It's Out of My Hands (For Now)

It's official: on Friday at about 1:38 in the afternoon, we submitted Slide and our application for the Nicholl Fellowship. We feel we've submitted the best version of that screenplay that we could, and I guess that's all we can hope to do.

Now we wait. With something over 5000 applications for the Fellowship, it takes months for them all to be read, so we're not complaining. It's a great thing to know that our entry will be read at least once.

Here's the basic timeline for notification:
Quarterfinals: mid-July
Semifinals: August/September
Finals: October
Winners: November

In the meantime, back to work on The Pirate's Bride, and time to start work on our new screenplay, Come Dancing. It should keep our minds off things.

Time Tells Everything, Given Time

Not writing much here, but writing elsewhere...

Spent a few days in Dover, Delaware, marking the first anniversary of my mother's death by playing the slot machines at Dover Downs and hanging out with J and W. A strange tribute, some might say, but Mom would have loved that place. And Rehobeth Beach was gorgeous even in March.

Spent the past week or so editing the screenplay for Slide -- first to get it ready for a reading with our great group of friends, and following the feedback from the reading, to prepare the script for the Nichols Fellowship application due by May 3rd. We fully expect not to receive the fellowship, but the act of faith committed in trying for it is a good, good thing.

Holding off on sending to a new agent just now... the time doesn't feel quite right yet. Soon, I hope. By the by, should any of you have contacts in the literary/publishing field, we have no qualms about begging for your assistance. Just let us know you're willing to be groveled to.

And finally, we're house-hunting again. Fascinating stuff. May have found a place we like, though not certain yet. That too will come in time, no doubt.

Circling

Since deciding to chuck the traditional workforce for writing full-time, I think I've developed ADD or ADHD or whatever the hell one fits. My symptoms include an inability to keep my posterior in the chair for more than a few minutes (unless I'm playing an online game or Spider Solitaire) when I'm actually trying to, oh, you know, WRITE.

I never used to be like this: I used to be able to concentrate for hours on whatever I happened to be working on. And I used to be largely indistractable: for example, I used to do homework in front of the T.V., sometimes with music playing simultaneously, and usually with my parents fighting in the background. And in spite of missing a minimum of 36 days of school each year, I still made good grades -- 37th in a class of 250 in high school, magna cum laude in college in a 3-year accelerated program. Imagine what I might have done if I had actually applied myself!

I don't say any of this to boast; I say it with a deep mourning for what used to be. Nowadays, I have to write a few words,then get up and sweep the floor; write a few more words, then go get a drink; write a little more... you get the picture.

Oddly enough, though, I'm still making progress. At least there's that.

One Week Gone...

So, I have not gotten a ton of writing done this week, but I feel as though I have adjusted my attitude -- and sometimes that can be more beneficial for going forward than generating a bunch of mediocre work. (Quality, not quantity.)

I'm starting to believe writing full-time may actually be the right thing for me. Even though the economy is tanking, I've given up a decent paying job, and our debt load hasn't changed much, I still feel better than I have in years. And it's not just because I don't have to answer to a supervisor; I still have to answer to myself, and I'd take bets that I'm a much harsher task master than any supervisor I've worked with. I've had some good ones, and they weren't half so exacting.

This week was orientation. Next week is training. Then the real work begins...