Hello faithful followers (otherwise known as: writers who are simply coming here to procrastinate from their own writing)...
Thank you for all your emails.
But, please, rest assured, I did not have a nervous breakdown and/or quit writing... It's far, far less creative than anything you have imagined. I've actually been too busy to blog.
I'd love to say I was busy writing, but sometimes life just wallops you. I've been busy with Croup (my two year old), with planning an extensive business trip to Europe, with the club championship (hey you gotta have a life), with developing the directing project (which is really coming together and I'm getting very excited) and with The Treatment.
Oh, and I've been sick with flu and now cold for an unseemly amount of time. But, downtime is a great time for watching movies and collecting a belly full of inspiration! Also it's a great time for Nyquil induced comas - which is like going to a spa for a working writer with a toddler.
So here's what's going on - so that when I get back to writing pithy prose on the belly of the beast, we'll all know what projects I'm working on, or in other words, to recap:
1) The Assignment is complete until production polish comes in sometime around June. They are shooting in September. Still TBD as to where they are shooting - maybe they know, but you know like the recent NAVY SEAL mission, that information is on a need to know basis and writers aren't normally cleared for that kind of intel.
2) Spec. You remember the spec, don't you? The script I started this blog about way back nearly a year ago? In July 2010 - yes, that makes me crazy.... but...
"As God is my witness..." just imagine me clutching a dirty carrot in tattered Dior. This will become my top objective when I return from a European trip in June. I feel like there will be a gap between production polish of The Assignment and the Contract for The Treatment which will be just long enough for me to get this newly structured beast back on the desktop.
I have completely gone back to page one on this concept. I've been doing lots of heavy thinking - but my upcoming business trip to Europe will also be a "research" and "inspiration" journey for the spec. That way I can feel guilt free about chugging down wine and cheese in Paris - because it's "work" damn it!
Ideally, I wanted to have my first act done before I get on the plane - but my head cold is slowing me down to an escargot's pace and I have to prioritize. The priority is to finish off...
3) The Treatment. Again. Yes. Again. I think I'm on draft 10 or something. I met my previous self-imposed deadline and had several more long discussions with the producer and now here I am again about to turn in what I think must be, the very, very, very, final draft of the treatment. It is now 22 pages long. When and if we sell this puppy, I will simply have to put in the dialogue formatting and turn it back in. (Okay, maybe not quite - but this thing is detailed beyond detail.) I definitely think this what I will be writing as soon as I publish this post, is the end of the hard part.
But the hard part has not been as hard as it has been "stretching." Which is good. I am working with someone who is very good. And when you work with someone who is very good, who is in tune with what works and what rings false, someone who can be patient and prodding at the same time - well, voila, writer heaven.
I have learned so much. Yes, old dog, new tricks. Learned stuff.
I promise to blog about this once the contract is inked. It's already been a wild journey - but it will definitely get wilder - just a little teaser - we're talking private planes and research trips involving coolers filled with something unexpected. I don't want to spoil it. Just trust me - material for days - once it's inked - I'll let you in on it. Wild.
So, I'm going to be traveling for about three weeks (and not Blogging - so, no need to email me with questions of my mental status) but, when I return you're in for a treat!
Happy Writing! (And if you haven't guessed by now - there's no such thing - like the Holy Grail, we keep looking for it...)
