Writing is... well, it's writing

Hello everyone, and Happy Holidays. I hope the end of 2011 brings good memories of a well lived year. Mine was okay. I accomplished a few writing goals - an option, a few accolades from screenwriting festivals, and most recently the completion of a TV spec for the show Supernatural.

Will the script ever make it to the screen? Probably not. That's not the way TV spec writing works. Would it make a good episode? Well, I'm biased. But that's not the point. The point is that I wrote it after years of swearing to myself that I would never write something for TV.

Why, you ask, would I limit myself? Good question. Part of it most likely has to do with the desire to procrastinate instead of grapple with a challenge. I always believed the writing for TV would be hard. Too many fans hope their scripts will make the cut. Shows already have their writers, so staff is extra critical when they read your spec - IF they read your spec. Chances are they won't. If you're lucky to get someone to read it, it's for a show other than the show you wrote the spec for because, like I said - that's just the way the TV industry works. The rules for writing TV are a little bit odd.

But I'm proud of myself because I did it anyway. I wrote a Supernatural spec, and I think I did well. And now I feel excited at trying my hand at another. Maybe a comedy. Maybe another supernatural themed show. The point is that I was inspired to write it, and I followed through. And now I have another script to showcase my talent. Or at least I have another script to showcase my learning curve. It felt good to do it and to complete it in spite of the odds of it ever getting made. It felt good to overcome writer's procrastination.

Hopefully, the new year will see me continue to overcome writer's procrastination. I wish the same success to all my friends and family in their 2012 endeavors as well. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all!

The Holiday Season is Upon Us!

Thanksgiving is gone, Christmas is on the horizon and there are three weeks left to the Fall Semester. Library Acquisitions has been an interesting class, and I foresee a passing grade. The Schoharie has been updated, and I plan on pitching it and submitting it to competitions - after the Holidays.

Onward to a new project, and I think I've got one thanks to my friend Judith, who happens to be the moderator of our local Writer's Group. I don't want to divulge the details of the new script yet (I feel that strongly about the premise), but it was inspired by a writing exercise that Judith put us all through. I'd like to share the exercise with you in hopes of inspiring you to find a fresh story idea.

Basically, you do this:

1) Gather a list of all of the film genres you can think of, such as animation, romantic comedy, drama, horror, sci-fi, western, creature feature, mockumentary, gangster flick, chick flick, fantasy, thriller, supernatural thriller, sports pic, spy pic, military pic, buddy pic, period piece, musical, road picture, etc. etc. Gather as many as you can.

2) Randomly choose three genres off of the list. Pick them out of a hat if you have to, but make it as random as you can.

3) Brainstorm a movie idea based on the three genres you came up with.

The three genres that my team ended up with was a scifi/fantasy-gangster-chick flick. And we brainstormed a story idea from that. Now, I'm attempting to write it! And my son is so excited that he wants to attempt to animate it and post it on the web... Wish us luck, it's all in the preliminary stages, but it sounds like a fun project!

Happy Holidays to all, and keep writing!