying to do the right thing by one part of his life while following his heart at the other end, reimplicating himself in the con. So now the con isn't externally forced upon him by his dead. He's WILLINGLY returning to his double life and moral ambiguity, all the time thinking that he's going to be able to do right by everyone. And honestly, that's way more interesting than the story I thought I wanted them to tell.

The sad thing is, you hardly ever increase your ratings. If a show has poor ratings in the beginning, the predictable thing is that it will continue to decline. The bad press hasn't helped either -- can you imagine how nervous the people who greenlit the show are with all the devastating headlines? No matter how engaging Lonestar turns out to be, I think it's been bludgeoned beyond resuscitation.

Change of season.

2010-09-21T08:25:00.007-04:00

Let's talk about TELEVISION!

I'm more excited about the new season this fall than I usually am. Maybe it's because I've been learning more about television writing and have been doing a better job of virtually stalking showrunners. That's what my secret Twitter account is for.

Most shows are premiering this week. Here are some that I'm excited for this season--

SUNDAYS:

8:00PM Boardwalk Empire - Unfortunately, I don't get HBO, so I have to be excited but frustrated about this one. Who has HBO that wants to invite me over to watch this? Do you also have Showtime?

MONDAYS:
8:00PM Chuck - Maybe. I DVRed it. I've heard good things about it, but we're already several seasons in. Do I have the stamina to go back and watch all those old episodes? To me I think it's only worth it if I can get a spec out of it.

9:00PM The Event - I want to want to want to want to like this. It feels a lot like Flashforward though, which didn't quite make it. I think it, like Flashforward, lacked some of the character development that made Lost stand out. I will continue to give it chances, but if it doesn't pick up more, I'm probably not going to stick through the season.

10:00PM Castle - I've never watched Castle before, but this is only its third season so I can jump in pretty easily. I enjoyed last night's premiere, and it has become obvious to me that if I want to get anywhere near the Bones' writers room [which, it's probably too late in the series for that] I need to write a Castle script. Staff writers can't read specs of their own show for legal reasons, so you have to find shows that are in similar veins to spec.

TUESDAYS:
8:00PM Glee - I just don't know about Glee. My flatmate is crazy about it, and I think it's funny enough, but I just saw on IMDB that Gwyneth Paltrow is negotiating for a guest role as a substitute teacher and - wait for it - a love interest for Mr. Shu. Seriously, this guy has more love interests than Hugh Hefner. It's a tired plot line, and it just doesn't make him look good -- move on!

8:00PM The Good Wife - Amanda the Aspiring Writer said this is a good show to spec this year. I'm going to check it out, see if I like it enough to spec, and then go from there. It's nice to have a show so focused on a woman trying to figure out her career and familial identity. I know little about it, but I'm hoping it's good.

10:00PM Detroit 1-8-7 - The only straight up cop procedural that I will be watching. There is an overabundance this year of police and medical procedurals, and I am beyond sick of it. I almost made a list of all of them, but then I decided not to waste my life. But I am excited about Detroit 187. I think it fills a niche the original Law & Order is leaving, while bringing something different to the table. And it's shot here in Detroit, so I am really rooting for it to succeed. Also I want to work on it, so it needs to keep going.

WEDNESDAYS:

8:0oPM Undercovers - I loved Alias. And I love JJ Abrams. I love pretending that I can still be a spy with a quick career change. So I will be pulling for this show with tooth and nail. Here's the thing - I compare all spy shows to Alias, and it had one kick-a pilot. So if Undercovers supplies anything less than superb fare, I'm afraid I'll be disappointed from the outset.

10:00PM Top Chef: Just Desserts - It's Top Chef. But just about desserts. Duh.

THURSDAYS:
[Oh Thursdays. Why oh why can't we all just agree to spread out Thursday's schedule a little? It would be oh so nice.]

8:00PM BONES - I love Bones. It's so great. And I'm actually excited about the regression in Brennan and Booth's relationship. I always liked it best when she was awkward and their love was communicated so subtly because they couldn't express themselves. I have good feelings for this season. My one concern is that it's gotten a little silly and gimmicky recently. For instance, I heard they're diving into the Jersey guido subculture this season. Hm. Still my favourite show, and my flatmate consented to watch all the seasons with me from the beginning because she's never seen it.

8:00PM Community - One of the best written half hours of comedy on television today. If you don't already watch Community, you need to have started yesterday. Also excited about the switch up from Spanish class to Anthropology class with Professor Betty White!

8:30PM 30 Rock - Last season Liz Lemon met a dreamboat pilot...
"What are you, a doorman?"
"Yes, I'm a doorman -- to the SKY."
Played by Matt Damon. I would like to see more of these two together. Especially since I'm pretty sure I am Liz Lemon.

9:00PM The Office - This is Steve Carell's last season. Guys, I love The Office, but they should have known to end it with Pam and Jim's wedding. Let's hope that they take the hint when Micheal Scott leaves Dunder Mifflin.

