by G. Robert Frazier
So, what are you writing? Are you writing every day? What are your hopes or dreams for your writing career?
Every once in a while I like to take stock of where I am in my writing career. Not that it is a career right now. It’s more of a hobby. A passion. A dream. Unfulfilled in large part, but never abandoned.
Sure, I go for days at a time – even weeks – away from the keyboard. But I write every day in my handy don’t-leave-home-without-it moleskin notebook. I have filled dozens of these indispensable notebooks with random thoughts, character sketches, story ideas, outlines, and scenes. I see or hear something, I write it down.
You never know when that nugget of information or that character observation will come in handy.
Case in point. At my current day job – a simple enough customer service rep in a call center at a large hotel – I’ve jotted down dozens of oddball notes about the job, the people, and the situations we experience. I did not know what I was writing any of it down for, until one day I thought, what if I compiled a bunch of short stories using some of those experiences into an anthology. I figured I would just change up the setting a bit, add some unique flair or twist to the real-life story, and, voila, I would have a unique collection of misadventures for readers to someday enjoy.
That was the idea.
It has since morphed into something completely different. I am now looking to include some of those events in a more cohesive way in a sci-fi/action screenplay. The events I mentioned now are more of a backdrop in the overall setting/story I plan to tell. Somehow, all those jumbled notes and passages have turned into something useful.
All of which goes to prove, nothing is wasted.
So that is just one thing on which I am working. I have also got another story set in the same sci-fi universe I am developing. I am writing a horror/fantasy screenplay, and I have a crime drama that I started a while back that I am also hoping to finish. If I can knock these four scripts out this year, I will be incredibly happy.
One of my biggest personal challenges, as you can perhaps see, is I lack focus. My thoughts and stories are all over the place. I tend to jump from one project to another and never finish anything. If, however, I can refocus on one thing at a time, I believe I can reach my goals.
To that end, my main goal right now is to adopt a daily ritual for my writing. I am participating in the Bluecat Screenwriters Goalpost Challenge this month, which challenges writers to complete a screenplay from start to finish in one month. It is day nineteen of the challenge, so there is ample time left to make serious strides toward my goal.
And there is a second challenge coming in September from Go Into the Story called Zero Draft Thirty.
I am hoping that if I push myself to write everyday towards these two challenges, I will have successfully established my daily writing ritual. I will check in here regularly to update my progress and hold myself accountable.
Step one: Put ass in seat and write.
Stay tuned…
Story By G. Robert Frazier 