David Gilmour wuz here

I just hit the wall. No wait. That's a total lie. I hit the wall, like, three days ago, and I've been just running at it and bashing my head into it repeatedly ever since.

C'mon, you know this wall. It's that big ugly mother, dismal grey breezeblock. About thirty feet high and kinda scuzzy. Right next to the kilroy wuz here graffiti is a message for me, in ALL CAPS. And it goes something like this:

"You are the worst writer in the world ever and your current script stinks worse than those skunks that hang around your neighborhood at night. Why are you even trying? You should go find another job at once. Something menial. That doesn't require an ounce of creativity. You could start by cleaning this wall for one."

Hmph. Stupid wall. Like I said, it's been three days, and my head is all bloody and smashed to bits (metaphorically, c'mon I'm not that screwed up) and the wall still stands. Is it growing? I think it's growing.

Slacker excuses
There is no excuse for me this week.

Rewrite city, oh how it shines

Rewriting is so freakin' awesome. You've got this script in front of you, and it's kinda OK. Then you spend a couple hours and it's like, a zillion times better. Which totally rocks.

Slacker excuses
Been reading all the archives on Mindy Ephron's blog. Can you tell?

Rolling in dough

One side-effect of dedicating my time to screenwriting is that I've been feeling very broke lately. Instead of searching for lucrative freelance writing gigs, I've been searching for inspiration.

This made me feel a little better, even though I'm still late paying my rent each month...

I'm the 190,434,783 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >>

Slacker excuses
Finally watching Heroes. I know, I'm woefully behind, but it's nice not having to wait a whole week to watch the next episode.

To the extreme!

I was struggling there for a while, trying to come up with an Ugly Betty story that was actually interesting. Then I got an idea, but when I outlined it... lame alert.

Then last night, I decided to go through every story point and just brain dump 4 or 5 ways to take that point to the most melodramatic, off-the-wall, crazy ass extreme. No censoring, no thinking "that'd never happen". I just wrote.

Guess what, gentle readers?

You got it. I came up with a whole barrel full of really cool ideas that are going to help make this the best never-to-air Ugly Betty spec script I have ever written. Erm. Read. Uh, I mean... well we'll see.

Slacker excuses
Spent the weekend going to see professional sports. Trust me, the LA Sparks is a way more exciting experience than the Dodgers (especially when they lose like 3 trillion to 3 to the Blue Jays - go Canada!).

The backwards read

I've just discovered the most fabulous excellent rewriting tool ever. It's...

The Backwards Read

What you do, is you hold your script up to a mirror and... naah. Just kidding.

What you really do is go through your script scene-by-scene, starting with the last scene and moving towards the first.

This allows you to really view the scene as a separate entity, and make sure it contains all the drama, action, suspense, conflict, and character it needs, without any reliance on the other scenes.

Later, when you re-enter the forward world, you can check for flow and all those lovely forward-looking things.

Slacker excuses
Buying tickets to see Crowded House in Vancouver in September. They're playing at the first venue I ever saw them in, 20 years ago. Total blast from the past.

Which way's gravity, ma?

Still plugging away at my Grey's Anatomy. Seems like I will never be finished, though I only officially started it exactly one month ago. I'm reaching the point where I'll have to send it off to be read by my many TV addict friends, and my Mom. I just can't look at the words with any sort of objectivity any more.

I'm actually pretty excited about finishing it because then I get to write Ugly Betty, which has much more room to be kinda playful and fun, and the characters are much bigger (= easier to nail). I still haven't thought of a good story yet though. Not that I've really tried.

Finally, I'm rolling around spec pilot ideas in my head. I've got my setting and my main characters mostly worked out, but I want to come up with a unique style a la Betty/Battlestar/Ally McBeal (even though I didn't really like that show). Something that sets my script apart. Hmmmm. Mull.

Sorry to everyone, this blog was all me me me. Who cares right? You're just here because you're supposed to be writing but instead you're scouring the internet for various tidbits to keep you from thinking about your own less-than-satisfying life so far. Yikes, I think I just started channeling Douglas Coupland a little.

As my gift to you for getting this far in this post, let me recommend a little blog that I just heard about for the first time yesterday. Things I've Bought That I Love written by Mindy Kaling aka Kelly from The Office. How can you resist tidbits like this: "I find myself zoning out at work while people are diligently coming up with Jim-Pam storylines and thinking about my legs in these shorts."? Go there now and stop wasting your time on my boring blog!

Slacker excuses
Spent the day at Six Flags on Tuesday. Thought I might be too fraidy to go on the grown-up rides, but I did them all. Tatsu is pretty freakin' cool, but my favorite was Riddler's Revenge. Oooh, and X turned my world upside down - literally.