Next!

I finally finished the final edits on Doc On Loan, my latest screenplay, and I uploaded it on InkTip.com. Again, I'm going to see if I can trap lightning in a jar a second time, though this time, I'm not going to remove the lid. And with that comes the work on my next screenplay. I decided to return to Original Idea for my next one, with the plotting scheduled to begin this week. With any luck, I'll be ready to start the actual screenplay itself by 10/15.

I didn't edit my latest short story, "Sweet Freedom," this week due to decision to go back to all of my in progress short stories and plot them out from where I left off with them. There are four in various stages of completion and at least another three in development. My intent is to have no more than a dozen for the book, but it will really probably come down to a page limitation instead of a story count that I'll use to gauge. November 1st is the deadline for completing the stories and begin assembling the book, In The Foothills, for publication.

That's all there is for this week. I hope you have a great first week of October and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best,
Michael

A Melange

This will be a short report this week, mainly because I've been only concentrating on a few writing projects.

First, I finished the first draft of a short story I've tentatively entitled "Sweet Freedom." It's based on a true story from my childhood and I'm hoping to have a working version (after a few key edits sessions) by next weekend. I've also plotted out the rest of my work in progress short story, "The Bing Wong Motel." I started writing that a few weeks ago, but I got sidetracked.

I didn't get a chance to finish updating my screenplay Doc On Loan with my editors suggested changes this week. Too much going on in my 3D life has kept me kind of busy. I need to get this done so I can start my next one. I'd love to get a third one finished in this calendar year.

I started laying out the basics of a couple of longer pieces: "Dark Confessions" and "New Utopia." Both of these could possible go as long as novella length, but I won't know for certain until I finish plotting them out.

More flash pieces this week, too. Always lots of fun with those.

And that's all for the writing update for this week. I wish you all a great last week of September and I'll see you next time.

Best,
Michael

Relatively Out of Control

This has been a busy week, writing-wise, to say the least. I'd like to say I finished a lot, but the best I can crow about is a did quite a bit of starting . . . new stories, new longer pieces. All this, in conjunction with stories already in progress, and I'm just going crazy writing during every free moment I can eke out of my day.

I did complete one thing of note this week . . . entering one of my more recent stories into the Raymond Carver Short Story contest. Who knows what will happen, I only did it on a lark; really didn't think about it much, actually. Twelve bucks and I'm in by the due date. We'll see if anything ever comes of that.

More flash writing this week, too. Those are difficult not to complete since they're usually so short. As always, they remain useful as an exercise to keep my prose tight, even if there isn't a word limitation for those non-flash pieces. It's all good.

I'm waiting for my editors to give me their final critiques on Doc On Loan before I copyright and submit it to InkTip.com. The next one is waiting patiently in my brain to get down on "paper" (so to speak), but I won't start until the other one is completely in the can.

It's that time of year when I should be submitting my stories to the appropriate literary magazines. It would be nice to get just one sold this year . . . good advertising for the book, of course, and a good shot in the arm to motivate me next year.

And that's the end of this report. I hope all of you are well and I look forward to hearing from you if you're so inclined to drop a line.

Best,
Michael

Screenplay Finished

After four drafts, Doc On Loan, the screenplay I wrote for Script Frenzy, is now in the hands of my trusty editors, on the way to becoming the latest of my completed scripts (the third, to be precise). I have to admit, it was painful to whittle it down from 155 pages to 131 -- I had to cut whole scenes, some decent gags and removed fat from dialogs -- but it's pretty much as finished as I could get it. Once that has been copyrighted and registered with the WMA, I'll upload it to InkTip.com and once again, see if I can get any decent nibbles. If lightning could only strike twice and I could get this one optioned for real.

So, that means it's time to start the next one. If you've been reading this blog, you know I have a few more screenplays in the queue. The one I'll most likely start back on is entitled Original Idea. I think I'll take the same approach I did with Doc On Loan by laying out all the scene summaries and then writing the first draft in a 4-6 weeks. Stay tuned,

On the short story front . . . I waiting for final feedback on the 5,000 word piece I mentioned last week. Still cranking out flash pieces as the inspiration moves me. I'm still working on another longer piece that probably won't be included in In The Foothills, but one I need to get out of my system.

I've been neglecting my two fiction blogs after a lot of enthusiasm at the start. To some degree, my day job has started to cut into my writing time (long story), but my energy is being sapped from my writing time. I'm hoping that things calm down on the J*O*B soon. Wish me luck.

And on that note, I wish you all a creative and productive week.

Michael

Editing Weekend

I finally started editing my screenplay, Doc On Loan, this weekend. As you may recall, I was procrastinating because I didn't know how I was going to trim my 155 page magnum opus down to 120 acceptable pages for a comedy (and that's pushing it, too).

The good news is I've been able to trim it down to 132 pages while maintaining the integrity of the script and most of the gags. The bad news is I don't think I can get it any shorter than this. Version 3 is my current draft and I'm going to sit on it a few days before making a fourth version. After that, I surrender and will turn it over to my trusty editors for spit and polish.

Besides that, I wrote a brand new short story (a little under 5,000 words) that came to me all of a sudden and was based on a real life event that occurred for a friend of mine. I'm currently workshopping it now and hope to have that ready for submission. I also wrote a short piece of 1,000 words based on a sermon I heard at church yesterday. So far, I've received some good feedback from my editors.

Speaking of my editors, they have given feedback on some other recently written short stories and I've implemented those suggestions. Right now, I have more than enough stories to choose from for the book, but I'm going to keep writing them until November 1st. Then, I'll decide what goes in and what doesn't and edit accordingly.

Just a side note, but my story "Macdougal Street" is currently #8 out of 112 in its category on Helium. It never broke the top four in its posting, but it's been up there for a few months now. Every so often, there's a wave of new stories posted and it drops down in the ratings (as low as 28th), but soon it bounces back up again into the top ten.

I'm still writing flash pieces like mad, too. They've been an enjoyable exercise and I've learned a lot when doing them.

No work on the larger pieces, unfortunately, but I'm not complaining. This has been a productive week, including this long weekend.

Until next time, stay creative!

Michael