I'M A WIENER!!! I'M A WIENER!!!

What a TERRIFIC day today has been!!!

First off, I woke up to groovy, pretty, stormy weather that didn't hurt anyone I know but just provided an exciting, invigorating vibe! :)

Always a cool way to wake up!

Then I finally got around to converting my The Cure CDs to mp3s, so I was able to drive to work with EXCELLENT music!

I got to work late. :(

But once at work, everything went smoothly -- which is particularly note-worthy because usually when there is severe weather, working at a TV station can get very complicated!

(This gets interesting, I promise. I'm just building up to the really cool parts...)

Then after my work was done, I got to chat some with My Genius Friend Dave, with whom Brian & I are writing a screenplay based on a joke he once made.

That was cool, because I simply told him of a type of character I'm trying to create for the dynamic of the story, and he gave me not only the character, but also created some very valuable backstory that makes the world of the movie a great deal richer and more interesting! :D

Then after he left and I was all alone at work, I was able to work on that script a bit, as well as an audio story that's fallen into my lap.

I didn't plan to work on either of these stories tonight; it just sort of happened and I got some valuable work done!

Also, there's a really cool thing that happened a couple of day ago, but I haven't blogged about it yet. So I'm going to arbitrarily cram it into here:

But a little background first...

At the beginning of this month I mentioned that I was reading Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies. That's a book by Blake Snyder, a screenwriter who has taken all the academia out of the screenplay development process and broken it down to a clear, streamlined process that amps up the both the entertainment value and the market value of your screenplay by, like, 100%.

What makes his approach so revolutionary is his approach to genre: Being a professional screenwriter, he doesn't think of movies in terms of "It's a sci-fi flick" or "It's a comedy" since these terms don't really tell you anything about what's really going on in the story. What he and his writer friends have come up with is alternative genres, such as "It's a Dude With A Problem flick" or "It's a Monster In The House movie". Even if you don't know exactly what elements go into the movie, you've got a much better idea what the story might be about!

It's AMAZING!

I read his second book first because the Barnes & Noble on my way to work had it, but they didn't have his first book -- Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need -- in stock. So I ordered it online and read the second book while I waited, hehe. :)

One of the cool tools he has created is a beat sheet: It's sort of a structural guide to breaking the story of your movie. (You can download a copy here...)

But the structure is set up for a feature-length story.

Because of the audio idea I've got (which I was thinking of doing as a series of 3 1-hour episodes that make up one long story) I got to wondering if maybe the beats could be condensed into an hour-long format. If so, this could be useful for writing more well-rounded episodes of TV shows, as well!

So, for my own purposes, I played around with the structure and found a way to -- I hoped -- successfully condense it from 120 pages to 60 pages, keeping the structure in place. (Meaning that you don't just cut the pages numbers in half, you also consider how long each section should play for, as well.)

But I wasn't sure if I had gotten it right, so I emailed Mr. Snyder to ask him what he thought. I was hoping that if I missed some important aspect of the structure he would point it out to me. (Assuming he had the time to reply at all... He's a working screenwriter, and he's also working on his 3rd Save the Cat! book, as well.)

I think it was the very next day that I got an email back from him, and he said I was -- and I quote -- "brilliant"!!! lol :D

Now, this is a guy who IS brilliant! I've read A LOT of books about screenwriting, by some really top-notch minds, and the majority of the work (though undeniably genius and valuable) always turns out (1) too theory-based to be practical for actually developing a story from the initial idea up, (2) overly simplified -- this is rare, but it occasionally is the case -- or (3) just plain impractical (in this category, I once read a book supposedly designed to help you write the "perfect" screenplay competition script, and "The Formula" the writer provided was just nonsense that looked good on paper, until you actually tried to apply your movie idea to it, lol). Snyder has found -- through experimentation in the industry, meaning that if his strategy worked he actually got a lot of money for the script he tried it in -- the perfect balance of theory and practical writing tools, so that a non-writer could follow his instructions and turn an idea for a movie into a 11-/120-page screenplay!