10:30PM The League - This show is funny. Also, I'm taking notes from Jenny about how to be a cool wife. Thanks, show, for depicting a cool wife instead of a nagging self absorbed train wreck of a woman.

I'm sure there are a couple more shows that I think I'm forgetting, but this is enough to start off with, right? To me, this is a daunting amount of television, ridiculous really, and I'm secretly hoping I don't like most of the new shows so I can cut them out. Thursdays are pretty wiped out, though.

But the more I've been thinking about my eventual move to LA, the more I've been imaging a life in television writing. And while I hear various advice on whether you should focus on pilots or specs, I basically want to have as many scripts as I can when I move out there. I want to have a freakin arsenal of brad-bound paperweights.

I want to win an Emmy.

And that's how I justify it.

Get rich slowly.

2010-09-20T08:48:00.004-04:00

I think I've reached that level of unemployment where I have to stop buying things.

This sucks because we're still working on our new apartment, and all I want before Christmas is that bedside table lamp from Target that my roommate also has. That isn't weird if we have the same bedroom furniture, is it? I like to think it ties the whole apartment together.

In a very real way, I've only worked one payed week since moving to Michigan, the week I was bumped up to 2nd AD during the July film. My bank statements are no longer so... reassuring. There are several ways to deal with this --

1. Buy less stuff. This also means going out to eat less and buying fewer mint mochas, which I didn't think I did with great frequency... but then again I looked at my debit card usage over the past month. Huh. That's interesting.

2. Get a job. Well duh. The thing is I'm still waiting for Big Hollywood Movie to come to town. I suspect they're still in Chicago shooting, because they're a Big Hollywood Movie and they can destroy their budget by staying over schedule in one location for a month. However, I do not have a big budget to wait for them. I'm going to use every method of information extraction I know -- and I watched all of Alias -- to see if they're still planning on coming to Detroit, when, and how much longer I can wait for them. I *hate* to consider other jobs, because this is a resume show-stopper job, but student loans wait for no one. Not even Big Hollywood Producer/Directors to finally get their act together with their schedule.

3. Ask for handouts. Just kidding! But if I do I'll have to get a puppy. People are always more sympathetic if they are getting two sets of puppy dog eyes.

On the other hand, I feel like I've never been committed to my writing so determinedly. [Not sure how that always translates into productivity, but the feelings sure are nice.] Maybe it's because I'm starting to be desperate to do that and that alone for a living. Unfortunately, no matter how furiously I start to crank out content, any sort of financial result will be in the far distance future. Why are there no writing get rich quick schemes?

UPDATE: Just finished internet stalking. Production on Big Hollywood Movie in Detroit is closing down. Thanks, BHM, for leading me on, for not returning my phone calls or emails, for being a disorganized mess that wasted my time AND ruined my travel plans. How is it that some of the top professionals in this business can be so UNprofessional?

Restart.

2010-09-17T09:39:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was sucktastic.

I'm making myself feel better by skipping morning exercise, making myself pancakes, and reading excessive amounts of Hyperbole and a Half.

Also, I wanted to share this excellent list from Nitsuh Abebe of reasons why not to date a writer, modified from a list of reasons to date a writer. I'm still incredulous that such a list as the original existed. Some of my favourites are --

7. Writers are smart. The moment you realize this is not true, your relationship with a writer will develop a significant problem.
13. Writers will teach you cool new words. This is possibly true! We may also expect you to remember them, correct your grammar, and look pained after reading mundane notes you’ve left for us.
16. Writers communicate in a bunch of different ways. But mostly writing. Hope you don’t like talking on the phone — that shit is rough.

Check 'em all out. Read some Hyperbole and a Half. And have some pancakes.

So in Love.

2010-09-15T22:52:00.005-04:00

I wish talent was communicable. I wish if you could just be close enough to a person, their genius could travel through ions and particles and zap you into similar levels of ingenuity.

I was in the presence of Aaron Sorkin today.

I got a tip that he was going to be doing a lecture for the film students today. I asked for details. Found out time and place 20 minutes before the Q&A started. It's wonderful to be an alumnus. At which point I jumped in my car, found a parking spot, and walked like a flat footed crazy person to the lecture hall. I was NOT going to miss this opportunity. I was ready to park illegally and suffer a ticket if I had to.

I saw two professors, a couple old classmates, oh, and did I mention AARON SORKIN? I was twenty feet away from Aaron Sorkin. Breathing was... difficult. Not only was Aaron Sorkin there, but so were Jesse Eisenberg and Armie Hammer. There was a showing of The Social Network last night [aw, which I missed], and today they were doing a Q&A [which I managed to get myself to]. They all were so excellent.

A lot of the discussion focused on the movie [which I will probably go see now], but Aaron [oohh, he told a student to call him "Aaron" not "Mr. Sorkin." There's nothing as thrilling as when someone you really admire tells you to call them by their first name] did mention that he watches ESPN to procrastinate just as much as the ordinary writer, that the final draft varied little from the first draft [effective prewriting, maybe?], and that Mr. Fincher did 99 takes of the opening scene.

