Slideshow

...about insanity.

I have to be insane. Yes. That's the only explanation that makes sense.

When I wrote my murder mystery, ...And Night Falls, during NaNo, I'd never tried that genre before. And I said when I was finished with it, after the dust settled, never, NEVER again would I write a mystery. Too much work. Too much like being a juggler, so many elements to keep in the air at the same time, without dropping any of them. I also recognized the folly of writing an untried genre in a high-pressure situation like NaNo. Never again, I said. And meant it. At the time.

So. I have signed up to participate in Script Frenzy 2007. And my genre? You guessed it: it's a mystery. But not just any old mystery. No. I, in a fit of self-punishment, have allowed my brain to develop a mystery/comedy.

What's the matter with me? Have I taken leave of my senses? Am I totally insane?

Ah, well. Please spare a pitying thought for me over the next 30 days as I struggle through the experience of learning to write a screenplay. And a mystery/comedy screenplay, at that.

Arghhh!!

...about cornbread.

I don’t know who came up with the idea of putting sugar and eggs into perfectly good cornbread and ruining it, but, I have a bone to pick with that person. After all, a soft, crumbly, sweet substance is not bread…it’s cake. And who wants to eat cake alongside beans, potatoes, collard greens and fried green tomatoes?

Certainly not I.

Cake has its place, of course: at the end of a good meal with a steaming cup of dark roast coffee.

But cake is just not up to the task of accompanying a mouthful of beans and bite of raw onion, washed down with a big swig of sweet tea. It takes a good, solid chunk of buttered cornbread, broken from a round, cast-iron-frying-pan-baked pone of crusty, savory, stick-to-your-ribs cornBREAD to stand up to the likes of satisfying fare such as that.

...about word count.

When I participated in the NaNoWriMo challenge last November, the important thing was word count. Don't worry about the plot, the characters, the advice went, as long as the word count is advancing properly.

As a matter of fact, the originator of NaNo has published a book, "No Plot No Problem." In it, he stresses the importance of just writing. Get that word count moving up. And up. And up.

And he's right, I think. As long as you have words down on paper (or on screen, as the case may be), you have something to work with, something to edit, to knead, to work into shape, into a story.

So, in spite of all the roadblocks I'm encountering in my drive to increase my word count in this personal "MayNo" I've undertaken, I continue to slog along. I suppose I'm hoping that I'll soon have a burst of energy that will occur simultaneously with a reduction of demands on my time, and that I'll get my word count moving in the right direction.