So to have him use that phrase in an email to me, and be pleased with the tinkering I did with his hard-earned work was kind of a thrill, hehe. :D

And I guess that fits in with this amazing day of mine because I got to tell My Genius Friend Dave last night at work, so I got to relive it again. :)

So now back to tonight...

I log onto ScriptFrenzy.org to see if they're gearing up to announce winners, and I'm greeted with this full-page YOU'RE A WINNER! message, providing me with banners I can put on my web pages (you'll notice the new Script Frenzy ticket thingy on my blog header) and a certificate I can print out and hang on a wall (which you can see at the top of this blog entry)!

And so I've had this really cool day, and I'm just about to head out the door and come home, when my phone rings...

6:00 am and my phone rings.

Who could be calling me this early? Especially on a Saturday morning!

IT'S MY GNOMEY-GODDESS!!! :D

She's at work (it's noon in the UK) and she had some down time, so she called me to give me some love and conversation! :D

What a sweetheart!!!

Lately we've been talking in the evning, about the time I wake up and she's headed to bed. So it was such an amazing surprise when she called me on my way out of work!

And with that, my day is complete, and I retire to blissful slumber. :)

I hope your day is full of wonderful, invigorating surprises!!!

Script Frenzy Week 3 -- 115 PAGES!!!

FADE the fuck OUT!!! :D

I wrote from around 6:00 pm until around 12:30 am AND I AM FINISHED!!! :D

YAY! YAY! WOO-HOO!!!

And I can't afford any alcohol to celebrate with. :(

But that's just as well... I didn't finish until after midnight anyway. (If you're reading this in some part of the world other than Texas, we have a curfew on when we can purchase alcoholic beverages, and the cut-off is midnight. Except Saturdays, then it's 1:00 am.)


So I not only made my page count, I also made my scene count...

A FULL 7 DAYS BEFORE THE DEADLINE!!!

:D

How bad-ass is THAT?!!

And now I'm DONE! FREE! I can work on ANYTHING I WANT TO!!!

But not tonight.

I've done a lot of writing tonight. I'm gonna watch Oprah & Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth class -- Chapter 8, which aired live last night -- then listen to some more Spooky Southcoast.

Then maybe some Monty Python.

I loaded my iPod up with HOURS of their albums! I've got, in order of release, Another Monty Python Record (1971), Monty Python's Previous Record (1972), Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973), Monty Python Live at the Theatre Royale, Drury Lane (1974), Monty Python's Contractual Obligation (1980) and Monty Python's The Final Rip Off (1988).

Plus, I've got a few soundtracks and Monty Python Sings, but those aren't loaded onto my iPod. (I'm more a fan of teh sketches, rather than the songs.)

What?

What are you looking at me like that for?

I'm not compulsive or anything! I'm just...

...obsessive, lol.

I've listened to all the Eddie Izzard and Fawlty Towers I can usefully listen to for a year or so, so I've gone back to the well, back to the inspiration for such silliness. :)

So when I sign off from here, I plan to nestle into my bed, set my iPod in its cradle, and give my eyes and fingers a complete rest for hours and hours and hours! :D

OH!

As promised...



TA-DAH!

The Frenzy Beard Update! :D

I don't know, it's kind of okay, right? I mean, it's scraggly, yeah. But it kind of looks like a real beard.

(Btw, that's my face before I started writing today. I had no idea whether I was going to continue writing, or how much I would accomplish. My face now is big and smiley and filled with pride and almost unbearable self-satisfaction, hehe.)

Here's the close-up...



It's still pretty patchy.

Like I've said, my hair is super-fine and thin. So I don't think I'm ever going to have a Harrison-Ford-in-The-Fugitive kind of beard.

Still, maybe it would do if I ever got famous and went through a fat-Jim-Morrison stage, lol. (I know, you're saying "Who are you to be joking about anyone's weigh, tubby?" lol)

And let's compare it to when I started Script Frenzy...



That's some decent growth.

But now that I've won the frenzy and finished my script, I think I'm gonna shave this shit off, lol!

It's kind of itchy.

Okay, enough writing for today!

PEACE, LOVE & HAPPINESS!!!

And LOVE to My Gnomey Goddess!!!

