…I did nothing, at least in terms of writing.  Well, not ACTUAL writing.  But I did do a little reading.

On a whim, and partially because he died about a month ago, I bought Blake Snyder’s SAVE THE CAT!  I kept hearing how great it was, so I bit the bullet and got it.

I’m about 50-some pages into it.  He’s talked about loglines, titles, audience and cost and types of stories.  My take?  Meh.  Nothing I haven’t heard before.  I’ll keep going until the end, but I’m glad I didn’t pay full price.  As I’ve said before, and as I will say many times again, I know I don’t know everything, but I do okay.

-There’s a script-review sight I’ve been enjoying.  I think it’s called ScriptShadow.  From what I can gather, he gets spec scripts that are if not optioned, at least represented (a strike against me).  He discusses what works, what doesn’t, the characters, etc. Then he rates them on a sort of 1-5 scale, 1 being awful and 5 being genius.  Most of them seem to fall in the 2-3 range.  But he recently ran a review of one he gave the first 5 to.  A dark fantasy that seems to combine film noir with Victorian whimsy and Lord of the Rings.  It’s from ’05.  The writer has since gone on to at least a few high-profile projects.  The reviewer could not stop raving about how incredible he thought it was.

It would be nice to think I could have somebody react to one of my scripts that way.

Someday.

I’ve been really bad about posting.  I realize that.  Part of the problem, as pointed out to me by my lovely K, is I usually post at night, and sometimes that’s not easy or possible.  I work in the morning, try to work on the story in the afternoon and go through the process of dinner and getting V ready for bed before having a handful of minutes to possibly watch whatever Netflix we have in the house or get ready for tomorrow, followed by going to bed.

Can you see where the problem lies?

So, starting this week, which will include 4 out of 5 days of doing the midday shift, I’ll try to post BEFORE the evening process.

Unfortunately, not much in terms of updates to report.  I’m still planning to go to LA in mid-September.  Potential meetings have yet to be developed, but there’s Manager Guy and maybe two entertainment attorneys.  Wish Almost-Agent Lady was still around.  That would be nice.  But it would seem she has skipped town without a forwarding address.

‘Round these parts, the outline is just about done, but I’m still very concerned/worried about whether or not I can make it funny.  At the rate I’m going, I hope to have at least 1-2 actual drafts done by year’s end.

But I’ve also been seriously considering joining up with a new writing group, or at least investigating it.  While I like the two people I’ve been meeting with for the past two years, I feel like I can’t really get any more benefit out of it.  In all the years I’ve known them, she hasn’t finished a script and he is ALWAYS going back to rewrite his, which seems to never end.

So this other group is by a guy who writes for Salon and he holds a writing group at his house out by the ocean on Tuesday evenings and Saturday afternoons.  I almost joined up last year, but he charges for people to take part, and that just didn’t jibe with our financial situation.  But I still get emails from him on various subjects.

The next round starts in September, so we’ll see how that works out.

What’s also been interesting is posting my progress as part of my Facebook status.  Lots of my friends seem to be very interested in it.  Curious to know who will want to read it when it’s done/ready.

This is Saturday night.  I’ll do my best to have something up Monday afternoon.

Promise.