What Have I Been Up To in the Last Two Months?

[kungfuwaynewho]

In my last LJ post, I said I had started a new screenplay but it wouldn't be done in time for anything.  And that was true - I haven't written a single page since then, actually.  It's dead in the water at 30 or so pages; I'll have to sit down, actually write a fucking outline, and think about it.

But I did write a completely new, different screenplay!  I started like May 3, finished like May 30, just in time to submit to Austin Film Festival.  It was a comedy - I've never written a comedy before.  I didn't have an outline, a synopsis, even a log-line.  I just sat down one day and started writing.  On the whole, even if it's not the best thing I've ever written (and it's definitely not), it was just such a fun experience for a change, to have an idea and just go with it.  And it was heartening that I knew how to write a movie without having to actually write out all the technical framework first.  So quite fun.

Community was canceled.  I started watching in the beginning of S2, so I missed that first "will it be canceled or renewed?" crisis, but every season after that, I lived it.  S2, S3, S4, each time I was sure this was it, it was finished.  And then it would get renewed!  This year was the first time that I had been confident in renewal - the numbers were good, Sean Saves the World and The MJF Show tanked, #sixseasonsandamovie, etc.  I wasn't even worried!  And then.  And then...  So yeah, that was pretty devastating.  For the next two weeks, I would remember "Community got canceled" at the most random times and would literally get sad.

More work on the basement.  Closets framed in, sump pump framed in, a couple more walls.  We found a desk someone had put out for trash that just needs one drawer to be fixed up, new hardware, and a fresh coat of paint, so that's sitting in our basement waiting for my next big Project Day.

We also put in a garden!  It's doing really well so far, though I think we haven't harvested anything yet.  But having a yard feels more legit when there's a garden in it.

Community was renewed!  So I read the news, then I texted my friend, "YAHOO has picked up Community.  YAHOO.  Is this real?  It this a thing that is happening?  YAHOO."  Seriously, I had to read like three articles before I was convinced it was real and wasn't a prank or something.  I'm very excited, obviously, and glad to hear the budget will be the same; after my initial swoon of joy, I worried it would be all cheap and low-rent and such.  I know a lot of people have been disappointed with the show's last couple seasons (I mean, seriously, S4 was not good at all, really), but I wasn't ready for it to be over, and S5 was such a comeback, and like.  I'm happy.  :D

Worked a lot on The Orphan Queen.  I'm over 200,000 words now, and a lot of the random little details I stuck in here and there are finally paying off, which is so satisfying.  I guess you could say I do the George R.R. Martin style of writing when it comes to this novel, in that I plant a lot of things to sort of see what happens later on, knowing the rough end goal but not having a strict outline as such beyond that.  So when disparate threads come together, there's this wonderful click that just can't be recreated.  (Of course, that also means I sometimes go back and weed out things that didn't pan out, like some random love triangle-ish subplot runner that went nowhere.  But even that can be fun!)  It's turned into such a monstrously long novel, I just write and write and write and I make progress, of course, but the idea of ever finishing it seems very unattainable.

Someone plagiarized a wallpaper of mine.  That means I've made it in fandom, right?  They apologized and took their posts down, which is the best-case scenario, I guess, but it was still pretty frustrating, especially since I think they still don't quite understand why I was upset over the whole thing.  (Sadly, my overall reaction to the whole thing was being kind of sad that I don't really do graphics anymore.  I need to get back into that thing, even if it's just random icons here and there.)

I also had a falling out with some friends, but that kind of thing warrants a post of its own, I think, so suffice it to say I haven't been as social as usual.  I'm okay with how things have ultimately turned out, but that doesn't mean I'm sad when I think, "oh, normally I would ask so-and-so to come over, but that's not happening now, welp."  Such is life.

Comments

[sallycandance.livejournal.com]

Exactly; such things can wait until the writing process is done.