Gary had a script read-through with a bunch of actors, including Tom Biagini who played Piaroni in the short film. The major issues that everyone seemed to feel was that the plot was split between two main characters who had very different kinds of stories — one being crime/thriller and the other being more romantic drama. While some movies can pull this off, people didn’t think it was working too well here. Got some other great feedback and some plot suggestions that got us excited about getting started on the next draft.

Today was not a good day to stay on schedule. But still, I did get a lot done. Sort of.

Got a haircut, worked on some story notes for my daughter’s book. Some hundred odd words or so. Not a lot of progress, but better than zero words. Spent the morning doing email, which took a little longer than expected (and I still haven’t caught up on everyone I should be writing to). Straightened up my work area. Which, if you could see it, is actually quite a daunting task. Didn’t make much headway, but I did sort things into various piles for further sorting and purging.

Wandered through Neil Gaiman’s site some more. There’s a great essay here about where ideas come from. Here is one of the best parts:

Every published writer has had it – the people who come up to you and tell you that they’ve Got An Idea. And boy, is it a Doozy. It’s such a Doozy that they want to Cut You In On It. The proposal is always the same – they’ll tell you the Idea (the hard bit), you write it down and turn it into a novel (the easy bit), the two of you can split the money fifty-fifty.

I’m reasonably gracious with these people. I tell them, truly, that I have far too many ideas for things as it is, and far too little time. And I wish them the best of luck.

The Ideas aren’t the hard bit. They’re a small component of the whole. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder. And hardest by far is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another to construct whatever it is you’re trying to build: making it interesting, making it new.

Finally had a chance to explore the Screenwriter’s Voice website. At times I wish it were more nuts-and-bolts about the craft. But overall I found it to be a nice read. The thing that bothers me most is that there are more typos and misused words than I would like to see in a writers’ website.

another interview with Angel writing duo

interview with James Marsters

interview with Wes Craven

The weekend was relaxing and gave me time to think. Get organized. I’ve finally decided to schedule my days. It’s strange, since you’d think having no schedule would be more relaxing. But it turns out that not having a schedule makes me feel like the minutes are being wasted. Having a schedule, even if I don’t stick to it religiously, actually helps me to ease stress. Who’d have thought? Not me. But the schedule seems to be working.

It’s already helpful in making me feel like things aren’t all out of control. It’s let me set aside time for correspondence, which I’m notoriously bad about. I’ve allotted time to work on the Star Wars fan film shots. And I’ve scheduled some daily formal writing time instead of the impromptu writing sessions I’d been attempting. My main writing projects right now are a fairy tale book for my daughter (with illustrations) and a novel that’s been kicking around in my head for a while.

The weekend was wonderfully relaxing. My wife and I went to see “Into the Woods” performed by the Pacifica Spindrift Players. Turns out Cinderella was played by a lady who attends the school where my wife works. Love the music — I’ve had the soundtrack for a while ever since seeing the Broadway performance on TV. Seeing the musical again got me inspired to do some fairy tale stories for my daughter. I’d been toying with the idea of writing a personalized children’s story for her for a while. So this gave me a little extra push and some ideas to play with.

Spent a lot of time talking with my brother about his screenplay. I’m not doing all the heavy lifting. But I’ve been able to contribute a lot of story and plot points, refine characterizations, and suggest little details here and there. It’s been a lot of fun. Tough at times though, like when we plot ourselves into a corner.

But overall, it’s stuff like this which really convinces me that I want to be involved creatively on projects, work on stories with people, and write my own stuff too.

How quickly these days pass. This week was particularly busy. A couple of birthday things. Plumbing problems. Water damage. And some more Star Wars fan film shots to work on.

My writing these days mostly consists of helping my brother work through various roadblocks for his feature screenplay. My own stories are in limbo at the moment. I just haven’t had the extra energy to work on them. The worst part is that I feel bad for not working on them! Which makes me tired and not feel like writing. A bad feedback loop. After I sign off here, I’m going to sit down and try writing something. Anything. Try to kickstart the ol’ writing part of my brain.

It doesn’t help that I went to sleep at 2am and got up at 7am. Maybe I should take a nap.

Moviepoopshoot.com did a review of the trailer for my brother’s film, Favors. The review is in the middle of the page at this link.

I added a comments feature to the blog. Hopefully I didn’t break the page. All I can say is that I tested it and it worked for my browser.

Neil Gaiman wrote this in his introduction to Jonathan Carrol’s website :

Writing fiction is not a profession that leaves one well-disposed toward reading fiction. One starts out loving books and stories, and then one becomes jaded and increasingly hard to please. I read less and less fiction these days, finding the buzz and the joy I used to get from fiction in ever stranger works of non-fiction, or poetry.

As an aspiring writer of stuff, I’m unsettled by this. For me, it’s already happened to some extent with movies and visual effects.

I used to love just about every movie that came down the pike and all special effects were special. But after I got into the business, I grew more jaded and picky with each passing year. Now it’s hard for me to watch any sort of visual effect without unconsciously checking for flaws or thinking about technique. It’s that sort of thing that has helped me be good at what I do — that attention to detail. And while I can keep those thoughts in the background, they’re still there. Only on rare occasions do I find myself getting sucked into a film if there’s any sort of visual effects or CG taking the stage.

So I’m worried that what Mr. Gaiman says will come true. I read voraciously. I’ve been going to the library lately and bringing home a backpack full of books and plowing through them. (And Laura will be happy to know I’m finally reading more than just sci-fi and fantasy novels these days.) As I learn more about writing and and become more aware of technique– well, I’m a bit scared to think that trying to be a writer will destroy my refuge and sanctuary: enjoying a good book.

Oh, and on my last trip to the library I managed to find the graphic novels Sandman: Endless Nights and Sandman: World’s End. The upside: I am totally inspired to write. The downside: I despair that I will never write anything as good.