Bored to tears

Maybe it's the Charlie Parker jazz coming through my speakers, but I am finding it hard to get moving today. Trouble is there's not much to move towards, work-wise in any case. The clock slowly ticks until I can go home, and Facebook, email and tepid research just isn't cutting it today.


I was politely rejected by a production company yesterday, which is all right. But I am daunted by what it's going to take to get my work out there and sell it.

I'm entering a few contest soon and submitting a spec script to Nickelodeon for their Writing Program, but I have to get real and produce more work instead of hinging my pipe-dreams onto these few and far between "clothespins of hopeful happiness". Just saying. I know I need to continue to work and work and work at it.

Mantra: "It's never too late".

-or-

"What do they know?"

Why I am not a Salesman...

I had dinner with an old friend the other night. He asked me what I was working on lately and I told him about "MechaWest".


If there was a more incompetent show pitch, then I don't know about it. He listened well enough, but, man, I felt like I was all over the place talking about my story. It was silly, and it reminded me that if and when I ever get the opportunity to pitch my pilot, I better be a world more lucid than I was at dinner.

At least I was enthusiastic.

My dad was, and still is, a salesman of electrical supplies for about 40 years. And a homebody; not a big storyteller. He believes in his products though, and he wouldn't sell anything otherwise.

I need to take a lesson here, and practice, practice, practice. And actually script it out (I used to be an actor afterall). Better yet, my brewery tour guide experience might serve me better; you know, follow the outline and speak to your tour group, taking them on the journey of a lifetime.

And play them with beer samples afterwards. That couldn't hurt, either.

Three Week Break!

Today marks the start of my three weeks away from work! I'll rest up, finish Christmas shopping (very little to do, as my family and I always go for the small gift exchange), and generally lounge around the house.


I was thinking that creativity would be a hallmark of my time off, but the threat of MAME ROMs discovered last night looked me square in the eye and kept me occupied until 2:00 am -for you young folks, that's pretty late for me MAME is a game system that can take .zip files of the codes for classic video games and put them on your personal computer. I've had PacMan, Donkey Kong, etc. for a long while now, but only did a search for ones that didn't work before last night. Cyberball, Tron, Disks of Tron and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom will keep me occupied while the cats nap nearby on these cold winter days.

I'll endeavor to be creative, and finances will dictate if I can have my MechaWest pilot professionally read this month or next, but I feel good about where it's at. I may jump into another episode and outline the one that introduces Maggie.

If you happen to read this, and I'm not sure if anyone will in any case, but have a very happy holiday season, enjoy your time off from school, work, etc. and relish in family friends and other loved ones. I plan to do just that!

The Insomnia Caper

Woke up at two-thirty in the A.M. with "monkey mind" (you know, all the horrible thoughts that prevent you from going back to sleep. If you make it past 3:48 am, then you're golden, apparently). I went to bed early enough last night due to a headache and now I am fairly functional for my day job.


The blessing is that I finished a new scene for my "MechaWest" pilot in the wee hours this morning. I'm several drafts into this, and wasn't happy with the overall layout or getting to the gist of the adventure at hand. These several scenes help cut to the chase; my only fear is that they may be a bit too long. I'll let it marinate today and move on like I should.

Speaking of which, I am a writer. My only works displayed thus far on DA have been character commissions for the most part. I'm more than a little reluctant to post my drafts of MechaWest, being unfinished and all. I'd really like to find something worthy of display that I can truly call my own. Something in writing. Something.

Already getting ideas, but I have to make my lunch for today. Later!

Business casual doesn't cover it

Dreamed last night that I was going to speak to writers at the Robert McKee seminar. I made my way down into the auditorium and up on to the stage. I asked two audience members if there was anyone in charge; they didn’t know. I went to center stage and discovered two large wooden podiums and a table with food and water. I turned one of the podiums to suit my needs, and the doors in the wings burst open, revealing Robert McKee and his entourage marching right towards me.


“You,” began one of the minions. “Get off of the stage. And take that tie off!” I was indeed wearing a shirt and tie.

