Erin: Not For Sale

How was my Thanksgiving? Well, I travelled with my family down to Bucks County, PA, where we met up with my brother-in-law's family and had dinner. I took the following two days off from work, and was really upset when I had to go back. It was almost like returning from New York--"I've had this sweet vacation, and now I have to go back to this???

During my vacation, I read a book, How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation. I'm seriously thinking of incorporating myself as a not-for-profit organization. Nonprofit organizations are the ones who get the huge grants, and having a lot of money is what I need right now. Part of the organization's salary would cover my salary and benefits, so I wouldn't have to work or go looking for a job.

This morning, I called Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, and asked to see how I can get a free lawyer. Once everything was incorporated, that lawyer would be on my board of directors, offering legal advice.

As it turns out, they actually offer a seminar that can help you put a nonprofit together. The next one is December 10th, but I can't go, because a.) It's in New York and b.) I have a driving lesson that day. The seminar also costs $425. $425 might sound like a lot, but considering all the profits I could incur at a later point, doesn't really sound too bad. The only problem is, $425 can put a serious dent in my bank account. While I have more than that in there, I've already paid some serious credit card bills this month. Maybe I can get some web design jobs to cover that expense. Hopefully, I'll have the money for it by the next time they offer a seminar.

In other news, I just got a MySpace message from BlueCat that Gordy Hoffman is offering another seminar next weekend in Rochester. I'd go to that too, if there was only more time to write some material.

The Seminar Weekend, Part Two: Sunday

I got to the seminar at 10 of 8, and Gordy Hoffman showed up about 10 or 15 minutes later. Gordy has longish hair, and sort of looks like a burlier version of the guy who played the guidance counselor on Freaks and Geeks.

Basically, the day was spent reading and critiquing each others' scripts. When it came time to critique mine, I admit It was a little hard for me to articulate what it was about. It didn't occur to me to tell them that I brought it because I didn't have anything else to present. He asked me where I wanted to go with it. I hardly remember what I said. I'm not sure if I really want to continue with it, because as Gordy pointed out, the script was written as a means to express myself. Someone said it reminded them of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, another said Dr. Strangelove, Gordy said The Graduate.

During lunch break, someone asked Gordy what it was like to have a famous brother.

"I don't really look at him that way," He replied.

One thing about Gordy that I find an asset is that
he critiques from the point of view of a writer. I find that most script coaches/analysts write and work from the point of view of a story editor, and I find that many of these people berate the aspiring writer, whether they intend to or not. Rather than say, "Don't put that in there because the cinematographer wouldn't like that," he would say, "That detail isn't necessary. Delete it, and then you have more room for your movie." (Okay, he didn't say that exactly, but that's the crux of what he said.) As a writer, that makes more sense to me.

All in all, it was time well spent. Perhaps I'll sign up for another course when I actually do have new material.

I think the one thing I took away from the seminar is that I want to write screenplays, but I need to take things one step at a time. If I do write another spec, I'll pick a subject or story that I won't mind still working on in a couple of years.

Reading For Pleasure

I need to start reading more for pleasure. It makes me more creative. It's been incredibly long time since I've anything out of genuine curiousity, as opposed to research or trying to learn a new skill. Well, actually, I have read stuff for pleasure the past couple of years, I'm just able to enjoy it now.

Right now I'm working on reading two books: Virginia Woolf's The Waves and Alanna Nash's Golden Girl, a biography of Jessica Savitch. The former is an austere inner monologue (or monologues) about a group of friends, the latter a biography of Jessica Savitch. I became interested in reading Golden Girl after someone linked to the following video at this board:

Some other things I would like to read:

The New Science, Giambattista Vico: I bought this book after Christmas 2004, and have already attempted to read it twice. Now that I think I have enough background, I'm ready to read it, or at least I am gravitating toward it.

Metamorphoses, Ovid: Here's another one I've been "In the mood for". Having dug deep enough into mythology, I'm very interested in learning more about the more surrealist aspects of mythology, which is harder to get from more general books.

Aeneid, Virgil: I'm still on a Greek kick. Other than that, I'm not really sure why I want to read this one.

Tomorrow I'll be going up to my sister's to attend the Gordy Hoffman seminar on Sunday. The last time I dealt with my screenwriting with other people, it burned me, and at that time, I almost lost interest. I felt like the people involved in the group were more interested in the career aspects of screenwriting, which at that time wasn't my thing--and still isn't. I can understand proper format, like to make sure that you put the directions and dialogue in the right spots, but who really cares if they put "we go back to..." instead of "BACK TO SCENE"? I'll keep an open mind, though.

Nothing's right, I'm torn!

At the end of last week, I placed interlibrary loans on two books as part of my book project. Yesterday, I copied a bunch of articles at the Warren Hunting Smith Library, mainly because my dad was escorting me around and I had time to kill.

Last night, I was looking at two books on narratology, thinking that their ideas can help me out for my book. But at this point, I'm torn. On one hand, I'd like to read these books, for the reasons I mentioned previously. At the same time, I'm starting to feel like I'm carrying around dead weight--that to read these books would be a regressive act, at least for the time being.

I spent the last couple of days reading Joe Eszterhas' book, The Devil's Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God!, and after reading his book, coupled with the upcoming Gordy Hoffman seminar I'll be attending, I really just want to get writing.

In other news, I've been driving to work. I feel comfortable with it.

Love, Liza

When I was a junior in college (Eell, actually I was a third semester Sophomore--it was the fall semester, I was six credits behind.), I took a one credit weekend course whose main draw was cave paintings. The gentleman was Clayton Eshleman, an autodidact who'd spent seven years translating Cesar Vallejo and another 17 decoding hieroglyphics in caves in the south of France. Anyway, the assignment to complete the course was to saturate ourselves in something for four weeks. Knee deep in Camille Paglia's Sexual Personae, I chose "decadence", examining the poetry of Rimbaud, Swinburne, and the works of the Marquis de Sade and Oscar Wilde.

I had been doing this type of thing for years (mostly with movie stars), but taking a course put a definition on that idea for me, and taught me how to saturate myself in a more constructive manner than I already had been doing. I still think about that course everytime I'm immerse myself in something new, which, for the first time in a couple of years, I've been able to do.

Remember when I said that I couldn't spend much more time trying to find stuff to back up my book with? Well, I was part right. However, I've read two books pertaining to the subject matter I've been investigating about in the past week--John Boardman's The Oxford History of Greece & the Hellenistic World, and Carl Jung's Four Archetypes, which I got for $5 at the Strand. So what I'm saying here is that it's okay to immerse myself in projects, but it doesn't need to be my whole life. I need to think about other things, too.

In other news, hopefully I'll be taking a screeenwriting workshop with Gordy Hoffman (Philip's brother) in Rochester September 30th. Because I was paying PayPal, I had to transfer the registry fee into my savings account--otherwise it would've overdrawn. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and hopefully everything will be okay. If it all pans out, I'll be workshopping The United States of Love.