There Goes June...
Have I done anything with my 50,000 words since then? No, no I haven't. Which is a sad thing - I really should approach my most recent work and examine it for signs of life. I've been making at least token attempts to balance my life recently, and I have become aware that I have been neglecting the writing side of my personal equation. Even the one semi-regular outlet I have, this here blog, has undergone periods of neglect.
I know from experience that writing doesn't just "happen"; you need to create time and space for it. Wishing won't make it so. Now, I'll just point out here that I am haven't yet committed to a new regime where I can dedicate chunks of time to the literary arts, I have merely decided that I want to decide if I want to or not.
You can't call me indecisive, that's for sure. I think. Maybe.
Into the midst of this self-analysis of the State of the Garth (at least as it regards writing) fell quite the bombshell. Yesterday a seemingly innocent email arrived in my inbox, which immediately gave me pause. After completing NaNoWriMo last November, I rewarded myself by donating some cash to the good folks who organise it every year. The email yesterday was soliciting some more donations, but this time it wasn't for National Novel Writing Month. No, this was for something different.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you... Script Frenzy!
Now, this is just the teaser site, not the fully operational battle station version (to steal from Ryan who stole from Lucas). But here are the relevant details:
1) Write a script (for stage or screen) of at least 20,000 words in the month of June
2) Work alone or in teams of two; 20,000 words is still the goal in either case
3) Be awesome
June is a busy month for me, and probably for a lot of you. My June includes two inter-city footy matches, one weekend in Chicago, and a trip to Vegas to play in the WSOP. In addition, I've never written (or even attempted to write) a screenplay in my life. But in my bag I do have the screenplay for Reservoir Dogs (true), and I also have a book called "How To Write A Movie In 21 Days" (also true). Since I was carrying around these two books even before I received the email, I would seem to be in real danger of signing up for this thing.
(The other books in my bag? "Last Exit To Brooklyn", by Hubert Selby, and Phil Gordon's Little Green Book.)
I would also like to announce the first casualty of Script Frenzy, who has already cursed my name for telling her about it. Yes, Gracie is Patient Zero once again. Now I just have to work out if I am
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Hypothetically, if I was to sign up for this thing, can anyone suggest any good screenwriting software? The formatting alone will probably drive me bonkers. I was recently told about some Mac software that looked pretty juicy: Scrivener. I might grab that anyway, for general writing (not just Script Frenzy - if I indeed do it), but I'd love for some input if anyone has any.