taking five for Christmas...

I was able to get about thirty minutes to write today.

I'm ready for the holidays to be over.

*deep breath*

Not really, but I'm tired. Too many cookies and too much Christmas shopping.

I'm elated for tomorrow. Sleep, relax, watch AMC's White Christmas TV marathon.

I'll be back and ready to rock on Monday, December 28th.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

slicing up a feature into many shorts...

Like every other screenwriter in the world, I struggle with maintaining a dramatic story throughout an entire feature length script. I typically start off really strong, then have some "stuff" happen in the middle with maybe a few highlights, and then finish back strong again.

I've mentioned more than once before that I feel more confident while writing shorts, because I can imagine the entire story in my head at once. So, in an attempt to maintain my sanity and writing self-worth, with the Superhero script I've been completely laboring with over the last few weeks, I'm going to break it into short scripts.

For example, I'm going to chart my outline in pieces, so that when I sit down to write, my mind is only on a fifteen to twenty page story. Where does my character start and where does he end in each piece, and what's the most dramatic and interesting way for them to get there?

It feels so much more manageable when I think about it in this way and I'm actually excited to work on this story again.

Oscar scripts / Avatar / Brittany Murphy

I came across a site today that has collected a bunch of this past year's Oscar contending screenplays. Production companies such as Weinstein Co., Sony Pictures Classics, Focus Features, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Overture Films and Universal Pictures have offered up their top scripts from this year for free download.

I know that most of the reason companies let these loose is to try and help build buzz for Oscar consideration, but I think it's awesome for aspiring screenwriters. Having access to the best produced work of the year is invaluable.

Even amongst the craziness of the upcoming holidays, I'm looking forward to fitting time to read a few of these before the New Year.

The following scripts are available:

Inglourious Basterds
Nine
The Road
A Single Man
An Education
Broken Embraces
Moon
Sugar
The Last Station
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
The White Ribbon
The Damned United
A Serious Man
Coraline
9
Sin Nombre
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Informant!
Precious
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Sunshine Cleaning
Public Enemies
Funny People

Visit Rope of Silicon to download the scripts.
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Who saw Avatar this weekend? I was able to go on Friday night. It was awesome to have the feeling that going to a movie was an "event" again.

I thoroughly enjoyed the flick. There are some cringe-worthy dialogue moments, but overall the story (similar to Dances With Wolves) and characters were entertaining. My wife absolutely loved Sigourney Weaver's introduction.

Oh, and the Avatar characters looked absolutely incredible. The animal creatures and flying equipment still looked a little animated, but the special effects crew that worked on this film did one hell of a job.
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Finally, RIP to Brittany Murphy who was only 32 when she passed away from a heart attack over the weekend. As my wife can vouch, I've got Clueless nearly memorized, and have probably reenacted the "rolling with the homies" move a hundred times.

thankful Friday... 12/18

Somewhat of a frustrating week in terms of the quality of my work, but it's time to move on and think about all of the positive things going on right now.

+ this afternoon I'm going to read a produced script and get spend some time on my own
+ will probably be able to catch at least two movies in the theater this weekend
+ am going to be able to get enough sleep for two nights in a row
+ the sun is actually shining today
+ had a music review published on thahiphop.com
+ I get another chance to write something better next week

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Eureka! Pour me a glass!

Great news! Go Into The Story released an article today on the beneficial results of drinking wine on writing. Borrowing from Scott Myers' article, entitled "Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work," the great writer Mark Twain once said, "Write drunk. Edit sober."

Yes, he's a genius.

I got into a conversation this morning with a friend about how I'm about a 95% left brain user and how it's challenging for me at times (read: at ALL times) when I'm developing story to not constantly keep my brain on structure, formatting, and hitting the story "beats."

A glass of wine in my system, however, and I relax. I stop stressing about whether or not I spelled something correctly, and start allowing my imagination to do it's thing.

Mark Twain told me to drink wine to write well. Who am I to argue?

In all seriousness, though, I would rather be the worst writer in the world than drink wine for breakfast and become an alcoholic. But I still like the article, cause I can relate to the way the brain fights being creative at times. Being able to turn the left side of my brain off is key to me coming up with my best ideas.

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My latest music review is up on Tha Hip Hop. This time I get to cover one of my favorite albums of 2009, Danny!'s "Where Is Danny?"

If you're a hip-hop fan, check it out. If not, still check it out cause you might like it. He has one song dedicated to his love for breakfast, for God's sake.

curse my Type A personality...

Most artists are not Type A. They sleep until noon, aren't internally driven to be productive, but when it comes to producing amazing work, they seem to come up with things with incredible ease.

I work completely different. In school, I did well in math. Give me the assignment, show me the way to do it, and I won't relax until it's knocked out. In English, I would be so focused on spelling, grammar, and making sure I follow the five-paragraph format without giving much attention to creative content.