:D

Script Frenzy Week 3 - 83 Pages (and counting)

All right all you Writer groupies, you may begin tossing your undergarments at the stage! :D

Script frenzy has it's official page-validater 'bot up and running (before, it was just the honor system) and I am officially 17 pages away from the win!

And I may not even be finished yet...

See, I'm running into a rather interesting dilemma: When I outlined the screenplay, I was working with a sort of guess-timate about how many scenes it would take to fill up the script, and how long those scenes would run.

When I began writing the script, I discovered I could plow through the scenes at a pace of about 2 pages per scene, but they didn't really have much "flavor", if you will. They were just one moment moving into the next moment.

Not a great read.

So I gave myself license to write the scenes the length they wanted to be written, and I can always condense them later. Sometimes rewriting is a process of looking at a scene, seeing what's there that's good, seeing what's there that's not really necessary or interesting, then condensing the scene for greatest impact.

PLUS...

Writing long ensured that I would win Script Frenzy. Last year I plotted out a feature, then wrote it, and it came just shy of 90 pages. 90 pages is the shortest a screenplay can run and still be called a feature. Hollywood won't even read a spec script that's under 90 pages.

So I felt safer erring on the side of over-writing, rather than risk under-writing.

And now I'm ahead of my page count, but I'm behind on my scene count, lol.

See, one of my goals with this year's Script Frenzy was to finish this script. I want to win the Frenzy, yes... but I also assumed that by winning the Frenzy I would also be finishing the script.

And there's a fairly serious risk, now, of me winning the Frenzy, but still having another week or so of work before the script is finished.

And I've got projects that are dying to be written! For the first time since my early 20s, I can't write fast enough to keep up with my great ideas! (I'm not talking "decent" or "okay" ideas, I'm talking great ideas! Ideas I can't wait to write so that I can show people!)

And the thought of having to work even a week past April is kind of disheartening.

But I've made a deal with a friend who has really stuck with me since around November of last year, making sure that I stick to a writing schedule and actually get something finished.

So I can't, in good conscience, begin working on a new project until I've honored my obligation -- the obligation I begged my friend to keep me to -- to this story!

So...

Despite the fact that I've exceeded my page count for this week by 8 pages, it looks like I need to continue writing tomorrow, to try and catch up on my scene count. I'm 5 scenes behind where I should be.

The good news is that I might complete my Script Frenzy obligation by tomorrow, lol. The bad news is that when I go back to rewrite this thing, I may be hacking and slashing like Jason Voorhees and a certain notorious Friday.

But I'm DONE for tonight.

It's now 5:04 am, and I've been writing since just before 6:00 pm yesterday. (That's 11 hours of writing, folks.) I need to lay down and listen to some Spooky SouthCoast and give my poor, blessed fingers a REST!

Since it's been such a looooooooooooooong day, and since I may be writing tomorrow as well (and therefor revising this week's page count), I'm going to hold off on the Frenzy Beard update for now.

If you're really, actually interested in how thick my Frenzy Beard is (or is not) getting, check back late tomorrow night or Wednesday for the pics.

Meanwhile, have a FANATASTIC day!!! :D

What An AMAZING Day!!! :D

Guess who called me yesterday!!!

Okay, so I ended up going to be about 3 hours earlier than usual Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. No real reason, I just did. ("The day owed me nothing more," to borrow a phrase I once read.)

And, most likely as a result, I woke up WAY early.

My body still wanted to sleep, but for some reason, my consciousness wanted to be awake.

If that makes any sense...

Then I get a text message...

IT'S MY BABY TELLING ME THAT SHE'S GETTING OFF WORK IN HALF AN HOUR AND SHE'LL CALL ME!!! :D <3 <3 <3

Now I was completely awake! (It's been a while, you see, hehe.)

And sure enough, she called me and we chatted a bit while she waited for her ride, then she invited me to call her in a few hours so we could resume our conversation!

We have to have talked for a couple of hours in all! IT WAS WONDERFUL!!! :D

On the one hand, I would suggest that -- from a practical standpoint -- one not get romantically involved with someone from another another country unless you frequently visit that country, or she visits yours frequently...

