This is going to be a very quick and dirty (late) writing post. It’s that time of the year. The Day Job is in “hard deadline” mode, so that’s eating my brain. In fact, yesterday was so hectic, that I told my husband my job “broke my brain”. But I haven’t given up on writing. No sir. This week – though my Redhead deadline looms, I’m working on 10 pages of screenplay.
Saturday is Day 2 of a two-day “Adapting Screenplays From…” workshop with Ken Farmer and Buck Steinke. Two of us showed up for Day 1. So the pressure’s on to do well on the “homework”. I’m in the revision stage right now. Realizing the slightly creepy Easter Bunny story is creepier when turning it into a screenplay. The guys know what they’re talking about. Ken Farmer has been in the industry for a very long time. He was one of the deputies working for Brian Dennehy in Silverado, which had both of us in the workshop going home to watch that movie again last weekend. (Yes, Silverado is one of my – and Jimmy’s – favorite movies, so it wasn’t a hardship.)
For all that it’s kind of intimidating to have that kind of one-on-one attention, it’s been great. I had some old college lessons reinforced – if you ever wondered where some of my “minimalist” writing tendencies come from, that would be it. College beat extra words out of me, but in screenplays – that’s what you want. Only what’s ESSENTIAL TO THE STORY. Everyone else is TRUSTED TO DO THEIR JOBS.
My borked brain yesterday kept me from getting some revisions done. SO now I’m playing catch up. We’ll find out on Saturday if I’ve learned anything. 😎