What I'm Gonna Write In 2008

So now that the move is over, the unpacking is largely done and I've almost taken care of the pile of work (mostly $60 notes) that piled up in the interim, it's time to think about writing again.

Other bloggers have things on their sidebars about how far they are on certain scripts. I don't know how to do that, plus it's more fun just to whine about it in a post. So here it is.

Scripts I want to tackle/finish in 2008 (the ambitious version):

1) THE LOW-BUDGET THRILLER. This is actually almost done; a few weeks ago I made a few minor changes that a few readers inspired. Now I just need to read through it, make a few final tweaks, and get it out there. Definitely next on the agenda.

2) THE THING I'M DOING WITH THE WRITING PARTNER. I still think this could be a good, fun idea, but several false starts (torn apart by my screenwriting group) showed that we hadn't cracked how to approach it yet. Still, i think we're closer to a good take on it. The downside is that he lives in Canada, and long distance writing is almost as hard as long distance sex. Still, I'm determined to bang this out -- sometime.

3) THE REWRITE. This is a fantasy/romance that I dug out of mothballs and brought into group last month, which helped me get an idea out of how to finally made it work. There's a lot of good stuff here, but it needs a first act set-up (and a main character finessed exactly the right way) to make it all work.

4) THE RAUNCHY TEEN COMEDY WITH HEART. Once upon a time, I did heavy outline and index card work on this, then tossed it into a box. Now that teen comedies are coming back, it might be time to finally type it into a screenplay.

5) THE SUPERNATURAL COMEDY. Another idea that I did some plotting out of, and even banged out the first 13 pages. It still needs work, but it has a high-concept hook, and if I could crack the plot it could be the most commercial thing in my bag.

6) THE VIOLENT HORROR THING. I plotted this out, wrote a lot of the more sex-and-violence filled scenes, disturbed myself, and locked it away for a while. Some week I'll be bored enough to let it out of its cage and at least pound out a rough draft.

7) THE BOOK ADAPTATION. A friend slipped me a book by a guy who wants a script made from it, and might possibly pay some minimal cash for me to spec it. I want to read the book before I even think about it, but it is dense and historical and I haven't had a chance to curl up with it in the 6 weeks or so I've had it. So who knows.

8) SOMETHING FROM MY BOOK OF IDEAS. I recently started collating all the random ideas I have had. Maybe I'll spark to one enough to try and tackle it along the way.

9) SOMETHING I HAVEN'T EVEN THOUGHT UP YET. Because you never know.

I think that's everything crying for attention, though there's also the odd thriller idea that I did a first act for that I'm still determined to do something with (it's been off to the side since the screenwriting group tore it apart almost a year ago).

I also need to go turn my 2-hour TV pilot into a one-hour TV pilot that somehow captures the same story. Feh.

In reality, I probably won't knock out 7, 8 or 9 scripts this year, but some of these things have had a lot of work put into them, while it's time to resurrect the at-least-one-hour-a-day thing again.

This is the year. And who knows, maybe the strike will even end someday.