Oh man. Aaron Sorkin.

I was in cloud nine all day long. Screenwriters are really the loveliest people. I still maybe can't process the fact. Aaron Sorkin. Me. [100 other people.] Same room.

If you are interested in MY take on Facebook, check out the short I made -- Join This Group?

For anyone who's following my celebrity count I've got Pamela Gray, Tom McCarthy, Aaron Sorkin, David Koepp, Ed Helm, Carrie Fisher, Anne Hathaway, Sam Waterson, George Lucas, and the back of Joshua Jackson's head. Well, maybe about that last one. I wish they were trading cards.

I watched Castle tonight. I'm thinking about spec-ing it. Castle hosts a poker game with three other blockbuster writers. James Patterson included. They bust his chops for only putting out one novel a year. I wish I hosted poker games and cocktail parties with famous writers who would ruthlessly tease me into productivity. Wish I knew James Patterson.

Sell Out

2010-09-13T23:52:00.003-04:00

I like to juggle several projects at once. I heard once that if, as a writer, you have to choose between working on the only project you have going and not writing, you'll choose not writing. However, if you have to choose between working on this project or that project or not writing [still], you are much more likely to be productive. With the former you have a 50-50 chance of being productive. With the latter you have a 66-33 chance [or, as HW Guy said, 25-25-50. It's still 50-50. I disagree] of getting something done.

I said the other day that I have an index card with my list of projects taped next to my light switch. There are five projects on that list. I try to work on at least two a day in some capacity.

Blog posts do not count.

Today I reread "Keys to the Garden." As per most writing advice I've ever heard, once I finished Draft #3, I put away the script for a while. It's riddled with holes and inconsistencies and scenes that made me cringe while I was writing. But I put it away and didn't think about it. Since it's been about a month since I celebrated the promise of rewrite #4, I had to take time to reacquaint myself with the story. I took myself to a coffee shop, ordered a mint mocha [because the only way to drink coffee is when it's disguised as something else], and reread the whole script with minimal interruptions.

I tried not to make a lot of notes, or even any judgments. I jotted down a handful of things that I wanted to chance on a legal pad as I went, crossed out a few extraneous words, but for the most part, I just reabsorbed my story. The work of actually wrestling with it will probably start with notecarding [AGAIN] as I rework some plot problems before I cut and edit and delete and rewrite and subtextualize the heck out of those 88 pages.

I love this story. I do. The characters, the dilemma, the eternal good versus evil battle. The mythos, the magic, the pain, the death. It's one of my favourite, if not my favourite, scripts that I've written.

I don't think it'll ever sell.

As I was rereading the script, even as I was rediscovering my attachment to it, I could hear the negative reviews. Predictable plot, simple characters, irrelevant. But I also consider those critiques to be strengths of the script. In a good versus evil story, aren't all your characters in some way simple? This one's good... and this one's evil. The complexities are there, but sometimes I worry the epic battle between good and evil has been disregarded out of hand as passe.

Also it's a pretty spiritual story. Like, really spiritual. If you think the Chronicles of Narnia got some flack...

I adore this story. I know that it's so far from perfect now, that maybe some of my concerns would be solved with more and more rewrites, and I could carry it for years. The current plan is to finish Draft #4, make it polished and pretty, then pass it along to a few people who can give me real writer's notes, friends in the industry, former professors, etc. Let them get back to me with brutal honesty [the kind that writer's notes are famous for]. Read and consider their notes and decide what to do next. But at what point do I make a business decision instead of an artistic decision? At one point do I decide that, even if I don't think the story is irrelevant, it is if no one will read it? How many drafts, hours, mint mochas, until I let it go?

"You accidentally called me baby"

2010-09-10T23:24:00.004-04:00

If you're interested in selling original spec scripts, take a minute to read this article by Nikki Finke.

If you're looking for some good new music, check out "What I'm Looking For" by Brendan Benson. It reminds me a lot of "My Hands are Shaking" by Sondre Lerche. [That was two for one, people.]

I've been trying to put more time into prewriting for my next couple of projects. Or, as HW Guy likes to say, I open up a Celtx document, punch in a few sentences into my outline, and call it writing. But I try to ignore his devil's advocate stance [which is really, just my stance. I'm much more of a write it then revise it writer. Or a binge writer, as an old professor called me] because today I scrapped nearly all an outline for a pilot. It's much better to scrap a couple of sentences than fifteen pages.

I taped an index card with the titles of all my current projects up next to my lightswitch in my bedroom. Just so that I can increase my guilt on nonproductive days.

Green

2010-09-08T13:56:00.006-04:00

The film I'm working on next has been delayed again. I've started to miss working, which is sorta a strange feeling. I try to be productive. I try not to eat my days away.

I do mean literally eat. Try sitting at home most of the day with a dozen s'more cupcakes from a dinner party beckoning from the kitchen counter. Nobody misses disappearing leftovers...

