The Screenwriting Bug

As most writers do, I spend a big part of my days lifting my cat up to the ceiling so he can catch bugs. Today as I was providing crane services I started wondering, how often does one writer do this for another? Lift him up, I mean, not feed him bugs.

Are we a selfish, jealous bunch that try to hoard all the money and glory for ourselves and shut out the others? There are plenty of industries where this is the norm. Do we turn a blind eye when we see a talented writer and happen to know someone looking for just that style?

I have looked within myself and without for the answers, and I say no, we're not like that. Over and over, I see screenwriters extending a hand, showing the way, and patting a down writer on the back. I see the ones who have made it who then turn around and take the time to write blogs with writing and business tips, go to festivals, answer questions, genuinely try to help because they remember vividly the struggle. I see this willingness to help all up and down the ladder, the ones on top, in the middle, and down here at the bottom where I live. I see the generosity in the universities amongst the student writers and professors and all over the internet. These are people who make nary a dime from giving advice and help, but they do it anyway. Do we do these things just because it's another forum for writing or is a writer inherently helpful?

A screenwriter has to be spiritual and inward-looking in some way and to some degree. I think they help because they love the way it feels.

So lift up another writer. There are enough tasty bugs up there for all of us.

Uncle Sam and Don and Gee Nicholl

What do they have in common? Most people wait until the last freaking minute to send them their paperwork and money.

Did you get your taxes in on time? Were you one of the thousands lined up 'til all hours at the post office? Did the Dominos delivery guy bring your supper to you in the line that snaked out into the street? I would sneer at you, but since I'll be one of those taking corners on two wheels to get to the post office on May 1 for the Nicholl Fellowship, I guess I can't. But on the other hand, the Nicholl is not required of all Americans. I got my taxes in early this month and even received my state refund already. Nanny nanny boo boo.

The Nicholl Fellowship. Say these words around any screenwriter and watch their eyes glisten. I've never entered before, but I will this year. Come hell or high water, half-written screenplays with jam on them stuffed into Wal-Mart sacks, I'll be entering this year. It's the run for the roses.

If you would like to join this mad dash, here's their site: http://www.oscars.org/awards/nicholl/index.html. The competition is fierce, but if you can even reach semi-finals, it's a pretty feather for your cap and your query letter.

Stand Up for Your Movie

You know what I hate? Snobs. Movie snobs. You know why? Because they try to use their pretend hatred of certain movies or certain genres and their embracing of certain others as sure signs of their own sophistication and intelligence. You know what this reminds me of? When you buy a great outfit and somebody says to you, "Hey that's a great outfit," and you say, "Thank you," as if you made the effin' thing yourself. This is simply a person trying to portray to society that their tastes are a sure sign of their so being above the riff-raff that they shouldn't even be forced to live on this bourgeois planet we riff-raff like to call Earth in our lowlife kinda way.

I watched Pretty in Pink today. I've seen it before, but I watched it again today on DVD, paying particular attention to the commentary. Some people want nothing to do with the commentary and consider it a waste, but it's really a great way to step into the shoes of the people who wrote and made the movie, find out what they were shooting for, how they felt about it, take a look around through their eyes. It was inspiring. I already liked the movie before, but I had a new, deeper appreciation afterward. It's a love story. Nothing more. They were not trying to make something historically breathtaking or something to shake the foundations. They were just trying to tell a love story. Love stories are great and are needed and ... loved. Despite what the critics say.

So when everybody else around you is following the popular herd like beaten sheep because they are scared poopless to say, "I liked Lady in the Water," and be thought of as stupid and tasteless, stand right on up and declare what you love, what moved you, which scenes you thought were so excruciatingly human and real, what made you laugh. That's what a movie is for.

Lazy or Busy?

I really need to get back to writing. I mean, even my blog is lagging behind, and it only requires a couple paragraphs every week or so. I could use the excuse that I've been so focused on finding a job, and I have, but it's not completely true. I mean, nobody can search for a job 10 or 12 hours a day. There're going to be a few minutes at least here and there.

As for the job hunting, I did get a job back in the same building that I used to work in two years ago. It is part-time right now, but they assure me it will become full-time. I have to say, other than the less money part, part-time is sweeeet. But then again, even more of a guilt trip because I should be using that not-working time each day to revise and write.

The thing is, talking on here usually gets me going again. I don't know why. Sort of self-therapy. I talk to myself, and of course to you, and I get the thoughts out there and that makes them a real thing, a spur, a spiky little monster that will not let up until I get writing again. Sometimes the monsters are good for you. And sometimes you kinda like 'em.