Resolution #143: Write My Annual Feature Length Screenplay!!!

Date: 5-23-2014

Due Date: 5-23-2015

Resolution: Since the beginning of this year I've bitterly given up on the idea of making it as a writer through persistence alone. Over the past 16 years, I've written an average of 1.5 feature-length screenplays a year.

Other than sending these screenplays off to friends for feedback, or off to contests to see if I can win the lottery, these documents just pile up on my desk. I've been toying with the idea of giving up on screenwriting all together and venturing into the world of standard prose in hopes of exploring self-publishing. 

Either way, no matter what happens I'm going to continue to write in some capacity. I've just given up on the “making it” aspect; not the “doing it” aspect.

I've been having a lot of fun with this blog and adapting and writing short format fiction but I always find that unless I have at least one long-format project of my own to work on I tend to drive myself crazy. I think having my own fantasy world to focus all of my lunacy into, helps ease my issues with reality. Granted I'm fully aware that this is escapist behavior but I don't really care.

Over the past couple of months, there's been a story that's been haunting me. It's not quite to the point where it's ready to just fall out, but it's brewing. That's how writing seems to work with me. An idea triggers an obsession. It starts subtly at first then my mind keeps going back to it like a tongue to a toothache. Then after it gets to be too much to handle I have to get it out of me.

Right now I'm still in the festering phase.

I can sense the extraction phase is just around the corner.

I'll keep you posted.

Result #143: Though It Wasn't The Story I Had In Mind… I Did Successfully Write Another Feature-Length Screenplay This Year…

Update #1: The Conclusion…

Date: 5-23-2015

I had an idea for a screenplay that I wanted to write to fulfill this resolution. Unfortunately, that story is still stuck in my head. Fortunately, I landed a ghostwriting gig that forced me to write a feature this year.

I'd share more details but as a ghost, I'm not sure that would be appropriate.