Sneaking in Some Work

On the first real day of college football, I'm sneaking in a little work before settling in for what should a great night of football.

A lot of stuff moving forward, but nothing major yet, hopefully there will be some news soon. Still tweaking some stuff and crunching ideas. It's that calm before the storm, I know the rest of the year will be big in some way, so this must be that quiet time.

Did just pick up a new drive to use to finish the special anniversary edition of "3 Days.." on. Just when I started and really got some of the extras ready, I ran out of space!!! I hate when that happens. Over the next day or so, I'll transfer stuff to the new drive and work on the project some more.

I'm also going to put together my director reel so I have something up that shows a little bit of everything that I've done over the years.

Out and About Again!

For the first time in what seems like forever, I am out and about!

Over the last several days, I had been battling some kind of virus/flu and I think I've finally licked it. I wouldn't say I'm 100%, but I am definitely strong enough to get up and get out of the house for a little while and what better way to celebrate than to do a little work at my favorite mobile office! Now this particular one is not my fav of favs, but it's a solid one and truth be told one of the things I love about Starbucks is that for the most part I can get my Extra Hot Grande Mocha in Maryland, Tennessee, California or Boston and it's always going to taste the same. Some days that's all you want... that familiar aroma, taste and comfort.

So even though I've been under the weather, it hasn't completely stopped me from working. I'm still trying to get my spec script read and still trying to get my new feature script read. I'm keeping my head up on both fronts and hope that someone will take a chance to at least read something.

I've also started to work on some other scripts, some that I've had and a couple that are new. One of the other projects may take over at some point, but for right now I'm bouncing around getting a little done on a lot.

So that's the latest update, hopefully I'll have some more for you later in the week, but until then... time to get hacking away!

On The Road Again...

On the road again at my new mobile office hang out, Mayorga Cafe. It's a rainy day outside, but some times those are the best to get work done.

After getting my new spec script registered with the WGA, I sent out a couple of query letters and have received a couple of responses already! Nothing major, one to record me reading the script on tape and then sending it to this particular agent so they can listen to it. (Does anyone still use cassette tape?) And then in typical Hollywood fashion, one shot me down right away, well they didn't even want to read the letter or listen or my logline for the script because they don't want to be perceived as stealing an idea. (Can you tell this one was a big Hollywood agency?)

Just once I'd like one of these agents or producers to at least read something of mine and THEN say oh it's no go, "thanks but no thanks" or better yet, "Hey we like your script when can we take a meeting and sign you up."

The hard part about writing a spec script is you put in time working on something for someone else. Today I'm going to tweak the script a bit and tighten it up, but this time may all go for not, because no one may even read it.

Instead of looking at it as doing it for no one else to see, I look at it as working on my skills. One of the things I've read over and over in books and interviews is no matter what, you HAVE to keep writing and I do believe that. Readers of this blog know my take on the writing process and I don't believe in forcing yourself to write everyday, but I do believe in the theory you have to keep working on your craft and you have to keep putting something to paper or in the modern day world, ideas to computer-computer to printer. The more you can write, the more styles you try, the better you can become and that's all I'm really trying to do, is get better.

So time to warm up my coffee, settle in for awhile and hack away!

An Exercise In Writing

One of the things I hate about apartment life living is that from time to time you have to do things you don't normally like to do in order for them to fix or work on things. That was the case this morning as the apartment complex had to have it's annual gas inspection, so that meant no hot water from 9am to 3pm, so if you wanted to take any kind of a shower that meant up early because I had to get a workout in first and then I could get a shower in before 9am.

So after the workout and shower I decided to go grab something to eat and write at yet a different place today, this time Panera Bread. Again, not one of my favorite places to write, but something different and I need something different right now.

While at Panera I decided to do something I haven't done in a long time and that's write a spec script. Not only did I decide to write one, but I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't leave until I finished. Well not only did I finish, but this draft actually turned out to be a pretty good one.

I won't say the show right now because I am going to continue to work on it a bit and even try to get it read, but it's a half hour cable show I've watched a lot and know the characters. Still writing for someone else is always a tough thing to do and that in the end is why I think I went down this path today more than anything. If I am going to be a better writer, get signed or picked up by an agent, I want to be versatile and have the ability to do a lot of things so this was a step in honing in on those skills. We'll see how it ends up, but no matter what the fact that I was able to sit down and hammer out a decent script is a pretty good accomplishment for a Monday with no hot water!