Monday, November 08, 2004 The state of the screenplay Everyone have a nice break? Catch up on their reading, ignore NPR, ram headfirst into a nasty case of writer's block, continue running headfirst into said writer's block until collapsing into teary laughter at a Johnny Rockets in the Burbank mall? Just me then? Well, okay. The screenplay is not going well. The plot thread driving forward these last few pages -- and I'm serious about these being the last few pages, it'll only be ten or so more until the end -- is no longer working. It's unclear if it ever worked. So there needs to be some rethinking before I can move forward and at this point I'm so goddamn eager to move forward it kills me. Really, I'm just ready to be done with this so I can move onto other things. Many, many other things. I'm trying to decide if I should stop and take a break, or if I should plow forward as best I can. The screenplay is important, but it's not under deadline and my ability to write it decreases as my frustration increases. However, Halloween and the election have already thrown me off my rhythm too much -- I stand a better chance of making something out of the story if I stay on it for the full crappy first draft. At least I know what the problems are and what I can do to fix them. In my own way, of course. Last night, after my near-breakdown at the Johnny Rockets, I took the pink pseudo-ceramic doll that was in my bag for reasons that are a bit too complicated to go into. "And [I] piled upon the [doll], the sum of all the rage and hate felt by [my] whole race. If [my] chest had been a cannon, [I] would have shot [my] heart upon it." Since my chest is not a cannon, I instead tossed the doll from the third floor of the mall, watching with glee as it smashed onto the tile two floors below. I have no idea what the doll symbolized, but it felt good to watch it break. And then I saw The Incredibles. And it lived up to its name. Full media round-up later, I think. There are sidebar additions to make, even! | permalink blog • archives • photos • about • contact This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All content © 2004.