I’ve noticed I tend to only update this blog about once a month, which frankly is not nearly enough! Especially when there are tons of exciting and interesting things going on, and in this case, there are.
First of all, we WRAPPED on Earth to Evening Star, my four-part short film project. We shot for three weekends over the course of a couple months, squeezing in time when people were available and working around things like Life and Being Busy. It was tiring, nerve-wracking, and incredibly exciting. We were doing new things, working with new equipment and in new places every day of the shoot. I’ve been planning a few different posts about the location scouting and shooting process of the project as it’s pretty much a no-budget, totally guerrilla, begged-borrowed-stolen-and-occasionally-kicked-out-of-places kind of a shoot and maybe that info might be useful or at the very least entertaining to a person or two out there!
Then again, maybe not.
I’ve been going through and organizing the footage – which is quite a process as there was no slate or script supe or, er, very many useful notes – and this week I think my editor and I will have a dailies screening and get cracking on the cut!
I’ve also been working on getting the website up, getting all the set photos together, and making everything ready.
It’s all just very exciting.
I have also quietly begun work on a novel again. I’ve gone through so many ideas and false starts and abandoned drafts of various things – but I guess that’s the way writing goes. It’s basically a new version of the novel I started in August of last year. The framework is totally different now – new main character, new setting, but the magic, the world and the story are the same. The previous draft I started had so many things I really loved about it and I put a lot of hard work into shaping the world. I felt like it was really starting to come together, too. But when I started writing it, it quickly became obvious that it wasn’t working. It was really disappointing because I had started to feel like this was the one. I had to put it down and accept that it just wasn’t ready yet. Maybe I wasn’t a good enough writer yet. I wanted to give this story everything it deserved and really make it great, and I wasn’t ready to do that.
Then, I was mulling over a few random thoughts about things I wanted to write about, and a new opening came into my mind. I saw the main character immediately. I saw the first thing she was going to do. And then it clicked – this was the perfect framework for my old story. I started writing it a few nights ago and it already feels a million times better. So here’s hoping it continues!
This is going to sound incredibly silly, but one thing that keeps me motivated is Neil Gaiman. Yes, it is totally fangirling. Yes, I am hardly in the minority. But every time I don’t want to sit down and write, or I get lazy, or I procrastinate, I think about all the time and energy Neil Gaiman has put into getting where he is today and I think – if I want to do that I better start now.
Also, it probably helps that he has a beautiful custom-built writing gazebo in the middle of the woods. Does that not sound like possibly the most wonderful thing ever?
In case you are wondering, yes, it is the most wonderful thing ever.
Until then, however, I will soldier on with my normal desk in my normal bedroom. I am actually quite proud of my desk. I’ve been slowly making it feel like the best possible creative space while still keeping it as clutter-free as possible. Here is a picture of my desk:
That’s probably one of the best things about writing – having a great desk. In college I decided to forego having a desk in favor of having a drum set I got at Goodwill for twenty-five bucks. That is a decision I do not regret in the least.
But when I first moved out to LA, I was on the hunt for an awesome desk. I made several fruitless Craigslist attempts – the desks I wanted were either much too large, much too expensive, or both. So I sucked it up and went to Ikea, land of the (sometimes) inexpensive and (problematic) self-assembly furniture, and bought a desk. It has turned out to be a GREAT desk – has survived two moves, it’s the perfect size, and it’s got a little bit of storage.
That’s my procrastinating-inducing advice: have a great desk. Then once you have it, sit down and actually do some writing at it. I’m gonna try that myself now.





















