Improvisational Ponderings of Moderate Nefariousness
What about my eeka, you may ask?  Not much, really.  But I did manage to get the dust off and upgrade this site software.  Will work on some plug ins and fancification later.
Just one small step for moi.  Next up Рa stogie, a margarita, and some more (BLEEPING) NaNoWriMo.
As I sit here on my patio, chillin’ with a stogie and some most delicious Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale, I get the most delightful feeling of returning to center.¬† It’s a Zen meditation of sorts for me.¬† Relaxed, focused, content, with a clarity that will be shattered by 8:01am tomorrow morning as the fuzzy gray womb of my work cubicle embraces me once again.
Working a bit on my NaNoWriMo plans.¬† I’m pretty excited about this effort, and think I set myself up for a win with a very wide open writing idea.¬† There is something about the pure creative process that I became addicted to when I did Improv.¬† I don’t do the stage work anymore, but still love the Making.
Didn’t get to all the tech work this site needs, but picked at some of the edges.¬† Must fight my urge to do it all at once.¬† Such a strong urge, though, and my body just does love the sleep.
Writing is a lonely hobby.¬† Just me and my evil foe, the Blinking Cursor Of Despair, slugging it out day after day.¬† So I’ll take any encouragement I can get along the way.¬† I’m not picky, but I find the unexpected nuggets are the sweetest.
Last night in my Screenwriting class we were taking turns reading our latest scenes aloud for the class to critique.¬† It helps enormously to hear your dialog actually read, and I usually do a lot of wincing and note taking about where things don’t flow.¬† Anyway, we had already done three screenplays that night, and he wanted to squeeze one more in before we broke for the night.¬† This class is 7:00pm to 10:00pm, so people are pretty bushed towards the end. ¬† He pointed over at me to pass out my copies for reading and this guy sitting two desks away claps!¬† Another guy goes “Yes!¬† I love this script!”
I had NO idea.¬† There are eleven of us in the class and we’ve all been working our scripts for the past two months.¬† Nearly everyone in the class volunteered to read a part, and I got more kudos from people for the dialog and pacing.¬† I’ve been doing well on the assignments, but that sort of impromptu praise from the class, a group of people all fighting the same fight as me, was huge. I’m going to see if I can finish this baby off for a local film festival submission in December!
The moral of the story is to never underestimate the impact of a little praise or some encouraging words.
I’ve been spending some time working on screenwriting over the past few years, and I’ve recently started to take it more seriously. As such, I’ve been looking for goals to help me challenge myself. One of these is participating in Script Frenzy.
Short version – it is a challenge to write a full, feature-length screenplay in a month. No easy feat. I have my ideas, some characters, and a rough story arc, so we’ll see if that (and a lack of sleep) is enough.
Gonna be a goood time!