On the other hand, IT SO DOESN'T MATTER! I mean, if she's the One, then she's the One and the pros WELL OUTWEIGH the cons, lol! :D

And my Gnomey-Goddess is DEFINITELY my "the One"!!!

Dude! I'm serious! When I talk to Gnomey, or even THINK of her, it's like sitting in the midst of a huge, immaculate garden! And the weather is always perfect, and everything around you is alive and in bloom and radiating a powerful energy that surrounds you and flows through you and nourishes you on more levels than you realize you have!!! :D

Poor thing, though, she's had SO MUCH going on! It's like this is one of those phases in her life (that we all experience, though perhaps not to this degree) where life just refuses to let up! If it's not one thing it's another, and if it's not one of those first two things it's this bizarre THIRD thing you couldn't possibly have expected!

But bless her, she's not only holding up under it all, she's still just as fun and funny and loving and lovable as ever!

I should get back to work. But I've been basking in our interactions all night and I had to share it before I exploded into heart-shaped, gooey, sunshine, lol!

:D

Script Frenzy Week 2 - 51 Pages

We're at the halfway point of Script Frenzy, and I'm just over halfway through
the required page-count! :)

I could have done more, probably reached the Week 3 page-count goal, but this weekend has been weird. I started off sick, and spent the last 3 days in bed. I was in and out of sleep, listening to paranormal podcasts. (Weird choice of listening material when you're ill, I know, but hey... It kept me occupied, lol.)

Actaully, I've fallen in love with one particular podcast: Spooky Southcoast!!! Tim Weisberg, Matt Costa and Science Adviser Matt Moniz rule the airwaves!!! :D

Spooky Southcoast is a radio broadcast that also uploads for a regular podcast, and if you're into paranormal topics, THIS is the podcast for you! Very fun, but they take the subjects they discuss seriously.

Listen to a few episodes (they run a couple hours long) and see if you're not addicted after just a couple!

I'm also into a podcast I discovered called Cult of UHF! It's simply B-Movies that you might have watched on a cable TV station some Sunday afternoon back in the '70s or '80s, lol. Growing up in Odessa, Texas, I never had a local channel that aired a Friday Night Fright Flick or a Sunday afternoon B-movie, but for some reason I adore the idea!!! I don't know what's up with me, but for some reason it's so much fun to fall asleep to a bad movie on my iPod, lol.

Plus, the portability of the Cult of UHF podcasts means that I can watch a bad B-movie where ever I go, hee-hee. :D For some reason, that appeals to me. :) (Which is slightly odd, because I've got plenty of really good movies on my iPod that I can watch. But there is some mysterious appeal to being able to watch a bad one that I'd never in a million years rent off Netflix, lol.)

Okay...

Week 2 of Script Frenzy...

Let's check in on the ol' Frenzy beard...



Please ignore the bed-head. I've been up since around 7:00 am and just haven't gotten around to doing my 'do.



I think you'll agree that getting started on the Frenzy beard a week early didn't really give me any advantage, lol. My facial fuzz just doesn't like to grow.

If I ever act in a flick where I need a full beard, I'll have to use a prosthetic, or maybe have the makeup guy give me a hand, lol.

Okay, back to bed and podcasts for me.

SHOUT OUT TO MY GNOMEY GODDESS: I LOVE YOU, BABY!!! :D I miss you and I hope you are well!!! :D <3 <3 <3

38 Pages!!! :D

My dental appointment was a bust this morning, and I flipped my sleeping schedule yesterday, staying up until 8:00 pm or so. So I was left with a whole day to fill.

So I wrote some more. :)

I visited the Script Frenzy site and checked in on how other participants were doing. I found one woman in Austin who had some 30 pages. (There's someone in Australia who has completed 127 pages already!)

So I figured I'd go ahead and get some more done on the script.

Up to 38 now!

38 and 1/2, to be precise.

And it's too soon to check in on the ol' Frenzy beard again, but I want to reveal just how big a geek I am...



