Scratching My Itch

So I've been so busy with work over the past few months that I hadn't written a word of my own stuff.

Which is always worrisome. There's always the niggling fear that if not-writing goes on too long, it'll turn into never-writing-again. Which I didn't want.

But I just didn't have the time... or when I did, I was just too brain-drained from other people's scripts to focus on my own.

Still, I had an idea in my head for a script, that I'd been thinking about for months.

Unlike most of the things I write, it didn't have a supernatural element. It was just a thriller. A nasty, violent, high-concept thriller.

I pitched it to my wife on the drive down to the shore 3 weeks ago, and not only did she like it, she brainstormed it in darker directions.

That's my girl.

Still, other than jotting down a few handfuls of notes (and pretty much figuring out the whole structure of the script in my head). I hadn't written word one.

I was ripe to bursting with words. I had blue balls of the brain. But the time wasn't there.

Last Thursday, the woman who ran my writing group called with word that a slot for Monday (last night) had opened up, and did I want it. I said no... and then I said yes. Because I wanted to push myself, to write at least 10 pages over the weekend.

I wrote 19.

They are rough, the characters need development, and when I brought it in last night I wasn't sure what the writers/actors would make of it. They're a tough crowd.

But they loved it. I've got something by the tail, and now I just have to write it.

Time will be made. The brain balls will not get blue again.

******

Tropic Thunder beat out Dark Knight over the weekend, making a very solid $25.8 million. Though this seems to be one of those odd comedies that seems to be scoring a little better with critics than audiences.

Star Wars did $14.6, so I was really close on one guess. Mirrors did $11.1; I'm not sure where the horror/thriller audience has gone.

Vicly Christina Barcelona did $3.7 million. Fly Me To The Moon only did $1.9. Henry Poole did only $805,000, which for 527 theaters is pretty bad.