Friday, 08 March 2002

I guess I've given up on trying to get the screenplay done by the end of the month. It was interesting to make the attempt. I've learned some things. First of all, I've learned that my writing really deteriorates when I try to rush.

I guess that's not really startling. But it wasn't necessarily true. There's a popular school of thought that one good way to write something large (such as a novel or a screenplay) is to go at top speed through a first draft, and then revise later. I guess it's premature to say that I've ruled out that strategy for myself, but it sure didn't look good in its first try.

On the other hand, once I quit rushing, I'm relatively happy with the screenplay so far. I think I'll go ahead and finish it, or at least, keep working on it as long as I'm pleased with it and something more promising doesn't pop up an demand my attention. (Of course, honestly, pretty much any short sf idea is going to be more promising.)

I'm still planning on going to the screenplay workshop tomorrow. Maybe I'll learn something interesting.

I don't really expect to hear anything new, exactly. I've read a lot of books on writing (including some on screenplays) and taken other workshops. There's a vast amount of stuff about writing that's pretty much always the same and that I've heard many times before. But I've found that sometimes I can only learn things when the time is right--when I've learned all the other things that I need to for that next idea to make sense. Other times I can learn things sooner when they're explained in a particular way. So I find it's often worthwhile to go to something like this. I may well come away with some really useful bit of information.

I'll try to take good notes and post a summary here.

In other news, I got my checks and contracts from Speculations, along with two sample issues.

Kent expressed an interest in putting my article up on his site as an example article, so we made a deal on that, too. Once it's up I'll link to it from here.

I got a rejection from SciFiction. Ellen Datlow said, "I do like it, but don't love it enough to buy it." But she suggested that it would sell (and asked me to let her know when it does) and asked to see another story. So, that's just what I'll do.

Finally, I have a new monitor for my desktop machine. My old monitor has been failing for a couple of years now, and really seemed to be on its last legs. I had been holding out for an Apple studio display (the 17 inch one), figuring that the price would drop after Christmas. But, it didn't. I couldn't quite bring myself to pay $999 for it, but I couldn't wait indefinitely. So, I let friends at work know that I was looking for a temporarily solution. So, I've replaced my small, old, failing monitor with a medium-sized, somewhat less old monitor in very good shape. And got a great bargain from a guy who just bought a new 21 inch monitor.