If you’re just getting to the party, this is the last of a three-part series about the The Blcklst.com site. Part 2 contained two examples of evaluations for scripts that I posted on The Blacklist site. Part 1 provided an overview of the site, and posed some questions I wanted to address: “Have you tried it?” … Read more
Read this article in The Atlantic yesterday about the development of Toy Story. To summarize, from first draft to green-light took three years, what looks like at least a dozen incarnations of the script, and a whole team of writers and execs who were getting paid to work on it. I think this makes me … Read more
… though I wish it was. According to eHow, if you think your trackpad isn’t working because you got your laptop wet, you are supposed to dry it out by burying it in rice for a 24-48 hours. Or desiccant, if you have some. Which apparently we do—Paul tells me that he saves those little packets … Read more
On my way out the door this evening, I was cleaning my purse–as usual trying to find the invisible canon ball that I seem to carry–and came across this program from last week’s show. I should keep this, I thought. And then thought, where? Now that pictures are digital, I haven’t had a physical album in years. No … Read more
I sometimes like it. Probably not always. Most of the examples that I can think of off the top of my head have to do with emerging technologies. “Facebook me.” “I’ll Google it.” These are okay–short and also specific, which I respect. Though I’m not a fan of saying “google” for “search” if Google is … Read more
Lately I’ve been writing quite a lot, along with my co-writer. In the last three weeks we finished a full draft of a screenplay, which is faster than I’ve ever written a first draft–but it wasn’t pretty, and honestly neither is the draft. Which is not to disparage it–you don’t disparage a big lump of … Read more
Yesterday I received a nice rejection for the picture/audio combo version of Turtle Ted. The journal wrote, “Your piece was a source of constant debate for us, and there was something about it that we found very charming. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make it fit within the overall aesthetic of the journal.” For non-writers, “nice rejection” … Read more
As a rule, I often downplay naming people and things in my blog posts, thus the program where I take writing classes I tend to refer to, generically, as “the program where I take classes.” Today, however, I want to name it: It’s a graduate program at USC called the Master of Professional Writing. I’ve … Read more
Well, the thing we hoped would happen didn’t happen. Paul and I, based on a script we’d worked on together had made it to the final stage of a fellowship program, but in the end, were not among the final selectees. I think I was more worried about his one because it included him, and … Read more
So there’s this thing I want to happen, that has a chance of happening, but that also has a chance of not happening. Dread of it not happening leaves a big anxious ball in my sternum. The moment that it does happen, if it does, the big anxious ball will remain because I also fear … Read more