CAN'T GET ENOUGH KEVIN SMITH!!!

I just finished 6 of his blog entries! Which catches me up to early May. When I got hooked on his blog I decided to go back to his first one and catch up to Present Day, so if he makes a reference to someone or something I don't know about, I know it's just part of his life I'm not privy to -- you know, rather than feeling that desperate need to go back and re-read everything to see if I missed something.

So I'm laughing along, digging on Smith's honesty and frankness, and then I hit this entry that MOVES ME!!! If you're reading this p.o.s. blog you have the time to click over and check out his! He's in Canada with his wife, getting ready for his first co-starring role in someone else's movie (he had to audition for the role and everything) and he's driving around, checking out the city, and he just goes into this flashback to his filmschool days AND MAN!

Seriously, tears welling up and everything!

http://silentbobspeaks.com/?m=20050508

This guy knows how to write! He knows what humans are, what makes us human. You know? He seesm to get -- either intuitively or intellectually -- that by just digging around in his own psyche he's also allowing us to sort of explore the dusty old trunk in the attic of our own personalities, our own desires and accomplishments and regrets and joys.

Anyway...

I am a reading/writing mofo right now!!! Last night I finished 5 pages of Ezekiel Hollow!!! Than then I printed them out -- it's nice to feel them in my hands, to read the words off a page -- and it turned out to be 16 and a half pages!!! (I write on just that old-school WordPad program, the one you can't even find on Windows XP anymore, and it doesn't have a page-break option, so when I number the pages they always turn out to be a little more that what the Print Preview option suggests.)

Dude, 17 pages!!! I'm about 10 pages from being done with Episode 1!!!

Then the night before, of course, I went on my Snicket binge.

But the night before that I read the first 2 chapter of --------, and took extensive notes. Like, REALLY extensive notes! I surprised myself with the insight I was getting into the piece!!!

Oh, and -------- is the non-name of a project Tommy, Brian and I are working on adapting on spec (which is the WORST way to try to do a project -- for any possible aspiring writers who might, on the off-off-off chance be reading this), but it's the ONLY option we have if we have ANY shot at actually doing it. So like the Crazy Folk we are, we're doing it. (We've got this take that no one else can invision, that I honestly believe makes us the right people for this project!!!)

And the first part of adapting source material is to familiarize yourself with it. So I'm re-reading it. Slowly, but thoroughly.

And it's working out nicely!!! I have to -- HAVE TO -- takes these breaks during projects. I can bust out 5 pages of Ezekiel Hollow, for example, in one night, but then I've got nothing for another 3 days. No matter how hard I try, I can only come up with crap (if ANYTHING AT ALL) for the next 3 days or so -- until my creativity has a chance to reboot and get back on track. And so in that interum, all I'm good for is entertaining my imagination in whatever ways it's in the mood for.

Before we started working on --------, that has meant Douglas Adams's work, Tomb Raider (the games) some comics, some metaphysical reading and Homestar Runner.

But now, I can give a night to source material research, piss a night away (the games and books and stuff), and then be ready for more pages.

Now, that's a rough approximation of the way my creativity seems to be working at present. I've only read the first 2 chapters of -------- so far, and I just happened to get some writing done last night. I don't have an actual schedule, per se. I just sort of go with the ebb and flow: When I feel it, I move on it. But I get bored really, really easily; and luckily the way I ENJOY alleviating boredom is through creative pursuits!!! (I'm either feeding the imagination or putting it to work. That's a party in my world!)