GoodReads

C's bookshelf: read

The Peculiar
Maggot Moon
Chime
Leviathan
The City and the City
Graceling
The Road
A Certain Slant of Light
The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
Brown Girl in the Ring
Well Wished
The Innkeeper's Song
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
Beloved
American Indian Myths and Legends
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Return of the King
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers


C S Peterson's favorite books »

Monday, March 19, 2012

Just sauté some garlic and onions...


So I finished my first ever screenplay. I was writing a book - it still is a book - but it was languishing, languishing. It was like dough that had been left to rise too long in a warm oven, just blob blop blah all over the place. A friend encouraged me to take the screenwriting class and like magic the blah was gone as I whittled it down to things of pith and moment only. Suddenly the story was alive again. I finished! Eighty pages and no dead spots.  Now I want to make it back into a book. I’m on a roll.  So - do I take the next “Advanced” screenwriting class? Now I’m worried I won’t come up with something new. I always feel this way as soon as I have written something. I don’t know where the story comes from when it finally falls together and I have this great fear that the one I have just finished is the last one I will ever be able to come up with. Courage! The habit of writing will carry us through.  It’s just like cooking dinner when you’re home from a long day and feeling uninspired - my dad always said “Just sauté some garlic and onions - then something will occur to you...”

4 comments:

  1. Wow...congratulations...I like this new habit of writing every day. It definitely sounds like it is working for you.

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  2. I love that advice. I know exactly how that feels too. You pour so much of your heart and soul into something you are working on, it just makes it so hard to pick up again with something new. I usually regenerate by reading after writing.

    Peace and Laughter,
    Cristina

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  3. Well said Catie, the fear there is nothing left runs rampant in all writers. I love your father's advice. I'll have to remember that next time I need an idea for cooking.

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  4. Congratulations to you for this very hard work! I love the words of your dad, will have to put this into my writers notebook. Also, I've read the previous post too about your OLW-great word for you of course. You are the best wonderer! And, I'll be happy to show you about links!

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