Scott Meyers recently posted on the importance of outlining. Whenever someone I respect tells me to do something I don't like, my productivity is knocked down several percentage points as I try to procrastinate. Eventually I suck it up and take my computer to the coffee shop where I bang out a few more scenes on my beat sheet for "The Exit Strategy." Scott persuaded me with his fateful argument that outlining should make writing more fun. Right now I'm thinking a writing partner would make writing more fun. A writing partner who does all the writing.

Yesterday I slept until noon. It was embarrassing. In my defense, I was up late the night before and I slept horribly. Today I vowed to get up earlier. Which shouldn't be hard, getting up in the morning. I did get up earlier, and one of the first things I read was this --

HBO Greenlights Judd Apatow/Lena Dunham Coming-of-Age Pilot

Judd Apatow, old news. Lena Dunham is a 24 year old writer/director/actor who's made two features, numerous shorts and web series, and who now gets a chance at being an HBO showrunner.

It blows my mind. How does this even happen for people -- at 24? What do I need to be doing with my life to get there? Or is Dunham just less of a hack than I am?

Ok, so once I got over my initial bout of jealousy, I decided to check Dunham out some. She has a lovely website, all her shorts and trailers up on her Vimeo page, and keeps it current with a blog and a Twitter account. I hope she has a blast shooting her pilot and that HBO will pick it up for a series. I also hope that I will soon make friends with someone who subscribes to HBO and Showtime, because I am tired of missing out on good TV.

Drafts and Dialog

2010-09-03T17:03:00.005-04:00

My WIP sidebar is outdated. Two of those scripts have been put to back burner, and "Keys to the Garden" draft 3 is complete. As for my TV scripts, I'm clearly no longer considering "Dollhouse" to spec. For those TV writers out there, I asked Amanda the Aspiring Writer what shows would be good to spec this season, and she tweeted back Modern Family, Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, and The Vampire Diaries.

Yes I did say tweeted. No I don't want to talk about it. I hate Twitter.

I've been reading Richard Walter's "Essentials of Screenwriting," and I just finished a chapter on dialogue. Besides going through a list of practical do's and don't [Do economize. Don't use ellpises unnecessarily], one thing really stuck out to me. Walter promotes constant dischord. He says, "Don't let anybody agree with anybody else. As soon as there is agreement there is boredom." He's not advocating incessant screaming, tantrums, or cringe-worthy shouting matches. But as long as the characters oppose each other, there is conflict, which is the heart of drama and a surefire way to keep your readers/viewers interested. "Let each line challenge the next," Walter encourages. It's also an effective way of making sure you know what each character wants in every scene. I mean, aren't we all just trying to get what we want from everyone else anyway?

I used to think that I was good with dialogue. I used to think I could make it sound very realistic [in opposition to how this blog feels to me right now]. But Walter challenges my thinking -- "real speech is available free of charge in the streets. Dialogue, on the other hand, is worth waiting in line for. It needs to be special. Unless it writhes and wriggles, glows and glistens, it is unworthy of any audience."

You know how when you have an important, emotionally charged conversation with someone, and usually all you can manage to get out is a stutter and a weak defensive? But how, five hours after the fact, you have the most perfectly constructed, flawless, scintillating argument, with a turn of phrase that would have shut that sucker down? That's what dialog needs to be. It's not the brain freezed watered down fragments we say in real life. It's the mulled and spiced and sharply aged comebacks we only imagined we could have said.. And if it takes five hours to come up with that kind of dialog, it's ok. We've got the time.

For the Record

2010-09-02T20:18:00.004-04:00

If you have not seen Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, you should. It's wonderful. It's hilarious. It's maybe the most entertaining movie I've seen all summer. And I've seen a lot of movies.

So please. Do yourself a favor. Do good movies a favor. Go see it.

Shame shame.

2010-09-01T14:04:00.005-04:00

I don't find myself as an easily embarrassed person. But here are some things that do embarrass me:

1. My car. More specifically, the windshield wipers on my car. I turned them on yesterday in order to clean my windshield. And then they didn't turn off. They stayed on. My windshield wipers won't turn off until I turn my car off.

2. How difficult home decorating is for me. Hollywood Guy was teasing me the other day because I couldn't pick a set of sheets. "What's the big deal? Grab a set and go home." Easy for him to say. I don't think his roommate is the next Pier One Martha Stewart. I carry paint chips with me wherever I go. Do you think I've ever cared about matching my sheets to my walls to my curtains to my bookcase before? Then I asked HW Guy what his place looked like. Undecorated, that's what it looks like.

2.5 How I'm starting to recognize Ikea employees. [And think of them as friends.]

3. Time management. Or how I don't have any. I waste so much time. I have this great opportunity to NOT be working right now, meaning I can work all day on my writing. Today was the first day in about two weeks that I logged some good writing time. In about an hour and a half I had a rough bare bones treatment for Current Draft, "The Exit Strategy." In just an hour and a half of my day. If I actually utilized all my free time, do you know how quickly I could bang out a first draft? It's just like -- when am I going to get serious about this? [And now I'm moving from being embarrassed to being annoyed at myself.]

