Diversions

First, let's get this out of the way: I did not successfully finish National Novel Writing Month. It was a confluence of bad timing, loss of personal interest in the book, and the realization that the concept was flirting a little too closely with that of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four. I got about 6,000 words deep, and just gave up. best to let that one sit on the shelf until a future time when actual good ideas appear to revive it.

However, the insane month that was November (which was actually supposed to be a "break" of sorts for me, but it only worked that way for about a week) is now over, Christmas is almost here, and I've gotten back to track with renewed fervor for both "Being" and another project I put on the back burner for a while, a screenplay for an espionage-action flick that I can only describe as "24" meets "Heroes."

For "Being," I've turned the focus back to the novelization of the story that picks up about six months after the proposed first season of the TV pitch. It's helping me really get to know the characters, to fully build the world in which they live, and in the end, hopefully something publishable will come out of it. In theory, I can then sort-of work backward from there if the pilot ever sold or got optioned, bridging the two works into one.

But that's getting ahead of myself. I'm only on the third chapter of the novel and the sixth page of the screenplay. It's nice to be writing again, just purely writing without deadlines or the tedium of illustrating the stories. And for the most part, they're writing themselves -- I'm just transcribing what the voices in my head are telling me. So, today's lesson is: Don't ignore the voices in your head. No matter what your psychiatric professional tells you.