Monday, April 20, 2009

So much for New Year's resolutions. This year didn't begin even remotely the way I would expect. Since I last blogged, the three women script has continued to force its way into my conscious thought on a regular basis. I'm reading, thinking, writing. There is so much to cram into 120 pages and at the same time, there's so much more I don't know about these women. Meanwhile, my life outside my writing has become more chaotic than it has ever been in my life. Family needs have come before writing and I've slowed the pace down.

In in the past couple of months I've arrived at the realization that this is not about an audience. I have to understand these characters before I'll write a script that I will be satisfied with, and if that makes me self-indulgent, then so be it. The script will build on these women and I want to understand all about them - their wants, desires, thoughts. How they are similar and dissimilar. What their secrets are. I have begun to accept that this is taking longer than I wanted it to. I wanted to crank the script out, but the universe has something to teach me, apparently.

I am getting to know these woman as I would someone I spent time with on a daily basis. At first I tried to set a deadline for myself, and I won't be happy if I do that with this work. I tend to love the journey more than the destination, so it's always easy for me to abandon deadlines, but this time it feels different. As I blogged a couple of months ago, this script feels different than anything I've ever written before. For one thing, even if I can't write, I am turning things over in my head about this script on a daily basis. It's a learning experience on so many levels, which is fine, because right now I don't depend on my writing for my income. If I did depend on my writing for my livelihood, I'd certainly be writing a hell of a lot faster and employing the "done is better than good" theory.