How It Works

I don't know.

I wish I knew how it worked. But I know when it feels right and when it feels done. I know when I'm on the right track.

I mentioned yesterday that I was writing a story incorporating something about Chemtrails.

Mister Anchovy commented that he too is writing, a "novel of all things". Oh I wanted to write a novel. I have tried many many times...and each time, it ends as a poem. Not that there is anything wrong with a poem...but when you intend to write a novel it's a bit of a ...well I can't say its a let down. Its funnier than that because I can laugh about it. So...I have a fair shitload of poems...that were all originally intended, as I set to write, as novels.

But....I really like writing scripts. I have worked on what I thought was one long script for about 8 years. It turned out to be the ideas for three separate scripts. I have an awfully difficult time writing something as long as a feature length script. The longest script I had written in the past few years was 45 minutes. I made a film once from a script that translated into 25 minutes. I used to make experimental films. I didn't even know what they meant. But sometime in the 1990's I decided quite seriously and with great enthusiasm to write a narrative with a beginning middle and end. I landed up making four short films of varying lengths from 5 minutes to 25 minutes. Not bad. Some of them even made sense and engaged the odd viewer. But...an average feature length script is about 120 pages.

This past week I suddenly saw my entire story...more or less within a grid laid out. No a story long enough to be complete and a somewhat potentially interesting feature length story. Stagg was out busking and I had just read a recent news story. And all of a sudden I saw the pattern among my characters. I had been stuck on them already in a relationship... and I suddenly realized...no they meet near the beginning of the movie. It was like everything opened up. And I've been hiding in the bedroom at odd times of the day obsessing and writing.

What happened? I don't know. Because I have already got pages of dialogue and already had some major aspects of the script written. I had main characters and a lot of the plot. But I had blanks. These blanks don't feel as intimidating as they did four months ago.

What happened? Well...oddly enough, I think part of my brain was able to process because I had cleared out the bedroom in a massive organizational project last month. I had taken all our storage that was under the bed, of archived paintings...and put them in the basement storage unit.

Our bedroom became instantly more comfortable and cleared out...I think I had a bit more room to think...never mind the massive amounts of dust bunnies we cleared out from all the archived paintings. I always write just about everything in bed. So I think just quite simply, the bedroom is more comfortable to spend time in.

I wish I could talk in detail about this script. I'm very much excited tying it up this weekend. maybe it might even be nextdoor to be complete. I am not a prolific worker in painting or writing...and this sense I have right now is terribly rewarding. it's major personal accomplishment for me.

What I can tell you about the script is it is a little bit funny, a little bit of a love story and involves ideas and there is a bit of criminal activity.

I'm not going away for the weekend with Stagg and his buddy Jim to Summerfest etc as we had planned because...I feel it's so unusual for me to feel so comfortable writing and get a total vision...I better stay locked in the bedroom writing while the muse is visiting. She can be a fickle lady...but she is keeping me company right now and I'd better make her a cup of tea...

Besides Stagg and his buddy can have man-time and do some serious male bonding...while I have a date with this muse...and have pillow fights...