I worked SO hard today, and I'm really proud of all that I accomplished. Not that it was THAT much, mind you, but I really worked to make sure that various set-backs were overcome.
I think part of what helped was that I rewarded myself. Writing and creating is SO rewarding in and of itself, but sometimes it feels a little . . . I don't know . . . eternal? I may write 5-8 hours a day for days at a time and the days sort of all blur together and sometimes it can seem hard to remember that I should be proud of myself for sticking to it.
So I got myself a cupcake from Magnolia as a snack and I had Shake Shack for dinner. Midday, I took a break and went to Book-Off where I bought DVDs of "Spirited Away" and "My Neighbor Totoro."
Tonight I took a break to draw some "Spirited Away" fan art. I haven't taken the time to do visual art in a long, long time. I may post some later, because it made me happy to draw :)
AS FOR THE WRITING ITSELF
I finally wrote the third sample scene for the Dustbowl musical I'm writing w/ Doug Makuta (the one that was comissioned by the children's theater company). I didn't absolutely love it, but at least I got SOMETHING down on paper and I can improve on it from there. I think I might send the producers this scene as well as a new and improved copy of an older scene, because I'm not sure which will ultimately contrast better for the backers with the current package we're sending. I can't wait to hear the demos. No, like seriously. I can't wait. Because I need to put the new lyrics into these sample scenes.
I also did some lovely editing/re-reading/re-writing on Book 5.3. It's currently grown a little bit, but this read-through was more about tracking character development, logic, and filling in the last few missing gaps. The next (and hopefully last on this draft) read-through will be about cutting it back down again, word by word (though there's also some of that this draft) so I'm not getting toooo worried about the fact that it's grown some. Book 5.3 is currently a sensible 56,268 words, which isn't unbearable. I'm on page 207 of 316. I have all day tomorrow to write (unless I finally do laundry for the first time in a literal month and a half whoops), so there's a possibility I'll finish this read-through in the next day or two, which would be lovely.
I also FINALLY finished the outline for Screenplay 1.2 which is my first full-length screenplay of which I am now on my second draft. The outline was KILLER; I thought I was gonna write out a very simple 1 page 12-beat thingy in like ten minutes, it ended up being 10 pages in 5 days. So. There was that. The fun part is that I was basing the outline off of the guideposts in my father's book on screenwriting, so whenever I had questions about my outline, I got to call the author of the textbook and make sure I was doing everything spot on :) The outline is now in daddy's hands, so he'll give me his professional opinion whenever he gets the chance. He's super busy right now (beyond teaching screenwriting, he's also a director/producer and about to go to Washington? I think? to do a movie, not to mention that this movie he was hired to write called "Tio Papi" is coming out super soon etc etc), but hopefully he'll get to it sooner rather than later so I can begin to apply the new outline and really write this second draft.
Today was the first day in quite some time that I truly felt like I accomplished everything I needed to, AND I got to spend time socializing with a friend. It just reminded me that it's so important to keep everything balanced. Working my butt off on writing doesn't mean that I need to deprive myself of food, friends, or fan art. That doesn't make me more talented. It just makes me a whiny martyr. Sometimes I need to let myself live a little in order to produce my best work.
Au revoir lovely little world. Hopefully tonight will be less insomniaish than the last few, and hopefully tomorrow will continue this streak of things . . . I don't know . . . just flowing, I guess :)
