radio

Ex. Haus. Ted.

Maximum Z craigslist, jobs, radio, screenwriting, writing gigs

It’s how I feel these days.  Which is odd because I didn’t think I was doing that much.

Apart from applying to writing gigs on craigslist left and right.  And looking into in-house jobs.  And working the same hours, but pushed back 30 minutes, resulting in a 4:30-9am shift, plus additional fill-in hours.  And hockey.  And exercising.

But I have to admit it’s kind of nice being able to apply to all of these gigs on craigslist.  I had no idea there were so many people looking for help with screenplays.  Yesterday there was a webseries looking for writers.  Check.  There was the Bollywood script.  Check (but still waiting to hear back).  There’s the guy looking for a story editor.  Check, and it looks like I got that one.  And it pays absolutely nothing, which surprises me not a whit.  But it’s something else to add to my resume.  And that’s cool.

Unfortunately, all of the aforementioned stuff has also been taking away from me working on BABY LIKES JAZZ.  Maybe it’s  a subconscious thing?  Since I’m not thrilled with how it’s developing, I’m looking to fill the void, as it were. Eh. Too much self-analysis.  I know I’ll finish it, but that end date keeps getting pushed further and further back.

A few minutes ago, I saw that the Nicholl finalists have been announced.  I bet there’s not one writer who sees that and feels just a bit, maybe even a slight pang of jealousy.  What writer doesn’t want that?  It also doesn’t do me any good to dwell on it.  It’s in the past, and I have to keep looking forward, etc., etc.  Will I enter next year?  Highly doubtful.  Again, I’d be happy to be done with BABY.  And there’s no way I’m entering that.

I think for now I’m happy to keep things going the way they have been, but with a little more me-writing time thrown in.

And sleep.  Definitely sleep.

If only I could bottle this…

Maximum Z jobs, LinkedIn, Miyazaki, radio, screenwriting, writing gigs

I’m feeling pretty positive about things.  I’ve missed feeling this way.  Hopefully, it will last.  And even better, I can apply it to when I sit my lazy ass down and write.

About that…

I didn’t get a whole lot of writing done today.  Let’s be honest.  I got none done.  But I was thinking about it a lot.  And that does count for something.

I also started a new level of job search.  It was nice.  I don’t know what kind of chances I have, but it’s still exciting on a few levels.

Part of this involves becoming a part of LinkedIn, which seems like Facebook for working folks.  A lot more business-oriented material and not much personal.  Which I guess makes it more like a Bizarro Facebook.  Which would be a cool name for it, but I suppose not very professional.

There are a lot of people on it I wouldn’t have expected, such as people in the film industry.  Cool.

One of them, as discovered by K last night, is the former entertainment attorney I knew a few years ago in LA.  The last I heard from him he had left his law practice to teach (I think).  But apparently he now lists himself as a writing consultant.  Hmm.  How did that come about?

I joined a group for screenwriters and radio people.  I’m curious to see what develops out of those.

But getting back to the writing…

In theory, I’ve got time tomorrow to not only work on the job stuff, but also to finally crack down and work on a script.  Or at least pages.

As much as I’d like to finish BABY LIKES JAZZ, part of me wants to move on and start something new.  There’s the monster script, the mystery-comedy.  Both sound like they would be fun to write.  BABY almost sounds…tedious.

But it would seem almost foolish to stop, especially after having spent so much time on it.  I think my challenge is to make it fun to write.  It’s a comedy, for crying out loud!  Which leads to another challenge:  make it funny.  Which is hard.

It’s very important to me to get back into a groove of writing on a daily basis.  I feel like I’m really close to making some kind of breakthrough, and even getting a little writing done each day will help.  I suspect it will also be good for my self-confidence.

And I can use as much of that as I can get.

Movie of the Moment:  I watched HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE with V yesterday.  I’m always up to watch Miyazaki.  V, of course, was not interested at first, but within 5 minutes was completely hooked.  As I suspected.  Even better, there wasn’t much to explain to her.  That really is part of the charm of his work – each story is so universal that it doesn’t matter that it’s so influenced by Japanese culture.

We’ve talked about getting KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE and watching it in Japanese.  While I don’t know how effective that will be, it’s still fun to do.

And although she’d probably enjoy STEAMBOY, I think AKIRA is a little too much.

Make that a lot too much.

oh so frustrating

Maximum Z jobs, radio, screenwriting, writing gigs

That would be the current state of…just about everything.

Work is not going well. I was supposed to talk to my boss about how the situation can be fixed, or at least made a little better.  She left before that could happen.

It is slowly dawning on me that my career in radio may be coming to an end after almost 19 years.  While it’s been a good run, I will be sad to see that happen.  It seems almost inevitable now.

And if that weren’t enough to put it in perspective, my paycheck today was the bare minimum.  And boy was it.  What makes it even more astounding is how much I’ve given the company in terms of time and effort.  As I’ve been  saying, I may not be the hardest-working employee, but I sure have been one of the most dependable.  A lot of the time, when there’s a shift that needs to be covered, I’m there.

But it’s not enough.  I’ve been scraping by with part-time hours for way too long, and I don’t think I can do it much longer.  Sad, but true.

And it’s not helping that I’ve heard squat from any of the listings I sent to over the past few weeks.  Nothing about the comedy writer gig.  Nothing from the film student looking for a produced writer.  Nothing from the mash-up genre guy.  Amazing AND depressing.

I realize this is part of the territory, but it would be nice to hear at least SOMETHING.

I think what it comes down to is getting results.  I’m not, and that’s what’s so annoying.

It feels like something big is on the horizon.  I don’t know what, but I’m really hoping it’s good.

Because bad would really, really suck.