Read blogs!

I love to read writers blogs. I think they are terribly entertaining and I learn some stuff too. Take today... I was reading a lovely blog by Ken Levine, which I truely enjoy reading. He was making a point about Hollywoods ability to take a well written peice of art and turning it into a droll, money making, disaster. The blog is here if you would like to read it. http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/

Anyway, I was reading the comments (which were also fabulous and funny) and one guy says: "So topical, so specific, so very amusing. On the other hand, though, as with the best satire (e.g. Jonathan Swift), your subtext is wonderfully vitriolic."

I was delighted by the word vitriolic. I wrote and said I had to know if the writer used a thesaurus to come up with vitriolic and said it was nicely done! Definitely a 10 cent word. Very soon after I got two responses that my vocabulary seriously needs work if I think vitriolic is a 10 center. Seriously!!

Okay, I admit, my vocabulary mainly consists of little gems like "poop" as in "please don't poop on the carpet." And "drawin'" as in "whose been drawin' on the walls?" It's been awhile since I carried on a conversation that would in anyway involve a word like vitriolic. Don't I wish! (But I am teaching my four year old the word as soon as I get done here!)

I live with my thesaurus and my dictionary, by my side. I love to find new words especially one's as juicy as vitriolic! By the way, for you morons, I mean mom's like myself, vitriolic means: "filled with or expressing extreme bitterness and hatred toward somebody or something".

Guess what, no matter what they say about me, I am not feeling in the least bit vitriolic towards any of the erudite writers who so blithely ridicule my inadequate vernacular.
Love me

damn dreams

I have been dreaming lately that I am losing my teeth. I know nobody wants to hear about anybody else’s dreams, but it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want. Read if you want…They are disturbing dreams where I can feel one loose tooth. When it falls out, I look and it is grossly decayed. When I look in the mirror I realize it wasn’t just one tooth, but all.

This morning when I got up, I couldn’t stand it anymore I had to know what the dreams meant. I have an old dream interpretation book that I immediately referenced. “If you lose your teeth, you will have burdens which will crush your pride and demolish your affairs.” “If they appear decayed and snaggled, your business or health will suffer from intense strains.” “Seeing all teeth drop out, death and famine usually will prevail. If the teeth are decayed and you pull them out, the same; only yourself is prominent in the case.”*

So there it is…I am dying.

Well, if I’m not dying its still really bad news. Can’t be good.

I am often curious about my dreams. I am a dreamer, I dream all the time. I dream when I am awake. I am often accused of not listening when someone is talking to me, that’s because I am dreaming. Right in front of you, while you are telling me something of great importance… By the way, I’m sorry about that.

I am also a believer of positive attraction. I am a pretty positive person. Although when I am not positive, I tend to be pretty dramatic about it. But wherein lies the subconscious when dealing with positive attraction? How am I supposed to attract positive, happy-pants ideas into my life when my subconscious is betraying me?

For Pete’s sake! It’s a bad dream!! I don’t like having it and I want it to go away!!

There, that’s said, now I am sure I can go on to dream about fluffy white sheep, grazing in fields of flowing golden wheat! RIGHT??

I guess we’ll see tonight.

*10,000 Dreams Interpreted by Gustavus Hindman Miller

Nailed it!

Worked on the SP all day. This time I think it's perfect. We'll see after payday when I can afford to buy some more criticism!! Ha! What a funny concept.

Rewrite Hell

I sent my screenplay in for coverage to an on-line screenwriters group called ScriptShark.com. Coverage is when a “reader” reads your script, gives it a logline and two page summary and then rates it. You get a comments section where they tell you what they really thought, and then a grid they fill out with the areas they think you need to work on. All of these fabulous prizes for the low, low price of $155.

So…here’s what I got. The first part is a pretty concise logline and summary. Then the comments section, which starts, “An often entertaining holiday story about Christmas, family, and the spirit of giving, this script has terrific potential in several different markets. Considering it’s scale and target audience, this concept would be ideal for a TV movie, particularly with Hallmark or ABC Family, but certainly has potential as a theatrical feature as well.” Nice huh??

He ends the comments section with… “Overall, the script has some trouble spots that require further development, but the concept is terrific, and certainly has potential. With deeper characterization, a more fully-realized second act, and higher stakes in Tiffany’s initial decision, this could be a first-rate family film.” WOW! Really?

Even though the middle of the comments is filled with little gems like, “The opening pages are flat, and fail to establish the setting or evoke the mood of the script’s locales.” And, “Much of the dialog rings false, particularly among the kids.” I still felt this was a pretty good assessment. Yeah for me.

But, then I got to the grid, portion. There are four categories they can rate you. Excellent, Solid, Needs Work, or Re-think. You would think with the above comments about the concept being “ideal” and saying flat out that the concept is “terrific” that I might rate an Excellent at least in those categories. Hmmmm…. Nope. I got 18 Needs Work, only 4 Solid’s (and one of those was on page count, please!) and 9 Re-think’s! Not a single Excellent among them. Bummer!!

Still though, someone read my script. Which is fabulous! They said some nice things and gave me some good ideas on improving it. All good. So what’s the problem now?

Yesterday, I tried to do a rewrite and encompass some of his ideas. Now I hate the damn thing! I feel like I have totally lost the overall feel and premise that I started with. At 3:00 yesterday after spending nearly the entire day on it. I gave up and walked away. Melanie, my four year old, and I went for a walk with the dog.

So, now what? This morning I woke up to an email from Jim Vine. A screenwriter in Hollywood, who has been extremely helpful, giving me some very simple advice. I think I need to re-outline the whole thing. Especially, Tiffany, my main character, with all of her challenges and who I really want her to be.

Then instead of going paragraph by paragraph trying to rewrite, I need to look at the whole thing. I have been trying to rework all the parts and the total concept kind of fell apart. Not good. I am back on track. I am going to lunch with my grandma today, and clearly I am procrastinating by writing this blog. But tonight when I get the kids to bed, I will try to read through the whole thing, and find my voice again.

You know what? It’s still really, REALLY FUN!!