Writing with a Type A personality is difficult. I'm constantly battling myself. I assign myself a number of pages to complete, and then I'm so stressed about getting them done, they end up being crap. I can't just relax and let things come to me, because I'm too impatient and I'll feel lazy.

So I try to combat the Type A curse by balancing it; allow myself to organize my goals, but make my to-do's realistic in regards to the up and downs that are routine when doing something creative.

Behind my desk is a bulletin board containing organized information on all of the projects I'm working on, including their current status and the next steps necessary for each.

It's color coded, by the way.

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This post was motivated after I was unable to complete an entry in time for Julie Gray's "Christmas Single-Scene Contest." The contest ended three days ago and it's still eating at me.

the golden globe writing nominees

Today the 67th Annual Golden Globe nominees were announced. This is about the time when my wife and I frantically figure out how we're going to see the nominated films, because it gives us a heads up on who the Oscar nominees will be.

But other than that, my attention immediately goes to the screenplay award.

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Thatchell - District 9
Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker
Nancy Meyers - It's Complicated
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner - Up In The Air
Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds

I've only seen two out of the five (District 9 & The Hurt Locker, both I loved), so I have some work to do. Inglourious Basterds is first on my Netflix queue (though I'm a little nervous to watch it), and I still have time to catch Up In The Air and It's Complicated in theaters.

The nomination for It's Complicated is really going to make me go see it in theaters. And after seeing the most recent trailer on which Meryl Streep actually says, "Turns out I'm a bit of a slut," I will be there most likely on Christmas day when it releases to watch it.

I love movies.

all I want to do is write, damn it

Writing has been put on the back-burner lately, which just as if not getting my daily workout in or when my digestive system is wacked, causes me to be a little moody.

I woke up determined this morning to get my writing time in.

To make it a priority, I packed up the laptop and headed to the coffee shop. Therefore, that stuff in my apartment, such as presents that need to be wrapped, bills that need to be paid, and the ants that need to be killed won't be tugging on my mind.

Successfully claiming a parking spot after a fifteen minute search, I was about halfway through the quarter-mile walk to the coffee shop, when trying to dodge a biker, my laptop bag strap slipped from my shoulder, sending my bag into one of the remaining puddles from yesterday's storm.

But I wouldn't be stopped! With the computer seemingly okay, I returned on my hike, successfully passing a homeless guy attempting to seduce me with his sweet talk (who was actually pretty charming), and eventually made it to the shop.

After explaining my highly-complicated order of black coffee three times to the distracted barista, I snatched my drink and found a seat.

And despite the two screaming kids currently playing a hellava game of hopscotch directly in front of my table, my laptop is open and I have nothing but writing to do. So, with my my head down and my iPod on nearly full-volume...

I WILL get some writing in today.

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EDIT: And in today's typical fashion, another bump in the writing road. The distracted barista just came up to me and told me they're closing in an hour for a private party.

thankful Friday... 12/11

This week has been a blur. After coming back from New York on Tuesday, I feel like I'm still recovering and flying by the seat of my skinny jeans.

Nevertheless, there are things to be thankful for this week. In no particular order:

* Now ~95% finished with Christmas shopping, and haven't had to venture to the dreaded mall.
* Had an incredible 30th birthday. Wife, friend, running, cupcakes, movie. Had I consumed any wine, it would have been completely picturesque.
* There are about nine leftover cupcakes in the kitchen right now with my name on them.
* The book I'm reading right now, Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched The World, though not overly stimulating to the brain, is pretty damn cute.
* Unless someone puts a gun to my head and makes me, I'll never have to sit and watch The Road ever again.

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Have yet to hear anything back on Kid In The Front Row's contest. Also, I haven't started on the single-scene for Julie Gray's Just Effing contest that's due Sunday, but as soon as I'm finished with this post, I'm packing up to head to Starbucks to work on it.

29 years and 365 days...

As of today, I am 29 years and 365 days old.

Ah, screw it. I can say it. Today is my 30th birthday.

I don't feel old. I mean... I get stiff when I sit for long periods and I find myself complaining about obnoxious teenagers, but other than that, I'm feeling good.

I'm married to a gorgeous woman, have beautiful friends and a supporting family, and am following my passion to write.

Being at this point in my life kind of rocks. You get to this stage and you finally don't give a crap about the things that seemed so important before. It doesn't matter anymore if people judge you. Around this time, for me anyway, you finally become comfortable being yourself. I wake up in the morning now only thinking about being around people that I love and doing what makes me happy.

The thirty years were filled with insecurities and some disappointments, but they were all a necessary part of the journey to finally find my groove.

Like Dwayne, the skinny emo teenager in Little Miss Sunshine puts so eloquently, "Do what you love. F*ck the rest." At thirty, I finally feel like I'm doing that.

And hey... I'm not too old to wear my Snoopy shirt, right?