Saturday, June 23, 2007

Chronicles 46 - It's about the WORDS stupid!


This is just a quickie update since I'm in the usual post-Cannes limbo/radio silence right now - as per usual I haven't heard back from most of the people I sent my script/follow-up emails to post-Cannes. This is normal, as I've said before in previous Cannes chronicles. Some of these people will NEVER get back to me. It's just the way the mop flops.

On the other hand, if things work out with the US producers who have ACTUALLY got back to me then it doesn't really matter.

Reality is - I need to switch out of chasing mode - I have 3 scripts to write:

1) A play - the space is fixed - we have a slot for January, so, no excuses there!
2) My second paid assignment for a UK producer - the research is coming to an end so I need to start signing contracts and get to work.
3) The feature based around the short that one US producer is VERY interested in. Thing is even if it doesn't work out with her I still need to write it!

Bottom line, as I've said before, is that chasing and marketing can also be a big excuse for procrastination. The only real power a writer has is his pen. No-one can stop you writing and the fat lady don't sing until those words hit the page. The illusion is that 'opportunity' is generated through marketing, chasing, networking etc the REALITY is that as a writer you generate opportunity by FIRST geting the ink on the page.

That project you've been pushing for years MAY never work out, it MAY never get made but the one on the end of your pen may very well be THE ONE.

I was waiting back on some potentially big news on Friday. I phoned in, expecting either a YES or at least a NO. My call was expected, what happened? Nothing. The PA tells me my 'conduit to the stars' (double meaning intended) has gone home. WTF! Okay, I thought to myself, time out - here we go again - been here a million times - waiting for that A list star to say yes and launch my project into the stratosphere - then - nothing. This time it was regarding finance, same difference right? All that excited expectation, then, zilch. Do I buy into it every time? Duh! I'm stupid, I'm human, what do you think?

As a writer I don't really need to buy into this stuff because ultimately the very act of creation, the Zen-like moment where the writing flows is enough, (or at least it should be!), it's the now, the present, the rest is well... the future, a bubble of possibilities, a virtual universe that may or may not manifest - in truth - ILLUSION, or, as they say in Indian philosophy, MAYA. It is said that we are born in illusion (maya) and the Goddess of illusion, MAHA MAYA, (the great illusion) has created a universe so thick with illusion that she is able to fool even the greatest of Gods. Mmmh...

Time to shut down and shut out and get back to the page a.k.a. THE NOW! The rest will happen if it happens...

Ciao for now
SWU