• This Writing Journey

    A Foray into Screenwriting

    In my early twenties, I took some drama courses because I had a mild interest in acting. One of the teachers was a film and television director. I asked him if he’d look at any screenplays I had. He said he would. I’d never written a screenplay, and had no idea how to do so. But I saw opportunity. Now I just needed to learn the format. The library didn’t have any instructional books about screenwriting, but they did have one about playwrighting. We were still three or four years away from the internet becoming a thing. I wrote two screenplays (using the playwrighting book as a guide) – both…

  • Sleeping Wide Awake

    Seventeen

    Here’s my writing journey – and it applies to all forms I’ve written in: short stories, screenplays, and novels. But I’ll use novels as the model. I’ll write a novel, revise, submit. Rejection. I’ll submit again. Rejection. And again. Rejection. I’ll revise again and again and again. Submit. Rejection. Submit elsewhere. Rejection. Submit all around. I might get a nibble here, a request for the whole manuscript, or a glowing personalized rejection, but a rejection all the same. Rejection. Then, after getting over the initial frustration and wanting to quit writing, I’ll start a new book, and vow that this one will be different. This book will be THE ONE.…