4. My research. Both "The Exit Strategy" and the other Rom Com I was working on previously require some interesting research. Mainly research into psychology and self help books. [Side note: Do you know when you type "psychology" into the subject search on your local library catalog, the second book to pop up is a Bernstein Bears book? Why??] When I was researching the other Rom Com script, it was all self help books on love and dysfunctional relationships. In fact, I never actually checked any books out of the library because I couldn't bring myself to be that girl who comes to the front desk with a stack of relationship help books. For "The Exit Strategy" I need to know about grief and loss. Today I checked out a book called -- Welcome to Your Crisis. It's very difficult in these circumstances to not just blurt out "It's for research!" all the while smiling broadly to prove *you're* not in the middle of a crisis.

Nice.

2010-08-27T09:21:00.003-04:00

There's this boy. Who I met in Michigan. Who lives in LA. Who's working in Seattle. Who I might go see in Georgia.

Does this surprise you about my life? Because I'm not surprised at all.

Days/Daze

2010-08-26T16:36:00.004-04:00

Getting a new apartment ready is a chore. And sometimes a PAIN. I've spent more hours trying to get our TV and internet set up these past couple of days than... I can't even think of a comparison. But it's ok because it IS starting to come together. My room is painted and my new bed is set up and I've started hanging things on the wall. But I look forward to the day when I can just come home. And not assemble furniture. Or paint walls. Or wonder if my cable and internet is ever going to work right.

Some day, I'll just come home.

A Lack of an Update

2010-08-20T10:27:00.004-04:00

I moved into my new apartment yesterday. It's lovely, of course, but it has no internet or cable yet, and I'm waiting for my Roomie to get back from her weekend away to set it up. Lucky for me there's a coffee shop just down the road. Also I don't have a bed or anything yet. And I need to paint my room first before I attempt to bring all the furniture in. So picture a nice new apartment, completely empty except for a bunch of boxes strew all over the place and an air mattress, and you'll get a pretty accurate picture of my current life.

I also got a PA job [job as in paid work]. The details of which I'm not yet going to share, but let's just say that it was a poor celebration last night of me eating alone on the floor of my unfurnished eating pizza and watching an ancient episode of Bones on my computer. I cannot WAIT to share the details though because, not only is this one of the biggest films to come to Michigan, but the story about how my name got passed along is pretty incredible.

This is great.

Swag(ger)

2010-08-16T10:18:00.003-04:00

I've been reading Richard Walter's new book Essentials of Screenwriting. I've sorta maxed out how many screenwriting books I'll buy, but I was sent this one for free and I'm really glad about that. It's a great read. And it's not dry, which some instructional books can be. The thing I love most about it so far (I'm only about 60 pages in) is that it doesn't start with the three act structure.

It doesn't start with structure at all.

My favourite chapter so far has been the chapter entitled "The Personal Screenplay." Write what you know has been a popular and controversial maxim for writers everywhere. Walter encourages writers to weave their story into every story they write. "Whenever writers sit down before blank paper or glowing pixels, they should write their own personal story."

There are a lot of reasons NOT to do this. It's self indulgent, no one else will find your personal whine and cheese fest interesting, it's amateur, you won't be able to edit and rewrite effectively. And to *that* Walter says, "If a writer fails to personalize her story, if she fails to make it her own unique tale, regardless of how well turned it may be it will nonetheless also be flat, hollow, heatless, heartless, pale, frail, upholstered, laminated, and not wholly human."

He argues that it doesn't matter what a story is about - if the writer is fully vested it will be innately interested because it will be full of real human drama [Not that skill and craft does not matter. Just simply - they do]. And if I think back about which stories that I've written that I both like best and think are the best stories, the ones which take liberally from my own life and questions and problems are the ones that rise to the top. I think that's one reason my rom com floundered. No matter how well structured it was, I had zero connection to it. If I'm not able to find that connection, an audience surely won't. And it's not that I won't be able to invest myself at some point, but I know that if I try to write it now it will be flat and dry and void of any real emotion.

I also just rewatched (500) Days of Summer with a friend who had never seen it. That movie is so great. It communicates so much. It's intricate and interesting and true. And it's based on the writer's real life.

This all was marinating in my mind as I was driving home to Jersey last week. Also I was trying to unravel the problem of what to write next. Keys to the Garden needs to age a little before I tackle Draft #4. Also I need to find a project that's a little more sellable as a spec.

And then I hit traffic.

I'm pretty sure nothing is more frustrating than hitting traffic during the eleventh hour of a twelve hour roadtrip. Bumper to bumper parking lot. I'm playing the sappiest music I have on my iPod, and since I have no driving to do to distract me, I start to think about my near disasterous relationship life.

"ARGH," I say. "If only there were SOME way to take all these negative situations and turn them into something creative!"

Which, of course, there is.

