The Work Excuse

This is it, it's finally here. Thursday. Maybe not as good as Friday but certainly better than Wednesday (minus the Reno Happy Hour of last night, that makes any Wednesday brilliant). There are lots of reasons why Thursday is a great day. For one, it's bagel day in the office. I don't care if they're not healthy, if I shouldn't eat so much bread, deep down I'm still a Jew girl from New Jersey who loves her bagels. I also love free food.

Thursday is also great because it's Girl Talk Thursday. Sadly I will not be participating in this one. As comfortable as I am with many things, talking about my underwear on this blog is not one of them. Sorry guys, you don't get to read about my panties this week.

Mostly though, Thursday is great because it's only one day before Friday which is the last work day of the week. Then comes the weekend and sleep. Glorious, glorious sleep. Sure, Thursday is the new Friday or some nonsense like that but no matter what else it is, I still have to wake up and go to work Friday morning. I'm looking forward to the weekend morning when that doesn't happen.

All this being said by the girl who was unemployed for most of the year. I'm one to talk about waking up and being tired from work, right? You know what though, I'm about to play the Work Card. Because for almost the first time all year I can! I'm tired because I'm working. I am probably not going to go out tonight because I'm working. I'm not writing or sketching as much because I'm working.

Wait, what? That last one isn't good! That last one kind of makes me sad! It's true though. I've been working and cooking and socializing and not writing nearly as much as I'd like. Saturday was supposed to be a writing day but after spending an hour staring at the screen, writing nothing, I gave up and made it a reading and sketching day instead. Which isn't a terrible thing but it's not what I wanted to be doing either. The sketching was my tree climbing story that I still haven't been able to scan. The reading was a bit of Harlan Ellison.

Why Harlan Ellison? Why pick up another book when I still have a stack of three next to my bed (and one in my purse, two in my back seat, and one more next to my TV...)? I blame it on Josh Olson. Last week two friends, independent of one another, linked to articles by Josh Olson. The first was a story he wrote about a friend who had fallen victim to an emotionally abusive con artist. The second was about screenwriting and how he will not be reading your script. I read both and recommend both. In the first he mentions Harlan Ellison. After reading so much about Harlan Ellison it seemed logical that I actually read a little Harlan Ellison. Put it all into context, you know? Not that I haven't read him before, but it's been a while.

This is how my brain and my life works. One thing links to another, connects to another, flows to something else. It's how I discover new and interesting things. Hopefully I can occasionally share a little of that all here with my dear readers (all 5 of you).

I digress.

What was I talking about?

Oh yes, Harlan Ellison and Josh Olson and how I haven't been writing. Forget about the part where I'm slacking on my writing for a moment, I'm playing the Work Card remember? Let's go back to Josh Olson because it's an interesting discussion.

As a writer, I have to admit that I'm still quite insecure in my writing. I've only ever taken one screenwriting class and beyond that I've never really had any kind of instructional feedback or peer review or any of that. In lieu of that, I send my writing to my friends and family. Who I send something to depends on what it is I've written and I always send it to at least two people. Two people because I figure that 1) I like different opinions and 2) if I send it out to two then I know at least one of them will get back to me. People are busy! Yes I want feedback but I also don't want to force my writing on people who have lots of other things to do. If someone doesn't get back to me, that's cool. I totally get that. I hope it's because they haven't had the time to read rather than they thought it sucked and were afraid to tell me. Even bad feedback is good.

Even so, these are my friends I'm talking about. Beyond the fact that I don't believe my writing is anywhere ready for professional reading, I can not imagine approaching someone of bare acquaintance and asking them to read my script. It just seems so awkward to me. Awkward and rude and an imposition. As far as it goes, I love talking to writers. I love hearing stories and tips, ideas and techniques. I see value in good conversation, you can learn a lot just by listening to what people have to say. If someone happens to offer to read what I'm working on, then great! Honestly it's an offer that I may not even take you up on, yet at least. When I'm ready to share I will. At the moment I am very not ready. However, it is still not something I am going to ask.

So if I've asked you to read something, it's because I think of you as my friend. I respect your opinion and you, I believe you're going to give me honest and full feedback. Along with that, I respect your time. I'm not going to be pissed off if you don't have time to read what I've sent. I'm also going to do my best to ensure that what I'm sending you is something that I feel is ready for others to read. Time wasting is bad! I don't want to do it to myself or others!

That's my opinion as an amateur trying to work work my way towards professional. I find the opinions from the professional side even more interesting. You should go read what Josh Olsen has to say ("I will not read your fucking script") and then follow the discussion over to POV online. Mark talks about Josh's article a couple of times.

I'm sure there are even more people talking about writing and sharing their opinions and whatnot. I'm going to play the Work Card again. I'd love to read more but I just don't have the time at the moment to find the more to read. Feel free to share links if you have them!