A process

Here's the thing I've slowly learned about writing. It's a process.

It doesn't just happen, it takes time and deliberate effort. It takes thought and planning and intention. It takes dedication and determination. And I'm not just talking about term papers or newspaper articles. I'm talking about every kind of writing from blogs to reports to letters to grandma to poems to screenplays. Writing is a process.

I've been working on my next screenplay for a few weeks now. I got the idea a few months ago and let it roll around in my head before bringing it to the light of day. I honestly cannot remember where I got the idea. Anyway, I finally decided to take it out for a test run. So one night when I was driving my friend Marc home from class, which I do every Wednesday night, I ran it by him. He told me if he was a studio exec he'd by it on the title alone. (And this is why you're not getting the title out of me, not yet anyway!) We talked and I was encouraged, and thankful for his opinions.

Then I had to pitch an idea to my section class a few weeks ago so I pitched this idea. And the response was, well, very good. I immediately got suggestions of old movies to watch, of how to proceed, even of jokes I could use. (We had quite the tangent going!) Again, I was encouraged.

As I've spent the last two weeks rewriting and editing my first script, Love and Embalming Fluid, this new idea has been running through my brain. I've got a few pages down but haven't had the time to do much else with it. And then I got an assignment from my new section teacher, who I haven't formally met yet, to create two five-minute pitches for our first class. And I got nervous. I started thinking, what if it sucks, what if it's a dumb idea and these people, these people who've become my friends over the last twenty-plus weeks, my writing family, were just being nice and humoring me.

So I thought some more and decided, no, it's a good idea (this thought was especially cemented after seeing I Love You, Man this weekend and some of the previews of upcoming movies, mine is not that far out there, trust me), in truth, it's a really good idea.

And yet I put off my homework for the last two weeks. Certainly not the thinking part of it, every night when I lay down I see scenes from this movie in my head or think of what I'll write for this or that scenario (I am so excited about one of the golf scenes, you do not know!). But the homework's due tonight so I finally made the decision to get it down on paper. And I did, I wrote the opening, of how we'll meet the main character. But you know what? I didn't actually come up with the idea, which is so great, Angela did. Yep. Angela.

See I tend to talk about my writing and my characters like they're real people, because to me, they are. I live with them, with them in my head, me in their heads, for months, years sometimes. Seriously. Some of the characters I am still working on have been around for nine, ten years. Just hanging out in my brain. (And this is why I cannot remember names very well or anything to do with numbers. I get a pass right? I mean I have all these people taking up space in my brain. It's just not possible to keep everything straight.) And if you live with me, then you're bound to hear about them. You're also bound to be forced into reading page after page, rewrite after rewrite and be subjected to questions like, "where exactly did you chuckle?" or "does the handkerchief make sense?"

Now let me back up a few years. I've had this idea for a film scene in my head for a while. A long while. It's this really cool shot of golf carts forming a kind of parade, filmed from up above. I've known what the scene will be and how it'll look forever. Seriously. This is the kind of stuff that fills up my phone number brain cells. And since I live with Angela, she knows this scene well too. We've been talking about my new script this weekend a little, casting choices, etc. All that very important stuff to consider when you don't even have an outline yet. And last night she had a brainstorm. She came up with a great opening scene for my new script that incorporates my main character and this scene I've had in my head.

So yeah, I'm excited. I finally wrote it up today after stewing on it and I'll see how it goes over tonight. Either way I'm thrilled because the new screenplay is starting to form. It's a process but such a fun, collaborative, creative process. And I'm the architect who's getting the ball rolling!