April 5, 2010
Today’s episode of Writing in Public brings us to the dance studio, which doesn’t really count because I write here all the time. Twice a week I bring my 11-year-old god-daughter to her ballet class, and despite the on-the-hour chaos when classes change, and the ongoing background piano accompaniment (HEAvy on the DOWNbeat), I get a lot of writing done here.
Let’s face it, I often get more writing done when I’m not at home. There’s just so much more writing-avoidance readily available at home. There’s the laundry, which always seems to be in a giant mound no matter how recently I did it. There’s the refrigerator. Unfortunately, the phone follows me where ever I go, as does the e-mail. But I do find it much more embarrassing to sit for hours playing Mahjong Towers Eternity (which was a free download from a coupon on a Borders receipt!) when people might actually see what I am doing. Writing in Public does keep my nose to the grindstone.
Unfortunately, my writing process often includes taking naps. I haven’t figured out how to do that in public yet. Not without getting my computer, phone and purse stolen, at least. And there are those times when you just sit and stare at the screen.
Nothing’s coming.
Anything now?
Nope, nothing.
La-da.
Wonder how Mahjong Towers Eternity is doing without me?
April 6, 2010
Which brings me to the downside of writing in public: deadlines. Not like “this is when you have to turn in the draft” kind of deadlines, but “dance class is over you have to stop now” deadlines. Or in today’s case, the “library parking is only free for two hours” deadline.
Yup, today I’m at the library, which is not really writing in public either, and all the other people with laptops really are writing, or researching, or doing homework. Nobody comes to the library just to look cool. (In fact, I’m sitting across from a woman with neon orange earplugs in her ears, you can’t get less cool than that.) Also, I’m at the Beverly Hills library today, so there are no homeless people taking naps here, either.
I didn’t get much written yesterday at the dance studio because I was, in fact, editing and re-writing the post from the day before. And today I’m not going to write very much because I do have to work on the screenplay (and I’ve only got 1½ hours left in free library parking).
I just came from a meeting with one of my personal goddesses of screenwriting. I’ve got two screenplays in progress at the moment--a big, commercial, four-quadrant comedy, and a little, terrifying, indie thriller. She was giving me notes on the little indie, and as always, she was dead on.
So today, I’m going to take advantage of the peace and quiet of the libes and actually go to work. The only question is, will I be disciplined and work on the big commercial story that is going to pay the mortgage (I hope), or do I follow my heart and work on the dark, twisted, psycho story that I'm going to have to direct myself and pay for with credit cards? Hmmmmmmm . . .
