My archives keeps disappearing. This seems to happen periodicaly, but when I republlish them they come back. Not sure why I'm so worried, since I wouldn't be too heart broken if I lost my blog. No, I take that back. I would be just a little pissed because I've invested alot of time writing in this thing, although I know no one is reading it. Ah, the joys of blogging on the Net.

I'm on page 42 of my screenplay and I just finished scene 21. I'm writing total drivel, but Julie says all first drafts are shitty first drafts, so I'm just following what she says and wriitng a top notch totally shitty first draft.

The worst thing about being in this part 2 of screenwriting class is having your screenplay read out loud by people you don't know and don't particularly like. I read a book today called Movies in the Mind, How to Build a Short Story. There's a chapter in the book on critics where the author says "pick your critics carefully and make sure they're trained ... find critics that can actually help you write better ... never say anything about someone else's story unless you yourself could fix it."

Some people in writng classes I've taken love to critique a story but then when you ask them how to make it better, they have no answers. Then there are those others, and they're in every class, every seminar you take, who just talk and having nothing to say. They love to raise their hand and talk, but what comes out of their mouth is nothing. It's like they were taught in school, they just need to talk, never mind that what they're saying is bad BS. Now I don't mind people who talk and who are good at BSing their way into making themselves sound intelligent. But from my own personal experience, they are of BSing well is a lost art. Don't these people hear what they are actually saying? I don't think they do, because if they did, they would be so embarrassed for themselves. But alas, the gift of awarenss is a rare gift indeed.

My problem is I don't talk enough. I don't usually like to say anything unless I have something good to say and I hate critiquing someone else's work unless I can offer them advice on how to make it better. Screenwriting is so new to me that half the time, I'm at a lost as to what to say to anyone.

Five more classes to go. If the screenwriting teacher wasn't so great and if I didn't have as my goal finishing the screenplay by the last class, I wouldn't have taken part 2. I swear to god, this is the last writing class I'll ever take. I said that earlier, but screenwriting was a new genre for me. I'm glad I took the class because there was alot to learn with the formatting, the character development, the beat sheet and stickie notes and then the final outline for screenplays.

Every published author who's ever written a book of writing eventually ends up saying, stop taking writing classes. They're useless and sometimes destructive. They all say just keep writing and keep reading.

Well, I think It's time to take these published authors advice. Just five more classes and then yeah, no more writing classes ever. I hate saying never or ever, because then what always ends up happening is, I do the thing I swore you would never do. So I'm not going to say never or ever. I'm just going to say, I prefer at this time to not take a writing class until such time where I feel I may benefit from being in that kind of environment. I think that sounds better, doesn't it?