But no one would want to see my personal story. That's self indulgent and it's boring and it wouldn't fit a screenplay structure...

Wait a minute.

And I don't know what it was. It was some crazy combination of Richard Walter philosophy and (500) Days of Summer and the sappy music and being forced to just sit in my car in the middle of traffic and think, but for the first time I felt like I was given permission, like I finally relented to myself and said, Yes, it's ok. You can write about that.

It's difficult to victory dance in a car, but when the seed of a beautiful story finally appears, you find a way.

Something for Everyone

2010-08-14T09:47:00.004-04:00

My brothers are away for the weekend and I am home, so I slept in their room last night. In typical move out fashion, *my* room as already been repurposed. Into my brother's podcasting studio. It's kinda ok with me, because I have only a futon chair in my room to sleep on and they have actual mattresses, but it was pretty weird to wake up in the middle of the night... in my brothers' room. This morning my mom asked me if the mattress was comfortable. I reminded her that I spent most of last year sleeping on a two inch piece of foam supported by a frame of wooden slats.

Well, I was going to write about how cool it is that there are so many diverse movies opening at the theatre this weekend, but then I read Nikki Finke's Friday BO review. She rips on so many of them I'm nearly ashamed to be excited.

1. The Expendables - Hello, macho big budget action movie. HW Guy has been talking nonstop about this movie for a week and even sent me a text at 3 AM about how mind blowing it was. I would not be opposed to go seeing this movie *with* someone, but it's definitely not one I'm trying to persuade my friends into. I love how blatantly the marketing appeals to guys, including a tagline that says "Guys, don't let Julia Roberts win." Way to appeal to guys' inate competive nature. That's all fair because...

2. Eat Pray Love - ...this movie appeals to a woman's desire for freedom [yeah, I just got all Braveheart on you]. But seriously, I think this movie markets a lot of what American women want -- risk, first class adventure, and international love interests... all from the safety and security of their local theatre. I just started reading the book because I have a girl date to go see this movie next weekend. I'm about 10 pages in and am pretty excited about it. Maybe because I'm a writer who loves to travel... as is the author of the book. Also, I just sorta feel for Julia Roberts. Duplicity was way underrated.

3. The Other Guys - I feel like this Will Ferrel comedy is the date night compromise between The Expendables and Eat Pray Love. [Sorry, some other actor is in it to, but if you're going to do a comedy with Will Ferrel, prepare to be forgotten half the time.]

4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - The other date night compromise. Some weird hybrid between a comic book and a romantic comedy. I really want to see this movie, but I feel like you have to find someone just as excited about taking a risk on cheese as you are. I have not yet found that person, but then again I'm spending the weekend in Jersey and typically have a much more difficult time conning people into going to the movies here than I do in Michigan. Hey, Micheal Cera, what about that Arrested Development movie?

Mix Tape

2010-08-13T23:35:00.002-04:00

On my twelve hour drive home today I heard this cool new song on the radio. I almost wrote the lyrics down so I could look them up later, but I decided to trust my memory.

So stupid.

It took about twenty minutes of hair-pulling Googling to figure out the song. But in the end, technology prevailed over my shoddy mind. I think it's pretty rad:

The Ready Set: Love Like Woe

Also, Pennsylvania, you and I are no longer on speaking terms.

Ridin'

2010-08-10T11:53:00.003-04:00

The absolute hands down no questions asked WORST thing about being an adult is the amount of paperwork and admin crap you have to do. This is generally how I feel about responsibility --

Hyperbole and A Half: This is Why I'll Never be an Adult

But today I went to the "secretary of state" as they say here in Michigan [DMV for us word lazy East Coasters] and registered my Taurus. The amount of annoying work that goes into your registering your car seems ridiculous, but now the Taurus is insured, registered, plated, and ready to drive.

I have a Michigan license plate on my car. It's so weird.

Drop Kick Action.

2010-08-09T23:17:00.004-04:00

DRAFT THREE IS FINISHED!

At about 9 pm I realized that I hadn't written yet today, so I picked up my laptop and my cell phone and trudge off to Starbucks [look, I know. It just sorta... happened]. Basically I was just cutting and pasting, because the third act is solid. And why change too much when you know you have ANOTHER draft coming up? An hour later I typed THE END.

Hollywood Guy asked if he could read it, and I said no of course [but, awww, love it :) ]. Soon though, and that feels great. I said maybe after the next draft. Maybe after Draft #4 I can show it to people. I hope.

Either way, I'm getting closer, and it feels delicious.

Double Take.

2010-08-09T10:01:00.003-04:00

Ok, so maybe my friend destroying my will to work on my rom com wasn't so bad after all.

So, I don't know if you can tell by my sidebar, but I juggle a lot of projects at once. Really, you can only effectively work on one or two projects at a time, but it's nice to have options. So when my rom com fell from grace, I picked up a different project because I may be unemployed but that only gives me a reason to be productive! (Sometimes I have to talk myself into being productive, if you hadn't noticed.)

