I've been down this road before. I start with a great premise. Give my protagonist some querky characterisation and an intriguing layered inner need. Add some sub-plots and funny secondary characters. It all seems so perfect. I just need to get it down.
But everytime...and sadly this time is no exception...I find my story lost in the middle of Act 2. It has become so complicated or off track from the original story I was trying to tell that I have to step back...and perhaps start again.
It might be easier if I wasn't attracted to paranormal elements, complex time structure or epic sagas. But then these are the stories I love to read and watch.
Somehow I need to put that all aside and focus on a simple story. A classic three act structure.
And FINISH it. Submit it. Taste some success...or rejection. But I least I would be able to write THE END.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Sunday, May 20, 2007
In My Writing Nook
At the end of April, when I returned from my brother’s wedding in Mexico, my garden had burst from the ground. Green was everywhere. At least I presumed it was everywhere as I still had to clear away the dead stuff from last fall. Forget about writing my script due for reading on the following Monday. There was a garden to clear and it called to me every time I sat down.
There is something very satisfying about digging in the earth. Whether it’s fulfilling some primal need, or perhaps just the simplicity of clearing out of the old to let the new come through, for three hours I pulled, dug, raked and sweated.
From the curb, I surveyed my efforts. The tulips and daffodils were ready to bloom and with a couple of plants divisions and shifts my garden held all the promise I could hope for. Not bad considering the ‘Flower Massacre of 2005’ (another story for another time). The next week I dragged a friend with a COSTCO membership out to get some hanging baskets my mother had recommended. Then the out side trip to HOME DEPOT…and another $200…for the plants for the window baskets and misc other plants. Add one mother’s day of serious work and my garden is totally complete.
So today, I sit on my new IKEA garden table and chairs, pansies on the table, twinkle lights behind me. The birds are singing up a storm. My pet rabbit is stretched out in the raspberry bushes beside me.
Life seems incredibly perfect.
And I have no more excuses not to write.
There is something very satisfying about digging in the earth. Whether it’s fulfilling some primal need, or perhaps just the simplicity of clearing out of the old to let the new come through, for three hours I pulled, dug, raked and sweated.
From the curb, I surveyed my efforts. The tulips and daffodils were ready to bloom and with a couple of plants divisions and shifts my garden held all the promise I could hope for. Not bad considering the ‘Flower Massacre of 2005’ (another story for another time). The next week I dragged a friend with a COSTCO membership out to get some hanging baskets my mother had recommended. Then the out side trip to HOME DEPOT…and another $200…for the plants for the window baskets and misc other plants. Add one mother’s day of serious work and my garden is totally complete.
So today, I sit on my new IKEA garden table and chairs, pansies on the table, twinkle lights behind me. The birds are singing up a storm. My pet rabbit is stretched out in the raspberry bushes beside me.
Life seems incredibly perfect.
And I have no more excuses not to write.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
I Can't Wait
This afternoon my daughter auditioned for a roll in a TV series. A big roll. A secondary roll in a new show, shot out in the Rockies over a four month period and…and…and now I have to sit by the phone and wait for her agent to call. It could be two days, one week, never. I have no idea.
When I ask my daughter how the audition went I get, “Fine”. Goddamn it. I paid $15 bucks for parking I need better answers then “Fine”.
And this is when I realized how miserable I am at waiting. I mean, couldn’t they just give her a hint as she walked out the door. You’re not the look we wanted! You sucked! At least I could get on with my life. BTW my daughter is happily watching America’s Top Model and doing her homework. I am clearly suffering alone.
And I’m just coming out of another bad WAITING episode. My youngest had auditioned for our local arts school and made the first cut. Unfortunately the second audition coincided with a family wedding in Mexico that had been booked for over six months. After pleading to the artistic director for another opportunity he advised me “Not to worry. We don’t have a lot of choice with boys.” Which I quickly translated into, “He’s 90% in. We are just going through the motions.” I paced a trail from North York to the Mayan Rivera and back again waiting for the final decision from the school. When the envelop finally appeared in my mailbox it was to say he had NOT been accepted. Three months of waiting for no payoff.
Sigh. In four months my eldest will start sending off applications for university. And unless he pulls up his socks, it won’t be a case of ‘where’ he gets in but ‘if’. I think I’ll be a basket case by the end of that.
Perhaps there is a ten-step program I can join.
When I ask my daughter how the audition went I get, “Fine”. Goddamn it. I paid $15 bucks for parking I need better answers then “Fine”.
And this is when I realized how miserable I am at waiting. I mean, couldn’t they just give her a hint as she walked out the door. You’re not the look we wanted! You sucked! At least I could get on with my life. BTW my daughter is happily watching America’s Top Model and doing her homework. I am clearly suffering alone.
And I’m just coming out of another bad WAITING episode. My youngest had auditioned for our local arts school and made the first cut. Unfortunately the second audition coincided with a family wedding in Mexico that had been booked for over six months. After pleading to the artistic director for another opportunity he advised me “Not to worry. We don’t have a lot of choice with boys.” Which I quickly translated into, “He’s 90% in. We are just going through the motions.” I paced a trail from North York to the Mayan Rivera and back again waiting for the final decision from the school. When the envelop finally appeared in my mailbox it was to say he had NOT been accepted. Three months of waiting for no payoff.
Sigh. In four months my eldest will start sending off applications for university. And unless he pulls up his socks, it won’t be a case of ‘where’ he gets in but ‘if’. I think I’ll be a basket case by the end of that.
Perhaps there is a ten-step program I can join.
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