I have NO interest in guns whatsoever, and weapons in general (save for lightsabers, phasers and other sci-fi fun). But this is a replica of LARA CROFT's gun!!! Her default dual pistols that she uses!



Check out the design on that thing! I particularly like the 3 jagged things on the bottom of the front of the barrel! Very wicked looking! :)



I don't know how long she's been sporting this model. This is the earliest videogame pic I can find, the her facial design suggests this is back during Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. I know she has them in Tomb Raider Legend because I spotted the replica gun some time ago, and then noticed it while playing the game.

In the promotional pics, you don't really get a good sideways shot of the gun, but you can tell by the barrel.



Also, I know Angelina Jolie uses them in the first movie, and I believe they're in the second movie, as well. (I might go back and check sometime, but not right now.)

So yeah, I'm a nerd, lol.

I only bought one, however. I'm a nerd, but I'm not that big a nerd, lol. ;P

Mom is coming by soon to take Brian & me out to dinner, then we're going to go see my pop's grave site. It's the 3rd anniversary of his passing.

So probably no more writing tonight. But I'm off tomorrow, so who knows! :)

Peace to all!!!

Think of someone you love, then tell them. As a favor to me. :)

29 PAGES for Week 1!!! :D

I'm so very excited! :D

I didn't do any writing since my last entry. In fact, I spent yesterday at work and most of this morning reading Save The Cat! Goes To The Movies instead of writing, as I probably should have done, lol.

It's a book with a very unique, straight-forward approach to developing a screenplay from a mere idea or concept, and I discovered it night before last via an interview with the author.

It's very illuminating! :)

But anyway...

So I have 7 pages done and I'm looking for 18 before Tuesday to keep up my quota, in order to win Script Frenzy this again tis year, and I found myself dozing off as I'm reading my new book, lol!

But I'm off for the next 3 days, so I decided "screw it" and I've been writing since 8:00 or 8:30 am. (It's just after 3:00 pm as I write this, hehe.)

Now, I've still got 3 more weeks to screw this up, so I'm not resting on my laurels... much, hehe. ;P

I have Family Stuff tomorrow, as well as a dental appointment. So I don't anticipate writing on Monday. But who knows what Tuesday will hold.

Or the rest of the week, for that matter.

Still... I feel triumphant right now, and Now is the only time we really have, right?

So...

YAY, ME!!! :D

Okay... Let's have a look at that Frenzy beard...



Maybe a little bit of growth there...

Let's have a closer look...




The mustache seems a shade darker, perhaps.

But there are these patches that just refuse to meet, lol.

Honestly, when I look in the bathroom mirror it looks a bit thicker, but I guess that's just the shadows from the bathroom lights. When I photograph it, it just looks like I need to wash my face, lol.

Okay, hope everyone reading this has a MAGICAL week, and I'll be back sometime around next Tuesday with an update on my Frenzy page-count.

7 Pages down, 16 to go before Wednesday :)

I probably should have more written by now, lol. I've been procrastinating a bit.

I didn't actually get ANY writing done Tuesday. No real reason... I just felt lazy.

I did watch Season 1 of Flight of the Conchords' HBO show. And some of JAWS. And yesterday I woke up early and, instead of writing, I watched JAWS 2.

Mom's in town! Brian & I did the Red Lobster thang with her Tuesday night. (I suppose that's part of my excuse for not writing Tuesday, but it's really just that: an excuse, lol.)

Ooh! And I had my first King Cake, too! Mom's adjusting quite well to life in Louisiana. She pronounces Mardi Gras (Mar-dee Grah in Texan) Mahdigrah, lol. And she discovered this tradition around Mahdigrah time about eating King Cakes. So she gave us, like, half of one so we could experience it. (It was too huge to be a slice, it had to be a half of the cake!)

Very tasty!

I was hoping I'd get the piece with the Baby Jesus inside, so I could be king for a day, but I didn't.

My sweet tooth was well satisfied, though! :)


And right now I should probably write a few more pages...

But I don't think I'm gonna, lol.

It's not that I'm overly tired or anything. But I spent an extra half hour at work writing, and just feel lazy again.

Should I be admitting this?