The Sometimes Blues

Whoops. Time flies, eh?

Generally the end to that sentence would be "when you're having fun", but since I've been having a somewhat difficult time lately, I wouldn't really say that's the reason why so much time has passed since my last update.

I've been really busy.

I suppose for now, I will update you on where I am in my curriculum and my personal writing. So what am I writing right now? I've just finished my first draft of my Spec Script. My next post will probably be about Spec Scripts, so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, stay tuned. It's not due until Wednesday, so I have some time to go over it again before it's due, just to tidy it up a little.

Due tomorrow night at 10pm is the first draft of my first act of my feature length film. I've just finished a step-outline for the whole thing, and I'm having the unfortunate experience of hating it more and more as I flesh it would. Ironically, the more I write, the more I like the characters, but the more I hate the plot.

I'm not really sure what to do about it. At this stage of the game, I could still do a complete overhaul. I'm kind of thinking of just going with it for now, but over the winter break really sitting down and thinking about it. I could still scrap the whole thing and go with something different. My teacher for this class, SB, is wonderful. She's very supportive but still knows what she's talking about - she tore my first draft of my short film into pieces and rightly so.

I skipped last Monday's class (due to a sudden, serious case of those blues I was mentioning earlier) and therefore have no idea if anything is due. I need to refine some scenes I wrote for last week's class, because I'm sure that I will have to have them performed to the class, which will be embarassing at best and mortifyingly awful at worst. I really wish we didn't have to have EVERYTHING performed to the class. I understand the need to hear our dialogue aloud, but why not break us into groups, have us read the pieces to one another and then discuss what worked and what didn't?

The problem with doing it in front of the class is that you:

a) Waste time and,
b) Don't get the in-depth discussion you do with smaller groups.

Having everyone perform to everyone would make sense if she needed to hear every piece. Indeed, were she to give good, constructive criticism on each piece, I would not mind much. Instead she gives a cookie-cutter review to every person, rendering her viewings of the performances relatively pointless.

 Finally, I will give mention to the sheer amount of drama happening in my scriptwriting class right now. We all take the same courses, so we see each other a minimum of four days a week, and usually hang out after class. Writers, being a dramatic sort do have propensity to create drama where normally there would be none, so think of inter-class affairs and dramatize that, and you have my class.

I am, of course, not involved. This is largely for three reasons. The first is that I have a boyfriend and am very happy with him and am therefore exempt from any silly relationship drama in the class. The second is that I love drama, but only if I'm observing. I am very very seldomly involved in drama myself. The final reason is that I am "rarely there" because I usually only hang out with the group once a week (being that I work and have chores like groceries and laundry to do). For me, once a week is normal. For everyone else? I'm the person who never shows up.

Foolish Goals

So it's that time of year again. November!

Now, I'm used to November being a time of writing - it's NaNoWriMo in November, and I attempt (and usually fail) it every year. I succeeded only one year - 2009 - when I had no job and was doing very little in school.

50,000 words is pretty substantial, and given the facts that I:
a) Am in school
b) Have a job
c) Do volunteer work
d) Live away from my parents and therefore have to be a responsible adult sometimes
e) Have a lot of other shit to write

I should not be doing NaNo.

Plus the fact that it's the fifth (already?!). I am going to attempt to write some more of my novel. Now, I'm thinking I'm not going to be able to write 50,000 words. What I'm aiming for is to get my current novel up to a total of 50,000. It's at 32,000 right now.

I should be able to write 18,000 words in a month, right? Surely? Maybe?

We'll see.

If anyone else is doing NaNoWriMo and wants to add me to their buddy list, I'm awordatatime on there as well!

Are you doing NaNo? What kind of story are you writing?