Day 47
Been busy of late. With the girlfriend on summer vacation from her teacher gig, we've been doing a lot of running around and seeing folks. Plus everyday living can make a guy busy enough.
We have a couple of road trips on tap for the next couple of weeks, or so. Given she's heading back to work in a few weeks, and I'm more free than I'll be until I finally sell something of significance so no longer have to daylight doing other stuff, we figured now was as good a time as any to get out and about. I'll start giving some serious thought to where I want to most apply myself in the work force once we're back.
Meanwhile, I entered the
Screenwriting Expo screenplay contest. I did alright with this screenplay a couple of years back, but didn't rank high enough to get the attention that higher-end stuff does from agencies and production houses. Then I tweaked it a bit last year and re-entered it, and didn't even do as well as I had the previous year. This year, I think I hit on something that will help make it more dramatic and notch up the tension at the climax.
Haven't yet finished the new screenplay I started recently, but the jury's still out on how much I should push myself to finish something like that which I've - at least for the time being - lost some interest in. One does one's best work when one's passionate about it, after all, so if I'm trying to do writing in part to get attention for myself, I don't know that
making myself do it (and thus, in theory not doing as well with it as I would if I
did feel passionate about it) is the best approach.
And of course, in the mean time I've come up with two totally new ideas (for me, anyway; not necessarily universally speaking) that - as you'll have guessed this far into the blog - appeal more than the screenplay I was working on anyway.
Oh, foul conundrum!
Day 27
Don't let the fact that I've been tending to make these entries farther and farther apart fool you: I'm still up to the same general busyness. My girlfriend - the teacher - is still in the process of moving classrooms at her school, so has to get all her stuff ready and moved over, then cleaned up, along with fixing up the new room (colours on the billboards, etc.) more to her tastes. It looks pretty cool, but it's a helluva lot of work.
After several days of helping her and being out of town to visit relatives, I finally came back and had some time to myself this afternoon. Spent entirely too long catching up with friends on email, but then finally got myself focused enough to get some writing done.
The problem I'm still having - such as it is - is an abundance of ideas. Which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it is when I'm trying to get one idea (like the screenplay I'm currently working on) done, and then other (newer, shinier) ideas pop into my head, and then I want to work on them, instead.
At which point I have the option of either leaving the current project in favour of starting on another one, which leaves the current project incomplete, or making myself sit down and finish it regardless of how appealing the newer ideas may be, which reduces the enjoyment I get from writing (making it more like work; like an effort instead of a joy) and likely winds up producing inferior work because my heart isn't in it any more.
So what's better: more completed work that may not be as good as it could be because I forced myself to finish it even after my passion for it had dwindled, or much less completed work in favour of much more started, all of which is likely of higher quality because I wrote it for as long as my genuine interest in it was maintained?
Not a huge concern, really, just something that's been bouncing around in my head for a while.
Meanwhile, still no jobs being sought. My girlfriend and I may take a road trip in the first week of August, in which case I'll start looking once we're back; looking at whatever it is I want to get into, which remains blissfully, largely unthought about and certainly undecided.
Day 16
Been doing a lot of running around the last few days. Good stuff, happily, but there hasn't been a lot of downtime happening.
Getting more work done on a script which I've got relatively complete in my head, just got to work out all the details and... y'know... words, and things. But as is my wont when I have some free time to write, I'm also torn as to specifically which thing I should work on. I'd like to get this script done (what with going to the Expo in October and currently not having anything new to pitch since the last time I was there two years ago), as well as others, but I've also got a kids' book series in mind that I think has real potential if I actually get down to it and start working on it seriously. And, as always, half a dozen other writing projects are vying for attention in my brain at the same time.
One of the things I've been considering half-seriously is starting up a comic book company. Not everyone's thing, of course, but I've liked them all my life, and the idea of founding a company that allows me to creatively write and make some money from it appeals. Not yet sure how it would work out with getting quality artists to actually draw the stuff for little or no money initially, but then I'm not sure it's worth actively pursuing in the first place, so I'm certainly not dwelling on the details.
Other things include two started books and an idea for another, but again, what I work on from day to day varies a lot depending on where my mind's at and other things.
Not much news on the more nominal job front thus far. Which should surprise no one, since I haven't bothered starting to look yet. A friend did mention that he knows a guy who used to work at a local small publication house and that he might be able to get me a slight edge if I wanted to do the same thing, but I don't know that it's what I want to do. It's working with writing, which at least gets a higher preference than (repetitive) graphic design, but given that it's not making a living from my own writing, it all sits a level lower than the ideal job.
No matter, really. Still got time to think about it. No need to rush into anything.
Day 10
So I was continuing work on a screenplay yesterday - one of the few I have in progress, but the one that seems most likely to actually be completed anytime soon - and decided I didn't like the way it was developing. I've since printed it out to go through it, keep anything that's good, hack out anything that isn't, and I got an idea pretty quickly that will help both fill it out a bit and add another dimension that will improve it, potentially significantly. It'll require a page 1 re-write, but as much work as that'll entail, it appeals much more than trying to cut and paste and keep everything in mind and try to make it all work that way. If I start off fresh with the new elements in mind and the hard copy to refer to in order to keep the worthwhile stuff, I have no doubt it'll flow much better than a cut and paste job would.
Got my severance this morning. My bank account's never looked so good. That, plus well on the way to getting another script done? Not a bad deal.
Day 7
I mentioned to my girlfriend last night that I'd likely start giving some thought today to what I wanted to do work-wise. Her response was that she wants me to focus on writing for a while, not worry about other work. This, even though she knows that it's only my getting another job that will get us into a house, which she really wants.
Have I mentioned my girlfriend is the best ever?
I'd post her picture here - maybe with a heart around it, or something equally as sappy - but doubtless she'd kick my ass for it, and far be it from me to ruin a good thing...
Day 6
Turns out the lawyer approach for the severance wasn't my bag. Managed to catch a movie, and had an overall enjoyable day. Tomorrow, I'll start giving some real thought to what I want to do with my part-time workin' self. I could always whore myself, if I didn't care about actually making any money...
Day 5
Finally, a day without
too much running around. Took a quick trip up to my grandfather's place and then headed out for lunch (to the awesome Bourbon Street Grill; a place near my "old" workplace that I guess I'll be seeing a lot less of now). I'm going to take part of tomorrow for myself, as well, and the other part a) looking for a lawyer to check over my severance package and ensure everything's kosher and b) taking a trip up to my "old" work and handing over some paperwork to HR as they requested. Might be a bit weird having to walk into the public entrance to the place and not just be able to walk back to HR and talk with them like I've been able to for so long.
If there's time, I'll take a look around for any job openings that pique my interest, but I imagine that'll more likely be a Tuesday thing. Said it before, and I'll say it again: it's a fantastic thing to even have that option.
