Reading and Writing

First off, reading: I’m only at 14 books and it’s August! I wanted to read 30 books this year! So far behind! But I’ve got Hunger Games on my list now (…10 months after I was first told to read it…), so that should jump up to 17 in a really short span of time.

Second off, writing: I love to write! I wish I had time to do it every day for two non-work hours without it feeling taxing. But as it is, I have time to do it most days, and am only exhausted to the point of misery on some of those days, so all in all, pretty great. I wrote a first draft of a spec, which is respectable considering the “first spec” and “first draft” status, I’ve written one terrible one-act that no one will ever see (helpfully killing any vanity and self-judgment in the process), and am substantially on my way to a first draft of a one-act that actually has potential.  I’ve got ideas for at least two others that I’d love to write. I want to submit two one-acts to Fringe, and see what happens, and if what happens is REJECTION, I want to submit it other places, anyways. I want to write and submit a spank before the year is out. And I’ve started writing a webseries with a friend. Will we film it? I don’t know. I also have a fun, dark, twisted idea for another webseries, that makes me excited because holy crap, I’m developing a voice. I feel like I’ve got enough stuff I want to write that I could do it non-stop for 3 months and still have more. It’s a great feeling. Some people don’t let fear or self-doubt keep them from jumping right in, but for me, with writing, I had to get to a point where I was ready. And now I am.

Why am I writing this post? I’m writing it because I spent six months thinking, “I want to write,” and then I spent another six months telling people, “I want to write,” and then I started writing occasionally and would tell people, “I write,” even though it felt like a lie. Now I’ve been in New York for a little over two years, and this spring, I finally really got going with it, and would tell people, “I write,” and mean it. When they say, “What are you working on?” I actually have an answer. And the more I put that out there, publicly, the more I feel inclined to keep doing it. 

So here we go. Those plays have a strict December deadline. That other stuff has no strict deadline. So now everyone who reads this (hello, to my one faithful reader and the person who idly skims this on their dashboard) can know and judge me if I fail to hold myself accountable. Because certainly the novelty and excitement is going to wear off, and then I just need to keep going. It will be either very nice or very depressing to read this post in a few months, when I’m totally disheartened.

Also, Sketch 101. I really should sign up for that.

Can’t wait to write my totally depressive post once the winter hits!