“I appreciate what you’re trying to do,” McKee began, “But you’ll have to leave now.”

Then I woke up.

At least I had clothes on, I suppose. That would have been embarrassing.

The truth will set you free

Nine years ago I attended Shakespeare & Company for a month-long intensive training program.  I had enjoyed performing Shakespeare in the past, and the magazine ad that I came across had promised a "connection" of sorts.  As it turns out, the six-day-a-week 14 hour days were exactly what I needed.  I was surrounded by artists that were looking for something, searching for meaning in what they doing.  Most of us had performed Shakespeare to one extent or another, but never this way before.  Absorbing the text and using breath and movement to really embody one of the greatest playwrights in the English language was not a pretentious self-serving exercise, but rather a way to touch the depths as he intended.  For four weeks we were eliminating the bullshit and affectation.  We got to what was true, as everything I felt that I performed before was a lie.  That was how powerful the training was.

I haven't been on stage in a long time.  I haven't auditioned or had the ambition to pursue much of anything in regards to live performance.  I wasn't reading plays.  I wasn't going to see plays.  I slowly but surely was past caring.  I wasn't being cast, and I wasn't doing what it took to be cast.  I was lost.

I wrote a screenplay as an artistic outlet.  I was convinced that it had merit, if not, just a little work.  A friend of mine savaged it, and it was the best artistic gift I had received in a long time.  I was shocked, but not insulted; I knew that his words had merit.  It was a real wake-up call.  I wrote dialogue with the intention that it would form my story and make cinema magic.  What I wrote was mediocre, at best.  I was reaching for something with the hopes that it would substitute for my acting career that ground to a halt.  It didn't, and wouldn't with the way I was going.   

My friend recommended that I read Story by Robert McKee.  I purchased it soon after, and devoured McKee's demands.  Like most other writers, I was writing from the "outside in", not the most effective way of "inside out".  A story told with no desire and artificial conflict was not a story; it was crap.  I was inspired to do better.  I knew that I could.

When Robert McKee himself was wrangled by an old pupil of his to come to my town for his four-day seminar, I had to go, despite the expense.  And that's what I did for the last four days.  Why not?  I worked it out previously with my new job and had the vacation time.  My new new creative endeavor deserved it.

It was inspiring, to say the least- punctual curmudgeon laying out what he thought was important to not just writing, but the art of telling a great story.  It enhanced my understanding of the book and energized my project again.  I felt like I could really do this, with insight and energy.

I brought my book, without realizing McKee would be willing to autograph them.  By Day 2 I had the courage to approach him at a break for his signature.  He was gracious, as he was with all of us.  I told him that his book was "a real slap in the face" for me.  He smiled obligingly while signing his name and catch phrase:

"Write the Truth".

The Freshest Kid in Town

The job is going well enough.  I've been at it a week and just learned how to add pre-approved exam questions for the Nursing Department.  A big weight off of my shoulders. 

It's nice to be relatively interactive with people again.  Despite not having the freedom to put on the headphones and zone out performing menial computer tasks, I like the faculty vibe.  Everyone so far has been very helpful with the variety of tasks that I've had to absorb this last week.  I'm sure that there's more to come, but I feel like I can tackle most everything handed out.

Next week, I have the Robert McKee Seminar.  It hasn't hit me yet, what with all the job and schedule changes, but I am excited to have four days devoted solely to writing.  I plan on looking again at Story to refamiliarize myself with content this weekend (apparently he loosely follows this book as a syllibus). 

I really want to have the energy to devote a bit more time to MechaWest.  I have the website, but no content.  I have the pilot, but no series.  I have the research, but no application.  It never seems like enough, even after a great day of writing and plotting.  When it happens, that is.  Seems like writers that I aspire to be like all have insomnia.  Never had it; probably never will.

In the immediate future, I'd like to:

1.  Get some renderings of Sadie and Maggie.
2.  (Continue to) plot out the series of 8 episodes
3.  Flesh out and outline episode 3 as a possible "pilot" (as it introduces my favorite character- Maggie).
4.  Get a good book on writing for television.