My Radar Screen

Yesterday someone asked me what I’ve been working on lately (apart from not answering my e-mail at all) and so, well, here goes…

…my adaptation of Homer’s ‘The Odyssey’ got a kickstart last month when the director emerged from the inky shadows of Northern Iowa to say “Hey, where’s the latest draft?” So I sent it to him. Thirty-seven seconds later, he sent me his thoughts, confirming the following: (a) It’s a good script, (b) It’s too long, and (c) A few of the major scenes have major problems. So I fixed those in fairly short order but I broke a few other things along the way (including the ending). My writing process now includes ritualistically burning a hardcopy of the latest draft prior to opening the file on my computer. So far this approach hasn’t produced any significant improvements in my writing, but I feel a helluva lot better.

…wasting ten minutes of my life thinking up a creative new screen name for Instant Messaging (nope, you can’t have it).

…reworking my famously unpublished poem ‘Witchglass’ for a brand-spanking-new baby.

…wandering meekly back to that diner where two dead kids have been patiently sipping their milkshakes for the past nine months. I was very pleased to discover they were still there. Up next: Getting them the cheeseburger and strawberry waffles they ordered.

…even more meekly wandering back to a medium-ish stack of notes, episodes, photographs, and character sketches that a friend and I have been adding to with for about a year now. There’s another novel there, lurking in the shadows . . . waiting to spring.

…cleaning up a very small set of poems from the past nine months or so in the hopes that they’ll get up to the site in the next few weeks (the same for some new pictures that’ll get up here sooner or later.

…working on a super-secret project that I dare not even mention here for fear of attracting the attention of darker forces that might try to . . . oh shit. Never mind.

…explaining to people why I’m having trouble getting anything done.

(God, I can’t even believe I wasted the time to write this.)