Addition

So here's something interesting. No sooner than I posted on this chronicling than a friend of mine approaches me with an offer of collaboration on an idea he has. I began to grapple, then, with the idea of working on multiple projects (with help on one), and trying to focus on just one so that I can actually get it done.

This is my real problem: Can I actually divert enough of my attention to both projects without sacrificing the quality or time-frame of either?

So here is where I'm worried. Do I go for it? I feel like I'll have enough help in BOTH cases to be able to focus on each fairly. For example -

• The source material for the book is given to me. I will have to create my own stuff for the screenplay, yes, but the basis for everything I need is there already. So creation itself will not be as necessary. Just more of a translation into another language.

• With this second project, this collaboration, it will be just that: working together with another writer. So I will not be the only one on this new thing. I will not be solely tasked with creating every detail. That is definitely a plus.

I believe, for a writer in my stage of professional development, that these are two prime examples of how I need to start my career. Projects where I am not the only person behind the wheel, in some sense of the phrase. I guess I'm looking for advice? Suggestions? Guidance? Something along those lines. What do I do in my case? Do I devote myself completely to just one project until it's finished? Because, with a screenplay, it can take months and months, even more, to perfect. Or do I risk it and try out two projects - even if the second project has minimal involvement until I feel comfortable enough to work on it more and more, over time?

This is my dilemma. What needs to happen?

Incomplete

I need to indulge myself here. My own kind of self-pity, so forgive me.

My question to myself that I'm posing here is...why don't I ever finish a project that I start?

Now, this may be a most discouraging question to see coming from someone who is expecting to write a feature-length film from a book his grandmother wrote. I know how it looks. Believe me when I say that that question bothers me more than anyone else who may read it. It's a problem I've been working with for a very long time, actually.

I cannot even count how many projects or ideas I've began since I took to writing seriously in middle school. I have so many ideas, so many characters, so many stories...it's a bit depressing, really. I always begin...never finish. In fact, of all my writing projects, I've only ever completed one, just out of high school. And even that's disappointing because it was far back enough that my talent was...well, lacking. So it's not that great of a screenplay.

From there it was a run of starting this and that, and quitting projects for whatever reason, and also just plain stopping. But why? What causes me to become so disinterested? It's something that I struggle with a lot, and it's something that, every now and then, gets me down. It's always a fear that I have that, whenever I begin a project, I have to wonder how long it's going to last this time.

So many distractions...I think that's most of it. So I have to really focus here. Hopefully I'll be back to full speed with this reading this week.

Lag

So there has not been an update in some time, I see. I've been aware of this as the week moved on. Here I am telling more people about this blog, asking them to read about it, and even telling them, "Yeah, so I update this about twice a week." ...Yet there hasn't been a new post for one and a half weeks.

There is a reason for this. The past week has been somewhat of an unpredictable one. Usually I use the time I have at work to read the book I'm adapting. Lately, that time has been preoccupied by something else, where that time exists. So not only has this past work week been a bit busy, but I've also been distracted. "Boo," I know. Beyond work, I, myself, have been feeling stranger than normal. There have been some up and some down moments since my last posting. And that has affected my mood and desire to continue this project.

I do plan on picking it back up this week, and get back on the ball...so hopefully I won't become so easily distracted again. On the plus-side, a neighbor of mine gave me a new scriptwriting program that I haven't tried yet. Normally, I just use Celtx, because it's awesome (and before that, my own recorded macros in Microsoft Word). So I'm excited to check out this other software. Can't remember exactly what it's called at this time, but I'll update again with more on that later.

I'm trying to pull myself up out of this slump, and trying to make myself feel better...while also not distracting myself too much as well. I realize that this adaptation will need a lot of work, dedicated time and energy, but sometimes it's so easy to lose sight and focus on the goal. Perhaps I should get back on the Ritalin...that may help. I'll keep updating on how that goes as well (so long as I have some left).

Story

So I promised I would talk about the book I am adapting. I mentioned before that I am taking the book my grandmother wrote and adapting that into a screenplay, as a gift to her. It's going to be my first real, "professional"-grade screenplay, and also my first adaptation. I must admit...I'm very excited.

The title of the book is Zero Degrees of Separation. It centers around the character, Christina, who dies from a terminal illness and is then guided to the other side by Angelic figures. Once there, she must re-learn everything that her soul-self has always known, and forgets with every return trip to the Earth plane.

So the interesting issue I am seeing as I get further and further into the book is the timeline of the story that is told. There is definitely a story in here, with enough conflict to be had, and roadblocks to keep characters from their goals, but it's going to be an issue of timing and placement with this adaptation. I can already tell that the major events that happen in the book will need to be reordered for film story purposes.

I'm nearly halfway through the book now, and I have to completely finish it before I start making big story decisions like that. Though in reading through it at this point, it's definitely intriguing picturing the scenes in my head as they would appear on the screen. It's also fun to guess the progress of scenes and how the through-line of the story will carry Christina to the end.

There is not much else to update at this time...beyond everything I've said so far, so please come back soon to hear more about this interesting process.

Now, my grandmother is still trying to get the message of her book out there to other people in need. It's a great book to help those that are close to death, or know someone who is, come to terms with the idea of passing on. She is an expert and a trainer for hospice care, and does outstanding work for the Twilight Brigade, Compassion in Action. Please check out their non-profit organization here.

If you're interested in purchasing a copy of the book yourself, check out this link to Amazon.com. Any contributions are greatly appreciated.

Prologue

Alright then, welcome to my blog.

The purpose of all of this is to give me some inspiration, and to chronicle my journey. I am an aspiring screenwriter, trying to carve a path for myself into mainstream movie-making. I believe I have the ability, the talent, and drive to make it into "the business", and I definitely have the proper tools in place.

So this blog will be my "journal" of sorts - my outlet for all things concerning writing, my writing, and whatever else happens to cross my mind. Hopefully I'll obtain followers along the way...which is to say hopefully this blog will be interesting to people besides my own self.

While working through the various writing projects I've begun, I have found a certain lack of drive at some point through the thing. I'm hoping this will allow me a place away from under par performance, and a sort of "inner sanctum" to how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking about my work. A way to unwind and explain what is or isn't coming to me. That way hopefully this will inspire me to continue writing or at least working on it somehow...and my writing will inspire new posts on this blog.

So that's the plan. Having said so much...my project is an adaptation of a book my grandmother wrote a few years back. She has been trying to get it made into a film for a while now, with the help of some friends who are more "in-the-know", with little success so far mainly on the screenwriter aspect of it. So, angry with the pathetic try the last hiree attempted, I offered myself up to adapt the book. She agreed, of course, and I am excited to get it done.

I have begun already with re-reading her book and taking notes to form the main timeline of the film and what I want to happen when. I am currently one-fifth of the way through the story, and hope to start on my major note-taking once I am finished. I'll be updating this blog regularly throughout, again, in the hopes to inspire myself in numerous ways.

I hope you follow along on this journey: my very first, potentially-professional, feature-length adapted screenplay. I'll talk more about the book I'm working on in a later post, when I have more of an idea of what I'll be doing. For now, take note that it is a story about death, the afterlife, and the lives of those who are left behind on the Earth plane.

See you next time!