As the shelter-in-place continues, I hope you and yours are staying safe and healthy.

I also hope you’re managing to be at least somewhat productive during these trying times. When all of this started, my initial thoughts were “Woo-hoo! I’m going to get SO MUCH writing done!”

Yeah, no.

I’m fortunate enough to be able to work from home, but there’s also all that standard around-the-house-type stuff that needs doing, so while Writing Time is a thing, it’s just not as abundant as originally hoped.

Not that I haven’t been making progress.

-Working on the rewrite of the horror-comedy has been a real eye-opener, especially on the comedy side. Looking back at some older scripts, my idea of comedy was mostly slapstick situations and characters making clever comments. With this one, I’m forcing myself to use those less and focus more on developing funny scenarios that work within the context of the story.

-After something like two, two and a half years of jotting down ideas for it, I finally decided to start mapping out the story for an animated concept. It’s still in the early stages, but I managed to nail down the plot points – including an out-of-the-blue idea for one of the main storylines that feels perfect AND really ramps up the conflict.

-Blew the proverbial dust off some notes for an older sci-fi project in need of a rewrite. Some of the comments made quite an impression, so I’ve been squeezing in some work on applying them to the story – along with some significant changes to give it a thorough overhaul. Still some work to go, but it’s a good starting point.

-Honestly, not much attention has been given to the sci-fi adventure, but it’s still on the latest version of the WIP list.

All in all, hoping to have at least two, maybe three of these as ready-to-go drafts by the end of the year.

Another bonus of working on all these newer projects is re-experiencing the joy and excitement of writing. It’s one thing to go back and do the umpteenth draft of the script you’ve been working for a long time, and definitely another to create new pages for an idea that for the most part is just seeing the light of day.

I tolerate the necessity of the former, but fully embrace the thrill and exhilaration of the latter.

Even better – when they’re ready to go, I can contact my stable of savvy readers and be able to start off with “New script. Whattya say?”

Exciting times, chums.

Hope your writing output-during-quarantine is also coming along nicely.

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