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Writing is still going strong
I may not be blogging as I should, but I am still writing. Although the time has trickled down to about 20 minutes from the 2+ hours that was coming from the allotted 15 minutes. Progress is slow, but it is progress and it is nice to see the pages adding up. Tonight (or this morning) I can now say that the first VERY ROUGH draft of ‘Callaway’ the Civil War Alternate History in short script form is completed!
Monday was great in that we headed out to my ‘old’ regular writing spot – the Silver Diner in Merrifield. It is the opposite side of Washington DC from where we live now, but the staff know us, the ambiance isn’t bad and the writing habit is quite well ingrained.
Work is going amazingly well and hopefully I’ll have some great news to post.
Days #4 and #5
Still going strong although I need to get myself writing BEFORE 3 and 4am. It is 4:12 and I have to get up in the morning to get to work!!! However, I can say that I’ve put in my 15 minutes every day since my resolution (and Renee’s nag) to do so. In fact, I would say that on average I am spending more time than that and the pages are piling up! It is rather exciting to see. Granted, when I re-read them I think they’re garbage but…it is still pages.
Currently about half way through the Civil War/Modern Day Short Script.
Other than that the weekend has been relatively full. I missed out on going to the DC Podcaster Alliance meeting as Renee wasn’t feeling so great but managed to spend the time relatively productively. Most of it was spent working on her website which, special thanks to Lisa, web queen extraordinaire, is now up and running on the correct domain.
It has some nifty widgets and fun things such as a slide show and progress bars to show how far along you are on various projects. I have to chuckle about the fact that right now her progress bars are shaped like sheep. Yup! That’s right, I said sheep. Take a look for yourselves (www.NRBrown.com) .
And of course, the weekend is the time to catch up on podcasts for the upcoming week for Unleaded – Fuel for Writers the writing ‘cast. I am hoping that Jen (CVS’s fearless leader) will be able to provide talk for some podcasts in the next weeks but all of mine are recorded and ready to go. They promise to be really kind of fun. And as I’m quite far behind on Day in Washington – The Disability Policy Podcast I had to update it as well. Posts #14 and #15 were posted about an hour ago.
Whew! Makes me tired thinking about it. Now I just have to get up in the morning!
Day #3 – Time Passes But Not Success (So Far)
It may be I-can’t-believe-I’m-up in the morning, but I am here and have written for my allotted 15 mintes for Day #3. It isn’t easy, but it is happening. Almost missed it. Had to work late on a U.N. NGO statement and so didn’t get home until after 9pm. I lay on the couch and was dozing. Woke up around 5-ish in the morning and realized I needed to 1. WRITE my 15 minutes and 2. go to bed.
So here I am, more than 2 hours later after having completed my 15 minutes (which if you do the math was significantly longer than 15 minutes – Yay!) and now am desperately seeking my bed. Yawn!
Spent the time on a short script that moves between modern day and the Civil War time period. Right now it is concise, amusing, and doesn’t seem to require very many cast members. Because of the settings and secenes etc it actually might make a great web-based short or even “cell phone” short. But I’d like to put in a bit more length and move it from amusing to actually funny.
Tomorrow is the meeting of the local podcasting group which is hosting – “How to Promote Your Podcast” which I desperately need for Unleaded – Fuel for Writers Podcast.
On another positive note I also recently heard from someone who attended the Act One Program Weekend with me a few months ago, John Jones. He’s a director who puts out some pretty great stuff. You can check his work out at www.childmusicvideo.com.
So now, it is off to bed! Goodnight!
Critique Night and Day #2 of ’15 minutes a day’
Whew! Talk about red-faced. Tonight was critique night for me with the local writing group and unfortunately, I was 1. Late and 2. Had turned in a piece that had a LOT more errors than I anticipated and 3. had submitted the piece late. I was fortunate that the facilitator only politely remineded me of the rules rather than skinned me alive. Especially after I got home and just now went through the critiques. Electronically it looked okay, but on paper it is VERY clear to see where the margins and tabs are a MESS!
At this point though there is nothing I can do but make sure I’m better organized for next time. (It didn’t help that Renee and I fought about it on the ride home). However, for the first time in a long time I was reminded of why I participate in a group, especially this group.
I always would say, I’m not a writer, I just make sure I write down what people say. And tonight there was a plethora of not just advice, but in the kidding around afterwards with people riffing off of each other about the story, I now have about 6-7 FABULOUS ideas for additions to the story. It involves cheerleaders and naked men, old ladies, aliens and a feline criminal mastermind. It is now DEFINITELY going to run screaming away from the humorous to embrace the absurd. Only in a good way.
I haven’t quite found a good answer with regard to getting out of the office at a decent hour. Work has been very busy of late and on average I am not leaving the building until around 8pm. It is just something to work on but difficult to give up. I wanted a job where I could say I’m working to change the world, to make a difference. The thing to remember is that kind of job tends to be something of a time commitment.
Tonight is #2 for the ’15 minutes a day’ of writing and although it is late/early, I am eager to get to it. Hmm…maybe I just might make it until January.
And as a post script. We actually made it to the gym tonight. Yay!