Saturday, March 26, 2010

Saturday, March 27, 2010
Waxing Moon
Sunny and cold

16 degrees F overnight and they barely gave us any heat. Typical scumbag landlords. Thank goodness for hot water bottles and LL Bean sleeping bags that can be used in temperatures down to 20 below! (with little cat heads peeping out, because they were cold, too).

First half of the day sucked, but then it got better. The suckage had nothing to do with the workshops, but with other stuff going on.

Some good stuff in the workshop. Sent back a batch of exercises for the motion exercise. A “walk AND talk” does not mean “tell us the characters walked somewhere, THEN stop to have a conversation, THEN tell us they walked somewhere else.”

Yes, I am the Evil Dialogue Dominatrix.

And yet, there’s a lot of really great work going on, and a good many of the students are blossoming. Quite a few of them relish the fact that the exercises are challenging and I don’t cut slack. Some of them have told me this is the first time they’ve ever gotten specific feedback — previously, it was always, “that’s bad” or “that’s not it”, but never WHY. I do get extremely specific with each individual’s exercise, because, to me, that’s the point. Vagueries don’t help anyone. A vague comment is me not doing my job, and doesn’t help the student focus the idea. The more focused every element is in a scene, the better the overall story works. For them to learn specificity, I must be specific.

Several dozen of my previous students have now sold work developed in my classes, so I’m doing something right.

An intriguing relocation possibility reopened yesterday and needs to be explored further. I’d written it off because of high cost of living and economic problems in the area. But not only does it seem to be making a solid recovery, the laws mean that I would literally have access to health care the minute I stepped off the plane (since they actually are a civilized country that respects its citizens), I would be considered an asset to the nation because I’m a writer with a track record, and I’d have access to programs to learn the language. It’s early talks yet — the offer would have to be solid and financially viable in the long term, and the cats would have to come.

Next assignment came in for Confidential Job #1, and pointed up my current mess — I’m paid the same for this one assignment, which takes a few hours spread over a few days, as I’m being paid for a 2 week workshop with 60 students. That’s just so wrong on so many levels. Well, at least I learn from my mistakes.

Good season finale on CAPRICA last night. Hope it’s renewed.

Lots to do — ugh, I have to face my taxes this weekend, among other things.

Devon