I picked up Keys to the Garden (aka Even Angels Swear, my new favourite title for it) which I was in the middle of my third draft of before I abandoned it to procrastinate on packing. This draft is a massive rewrite, and it was just getting to be sort of a mess. I picked it up again, because even though it's a big budget heavily religious supernatural action movie that will never be viable as a sellable spec, I think it has the most potential of all my scripts to be a good story.

That was probably four days ago. I am sailing through this bad boy. Is that because I was soon into the third act, which is pretty solid and requires mostly just cutting and pasting? Maybe. But soon this draft is going to be DONE, and I can print it out, tear it up, and start all over again.

And I think Draft #4 might be the one. I think after that I'll be able to start showing it to people. And after i do ANOTHER draft based on their notes, I might even ask Big A List Screenwriter if he'll read it.

And then I'll have to work on something else because, like I said, it's at best a writing sample. Or fuel when I no longer can afford heat in the Michigan winter. (Just kidding, parents.)

Man, I can't wait until I can do just this for a living.

Blast.

2010-08-05T15:08:00.005-04:00

I knew coming to Starbucks was a bad idea.

I usually like to go to more Michigan-y coffee shops, but Starbucks was right here and I had a gift card and they usually have quality AC. Bad move, Amy.

I've been working pretty steadily on my rom com. Plagued with self doubt as I do it, but I think I've finally gotten past my two or three false starts into my first draft for real. I've been knocking off a couple pages a day because, well, I'm not working so I should be doing something productive. And as I was sitting in Starbucks, typing away and trying to ignore my phone because it's the ultimate distraction these days, one of my friends who's a summer starter at the law school walks in.

I adore my friends, but this just furthers my hypothesis that law school ruins peoples' lives.

We say, "What are you doing here??" like it's a surprise to see someone at a Starbucks on campus (actually just I did that. Because I'm socially awkward), chit chat, and then he asks me what my script's about. And I give him the long version of the log line because even though I don't like talking about my scripts and I hate summarizing, it's a skill that I've got to learn.

And he goes, "Oh, it sounds like that 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days' movie."

And then he leaves me to wallow in the dazed and broken pieces of my spirit.

Because on one level, he's very right. Almost too right. As in, I haven't written anything since he's left. And I remember, from somewhere in the parts of my mind where I put things to forget, having had this conversation before I started writing this stupid script. Only I can't remember how I justified it being different enough. And I know it is different enough because it's my story. Naturally it's going to end up being a very different beast. Right?

Hollywood's built on "the same, but different" principle. Maybe my rom com will just slide gracefully into that category. After all, can't ever story be reduced down to similar synopsises? Well, I mean, probably When Harry Met Sally and Predator don't boil down to the same plot, but within genres at least.

Or I'll turn out to be a talentless hack who can only reguritate unoriginal story ideas. Maybe that will happen.

My best relationship is the one with my phone.

2010-08-02T14:56:00.004-04:00

I have pretty disappointing relationship habits.

Not friendship relationship. Those I think I'm ok at. You know -- the *other* kind of relationship.

The recent trend has been to meet a really nice boy, have a pretty good time, then sit alone in my apartment as three days later he goes back to his real home state.

It sucks.

Wrapped

2010-08-01T17:03:00.003-04:00

We wrapped the feature I was working on Thursday morning. Well, technically we wrapped Thursday afternoon after they reshot the footage from the last tape that was accidentally erased before being downloaded. The wrap party was Thursday night. All the rumors about wrap parties are true.

One of the grips said to me after I took the 2nd AD position, "You've got this new glow. You're really owning this step up." First of all, our grips are so awesome and sweet. But I really did enjoy being 2nd AD, and I was thinking about how this is one of the few times, maybe one of the only times, that I felt I really really excelled at something. I feel that in life I manage to get second best or top ten fairly frequently. But to really really excel at something is often out of reach for me.

I really feel that I rocked it out.

But now I'm jobless. And that, my readers, sucks.

AD Adventures

2010-07-26T08:03:00.003-04:00

Nothing closes out a twelve hour night better than commuting home fueled solely by Red Bull, struggling through the dearth of parking, only to open up your email and see that your carefully planned schedule that you just emailed out to EVERYONE an hour ago has been dismantled by someone who did see the call sheet before it was distributed and you have to get it resent out right before you crash.

My brain hurts from the literal hours I spent discussing and mentally manhandling our schedule for the next three days. Three days.

For the most part, though, I really like assistant directing.

My Most PA Moment of the Day 4

2010-07-22T06:58:00.001-04:00

When I got a sudden promotion to 2nd AD.

Life Lessons

2010-07-21T14:26:00.003-04:00

I took the weekend off. Sometimes, when you have out of town friends around for 48 hours, it's ok to take a break from your job. Only if it's unpaid, though. If you're getting paid, then your life is at its mercy. It was so nice to have my friends around. It's so frustrating that some of them live so far away. Like in other countries.

