this machine will not communicate

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.

Have done some graphics challenges recently for tvrealm - such fun!


( The four elements of Community... )

( If Dana Scully and Dean Winchester had a baby... )

Whew, I made it through the month of May.  That was the fifth May since I started doing the annual screenplay contest/festival extravaganza, and I think it may have been the most work and the most stressful.  (The very first May, my last semester in grad school, may still take the cake, though, since I was doing all of that on top of my master's thesis.  That was right before most contests switched to online entries, and I will never forget finding out the post office closed at 4:30 instead of 5:00 like I thought, and having to literally sprint across campus to get my script postmarked on time.  And since it was May in Austin, it was totally like four thousand degrees that afternoon, too.)  I continued to do revisions after getting the thing done at the beginning of the month.  Then finally got my ass in gear to do the revisions on my TV pilot, which ended up entailing a lot more work and rewriting than I had originally guessed. 

So I finished all of that Tuesday the 29th.  The last major deadline was June the 1st.  Instead of just submitting and being done with it, I decided that since I had three days, that was totally enough time to bang out a Game of Thrones spec script.  (It wasn't.)  (I did it anyway.)  Then I got to work the kick-off summer reading weekend immediately following, and got a new project on my second job, and, and, and.  Well.  Let's just say that I'm still really fucking tired, pals. 

I'm finding myself still sort of not feeling the whole internet thing right now, though.  Not sure why.  I think some of it is that I've come to associate the internet with feelings of guilt over not writing and being productive; I'm sure that will sort itself out soon.

Um.  This post is really boring.  Have some icons!

Preview:

Picspams, icons and a gif under the cut.