Passion

I may have found my summer project. I've been toying with the extraordinary idea (or really dumb one) of making a feature with The Flip, a natural progression after our last two projects (we being Small Screen Video). What came to mind first was a film based on my play Waitresses, primarily because I have two great actors to pull this mother-daughter story off. Also, this came closer than anything I've written to being made in Hollywood. I'd do a more indie, scaled-down treatment than that screenplay, however.

But I lacked "passion" for this project. I don't have a lot of time left. There's no point in doing a project just to do it. This is the conflict I have with my Cold War novel. It's great material. I should have written this novel years, decades, ago. Now it feels too "ordinary" and "traditional" to me, I'm not challenged by the telling of it. I fear I may never finish this -- unless I find some new narrative approach, something I can feel passionate about.

This is what has happened with Waitresses. I've found a way to use the story in a new way, making it fresh; I found a way to tell a story that challenges me. Moreover, I can precast it with the seven actors in our group. I'd need to spend the first months of the new year writing it, right after I adapt the Donnelly plays, which is our next project. I feel fresh passion about this new approach and expansion of the old story.

Of the five Donnelly scripts, I've adapted two in draft. Three to go. I actually do want to finish all the scripts before I cast and start shooting.

And meanwhile the mockumentary is looking good and I have an idea for a new mockumentary, which the actors like, a project down the road. Ah, it's great to keep busy! (Sometimes I say I keep so busy so I don't have to think about what a failure I am, but this really pisses H off when I say this, so I've learned to just think it instead ha ha.)