Writey writey

Happy Thursday. You may not know it, but a common element in my speech pattern is to refer to something with a repeated diminutive of a verb that represents it. There are variations of this, like, it doesn't have to be diminutive. Sometimes it doesn't have to be repeated. Like Rick Deckerd's "eye glitter glitter" or Sylar's "cutty finger power."

Rick Deckerd is from BLADERUNNER which I saw for the second time last night because I had to do a presentation on it today for Sci-Fi class. I still didn't like it. And I feel utterly justified in my judgment because after my presentation we had "someone from The Industry" (in this case Bill Marsilii, co-writer of DEJA VU) talk about it as well, and he ripped it apart. In fact, he cites the poor quality of the script as the reason he took his first screenwriting course because he knew he could write better than that. He's a really cool guy and maybe I'll get his contact info and hit him up for some advice.

Screenwriting has suddenly become my most favorite class ever. Nothing about it has changed, it's exactly the same it's been all semester. But I feel like I'm getting so much out of lately, and I wish I could keep taking classes like that. All the other classes are blah or unpleasant, but this one I'm really digging. I think it might have something to do with me wanting to be a screenwriter.

So I've been working on "Mad Scientists," my superhero anthology, in my little black notebook that I take with me to places like chapel and work. I've had this story mapped out since the end of summer, but I've had no time to dedicate it to print. But I'm loving that I let it, what's the word, age? in my mind, like a food item that needs to sit in a dark cellar for years before it's properly edible. This, I'm told, is a necessary part of writing, and let me tell you, it's something I've been doing since I started writing. It's just that most of the time things get stuck in there and I never write them, or forget about them before I have the chance to really develop them.

But lately, in these moments that I have, I flip open my notebook and the story just falls in there. Not perfectly, of course. Usually quite clumsily and embarrassingly. But I've come to realize this, too, is an appropriate thing, called by Dr. Parham's friend the "vomit draft." Just get it out. Fix it later. Editing and rewriting are new to me, but also necessary. I'm learning.

And also outlining. Since I've rarely written anything with plot progression before, outlining seems unwieldy to me. I don't know what to do with them, or even how to do one. But they're so important! They're like the physical representation of what you've already thought out. And then when it's done, you just write the details and DUDE you're done. In my purple notebook I've been outlining the pilot for DREAMERS, and that's been going along great. Great in that I've been thinking and developing and vomiting out an outline and realizing what's working and what's not.

And it was while thinking about the outline (before Megan said, "just write it!!!" I was complaining about how hard it was to think about) that I realized something special. I just love writing. I think I tend to forget that when the going gets tough, when the outline gets stuck or when I feel stupid and uncreative and boring. But sometimes I can take a step back and understand that there exists something I absolutely love, and no matter whether I'm any good or not, just the fact that I love it makes me so happy. I don't know that many writers, but I wish I did. I don't know how normal people spend their thought-time, but I spend it writing, and I'm so glad for it. It's those times that I notice that I love what I'm doing that I can really appreciate the field I'm going into, the opportunities I've had to learn about it and study it and execute it. Wow, I think I'm really not making any sense here, but the gist of it is, I love writing and there's nothing that can ever stop me from doing it.

Unless maybe I go blind and lose my hands.

The point is, it's not even a matter of career. If I get a job writing, then I'll be getting paid for doing something I love. If I don't get a job writing, I can still write. It's not like I love space exploration and can only do that once every five years or whatever. It's not like I love something impossible or limited like that. What I love I can do no matter what, and getting trained in order to make money off of it? That's just a lovely lovely bonus.

In other news, I'm thinking that if my creativity keeps it up, and I can find some good editors that wouldn't mind giving serious critique to it, I'd like to turn "Chaos Watch" into a book. Now that I've said it out loud it'll never happen. But I've got many good years ahead of me in which to continue writing all these stories that I actually have planned. Planning them is the biggest step, because then you have something to write, when you get the chance. I have the entire Bade/Code Master story planned! They have several plot-oriented adventures! It's so possible that I could churn them all out and then polish them for publication. I think that's a good long-term goal.

Also, writing short films and entering them into contests. I'll have two by the time I graduate, so that's a start. That, and I should start on some spec scripts for shows I love, for fun and for profit. (For practice and sending in to networks)

So forgive me for rambling about writing, but this is my life. And these last few hectic weeks of school may be Now, but they are fleeting and soon I will be in Life and all this whimsical writing stuff will become so much more important than this crunch time ever was. Or, I hate this crunch time and I wish it were already over. Either way, I love writing, and you can't take that away from me.

-Steph