I finished to scene 30, which means I'm half way through my screenplay. I'm only on page 37, which sort of worries me, but there are more scenes this time that are purely visual with no speaking. This is definitely the most visual draft of all my screenplays. I'm trying to think of it as a silent film, meaning that if you were watching the movie without sound, I'm trying to make sure an audience would still get the story or get the story more or less.

I'd always thought of myself as a very visual thinker, but writing this screenplay has challenged this assumption. Supposedly men have an easier time thinking visually than women, and I'm starting to wonder if that's true.

I'm more relaxed about my screenplay and writing than I've ever been, and I have to thank my baseball character Jim Reilly for that. He's taught me that writing is like any sport or any job for that matter. You've got to work your bunnies off to get anywhere. I think I put myself under a lot of unnnecessary pressure thinking that I had to be perfect and successful right away. I was consequently freaking out, because I've never been perfect and successful about anything starting out. I didn't how to do that and I was freaking out about it.

But my baseball dude guy has taught me that writing is going to be about hard work. And I can deal with that. I've worked hard at stuff all my life. I've had too. Nothing has come very easy to me, at least in my own mind. When I got really good at tennis in junior high, I played every day and did stroke work in front of a mirror. I lived and breathed tennis 8 hours or more a day, especially n the summer. My old doubles partner from junior high told me at graduation, that she wished I kept on playing tennis. Kara said that together we could have ranked # 1 in doubles in state. She didn't too bad without me, she and her partner ranked third in state.

I suppose it was nice of her to say this, although looking back it pisses me off that I stopped playing tennis, but I didn't feel like I had the support at home to continue in that demanding sport. And that's a whole other story.

Anyway, I guess I feel better about my writing because now I feel like I have the necessary skills to succeed. I know how to work hard, and stay on point, and get stuff done. With my work ethic, I was able to run 3 marathons. I know how to work my bunnies off to distraction and get stuff done. All the creativity stuff, I'm not too sure about, but hard work, I definitely have that part down. It also makes me more relaxed since like any sport or job, it takes awhile to get good, a good long while. I figure I have a few years more to go get good at writing, and that means I have a lot less internalized pressure to deal with.

Yep, I definitely have the work like a dog part down good. I only hope the work like a dog thing helps with my writing. At least it can't hurt.