Musings

This is one of those days where the business of writing seems very hard. I’m in the middle of a big rewrite and at that point where I can’t tell if I’m making it better or worse. I also looked back over the past four years and I realized how many, many things I’ve written, particularly for Hollywood, that have gone nowhere or continue to just spin in limbo. To quote Marv Wolfman, “Hollywood, the town that kills you with hope.”

I realized that this is a system that is guaranteed to make the participants crazy. I have written a spec Wild Cards script. I created a whole other Wild Card script that I prepared as a pitch, and I talked earlier about how much work that represented. My manager has made noises about me writing _that_ version of the script. I’ve written two spec pilots. (Thank heaven for Ian’s help on the last one). I’ve got a portion of a new movie script that has hit a road block. And my manager wants me to start on a new movie script with Ian. I’m game, but sometimes I get tired.

Just think if other professions worked this way. Architects for example. Instead of being hired on a project what if an architect had to design the entire building and prepare all the working drawings, and make models and colored sketches. And then show those drawings and sketches and models around and hope that somebody says, “Say, that’s a great building. Okay, we’re going to hire you to build it. But once the foundation is in and even when the walls are up we might decide we no longer like this building so we’ll fire you and bring in a whole new architect to remodel the building.

I ask you, is this anyway to make art?

Forgive the small meeping rant. I think I’m just tired and tired of being cold. When I reached the barn at 10:30 this morning it was 19 degrees and the wind was whipping. My _face_ became numb as I rode. Some fun.

Melinda

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at 9:35 pm and is filed under writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.