We had a night shoot yesterday, and I did something pretty stupid. We needed more ice, and I volunteered to go down to the gas station two blocks away and get some. Now, keep in mind that for the first two weeks of filming, girls weren't allowed to sit security to the entrance of our set with everyone there behind a fence during daylight. And I just half volunteered half was asked to go down to a gas station at 1 AM by myself in downtown Detroit.

As soon as I got in line to pay for the ice, these two men walked in after me, and one stood on one side of me and one of the other, and they started talking, same time, nonstop. You know, "What's your name, girl?" "You're so pretty" "Give me your number, I'll call you sometime" "You got a boyfriend?" This is actually pretty overwhelming when it's coming at you in stereo while you're trying to do something else. I even got, as I was walking away, "We could start a family!" Which would have been kinda funny, if I hadn't been so creeped out. I came back to location, closed that barbed wire fence behind me, and nearly ran upstairs to hang out with the G&E boys. Because basically they're the most bad ass crew members.

I don't scare easy and I'm pretty good at giving the F-off look, but never, in my life, anywhere I've traveled, no matter what area I've been in, never have I been approached like that. And as much as I hate hearing that I can't do something because I'm a girl, sometimes it's legitimate.

My Most PA Moment of the Day 3

2010-07-20T13:47:00.001-04:00

When, at 1:30 pm, I said, "See ya tomorrow," to my roommate before heading out to my 4 pm - 4 am shoot.

My Most PA Moment of the Day 2

2010-07-20T02:04:00.001-04:00

When I said, "Everyone needs to keep their hands to themselves and their mouths shut!"

Working 6 to 6, what a way to make a living

2010-07-15T12:14:00.003-04:00

I have been hard at work this past week and a half.

The film I've been working on since last Monday started shooting a week ago. This means 12-14 hour days. The last four days have been night shoots, from 6 pm to 6 am. I hate taking naps, so sleeping during the day was really difficult for me. Also, lesson learned, after a night shoot, you want to go straight to bed, not hang around awake for a couple more hours to go have breakfast with your normal lifestyle friends. Also, I missed seeing my friends. Working such long hours means it's difficult to see much of them anyway, but working nights meant that I'd *maybe* see my roommates as I was grabbing some dinner at 7 am and they were heading off to work. But after our shoot wrapped yesterday at 6 am we have until tomorrow morning off, and it's blissful. It's easy to readjust to sleeping at night.

I've been learning a lot. The last three days, the PA who normally helps out with AC has been gone, and because I nagged the 1st AD about getting involved in more technical stuff, he put me in as the sub. Basically all I did as an AC was switch out dead batteries on the camera and move the monitor around, but I ALSO was in charge of the slate. I love being slate girl. I was in more shots than any one actor these past three days. Ok, but I really did like AC. And it gave me an excuse to be on set on the time. When the AC PA comes back, I might just follow him around and be the 2nd. Not that there's enough for for a 2nd AC, but it beats hanging out off set waiting to be sent on a run.

The last two days have been such dead days for the PAs, mostly because of the location we were at. But I would walk off set and see people just hanging out, nothing to do, waiting for the next job (not just PAs. Wardrobe, makeup, lighting, etc). I don't really want to spend my time like that. If I'm not on set, I'm going to be bothering Grip and Electric about their jobs and their equipment (I love our G&E department. They're super awesome). I'm going to ask Set Design about their background and how they approach a project. I may even hang out by the editing booth and try to absorb some Final Cut technique. I really, almost surprisingly because it's been so good, enjoy the people I work with and just hanging out with them, but I'm getting paid in experience so I'm going to make sure I get as much of it as I possibly can.

Other than that, I haven't been writing at all. So, that kinda sucks.

My Most PA Moment of the Day 1

2010-07-11T07:37:00.001-04:00

When Scripty handed me her half finished cigarette and asked me if I could put it on a bench for her since she had to go to the scene and "it's such a waste."

Scary

2010-07-07T08:55:00.004-04:00

This weekend Roommate J and I watched Paranormal Activity. I thought it was great, but I didn't really find it that scary. Here are some reasons why --

1. Always watch scary movies with someone who is more scared than you are. I watched Blair Witch Project with BFF D. That way I can alleviate tension by teasing them for being scared.

2. Analyze the filmmaking while watching. I kept thinking about how the budgetary constraints made any special effects near impossible, which limited the amount of scary things they could do.

3. Check how long the movie runs before starting, then keep watching the timer on the DVD to see how far you're into the movie and how much time you have left. This helps you determine when the third act, and therefore the really scary parts, are coming.

4. Know the ending before you start watching. I mean, I didn't know *everything* about the ending. But I knew the basic idea.

5. Watch while hugging a pillow and through your fingers.

Surefire ways to make a scary movie seem not scary.

I started working on a film on Monday (and by working, I mean I'm paid in connections and relationships. Which is actually what I want right now. Though some money wouldn't be bad either). I'm having a wonderful time. These next few weeks are going to be super educational, super hard sometimes, and super fun.