Here I am updating you instead of actually writing

I missed Thursday because I was babysitting the grandchildren and had other work to do at the end of the day. Which, really, is no excuse. To keep up and write the four pages I needed to write that day would have taken about 40 minutes or maybe 60 at the outside. Yesterday I wrote one page. It takes me about 20 minutes to get into the groove or about a page and a half. Then I'm rolling. I tell myself I'm worried about going on too long – until I'm exhausted. That hasn't happened yet. Well, sort of it did with the first screenplay. I can still finish by writing a reasonable amount of pages a day: 5. Not bad. I am there again, at the stage where I realize I can still win if I stick to a highly manageable goal.

Screenwriting is not the free flow of noveling. There are so many elements to consider in different formats. I guess that's the stumbling block: the structure. Each element is structured differently. Each element needs a different tone. In a screenplay, more than in a novel, you have to be all the characters and the director and ... well, all those parts. When I write a novel all I have to do is dream, basically. Which is like being a lot of characters. So, that, really, is one point of view: the point of view of the actors. 

I sometimes peek over into my alternate life where I developed my singing, dancing and acting talents and lived the good life of a successful thespian who later got into directing and made enough profit to start a charitable foundation. That woman did a lot of voluntary traveling and was a lot braver than I. She was also happier and avoided the potholes I fell into in this life. I tried to write that story but it came out science fiction fantasy and was translated into something else entirely. This is why I write. To live those alternate lives. Really its about the grass being greener elsewhere. You know how much better the neighbors' lawns look from a distance. 

I'd better start writing now or it will be six pages a day.