An Attitude of Gratitude

Part of me is in serious rebellion at the thought of sitting down to write a blog post. I’ve been logging some serious writing hours this weekend and now part of my brain is asking for the night off. But the part that is obviously in control, given that I am in fact writing this is all jazzy bright and sparkly and full of satisfaction at the weekend’s literary accomplishments and excited about tackling the next thing on the towering pile of stories. Besides, this blog is about my life as a writer so since I actually did some writing, it behooves me to share all what went on.

I got my Director’s Notes done for The Lobby and off on time. Also a little email back and forth with the Producer. Though be on notice that as the relationship is quite suddenly a big pile of something unexpected, and as yet undefined, his nickname is in transition.  Haven’t settled on where it is all going and where it will land, and The Producer suddenly sounds  bit grand and formal. From the flow of brief yet energetic emails over a holiday weekend, I’m thinking so far we are on the same page, since we both seemed quite delighted to interrupt our weekend to talk about stuff that is “work” to most people. Might have seemed a bit pretentious to friends and family looking on, but we don’t care. Not currently living in the same city it is crucial to our level of trust to keep communication a priority. We have a phone meeting tomorrow night so it will be a good reality check for both of us.

I also met a self imposed deadline getting my series proposal to my Mentor for her feedback. Don’t think I’m not watching my email icon for the tell-tale bounce as I’m writing this. I’m living in abject terror at her response, not only because Sci-fi is not necessarily her thing but a series proposal is a bit amorphous in structure, they include whatever you include, not like there are tons of examples posted. The thing has been a bit of an albatross and sitting down to work on it was like walking through a field of thistles. But I did it, and I got somewhere with it but man the pain of it.  Even if she hates it I’ve got to move it out the door by month’s end. I’ve got two half baked features on the go, one in the oven and one more that needs to rise fully into an outline by next weekend. Not to mention a new series idea and an original TV spec to crank out.

Oh, and did I mention the long full day today as a story editor? Happy to say we are at the top of the hill and about to take the sleigh ride into Act iii, and I think all the characters are set up nicely to hit their respective crisis’s . But wow are features a lot of work. Started the book “Writing the Action-Adventure Film” by Neill D. Hicks and even though I’ve only read the intro I am already a big fan.  I cranked a lot of words and creative thought this weekend but nothing near as good as this – “Professional screenwriting is not an uninhibited emotional scrawl. It is a disciplined outpouring of the soul, where the writer keeps constant watch over the veins and mortised junctions that turn the puzzle into a flawless array of imagery arousing the audience.”

And so, finally, we come to my title theme – attitude of gratitude. I am so grateful for having learned so much and to be standing at a place where I can view the infinite starfield of so much more to know. Having people I care about to share stories with and craft stories for; grateful for the freedom to discover my voice, at last. Now, to my guitar, grateful at day’s end to turn off the thoughts and words, and just feel the music.