Last night, as I was working on Scurvytown, I started to write episode 5 when I was about 300 words into episode 4. Talk about stepping on 4′s toes! Not to be outdone, 4 was finished tonight at HDs, and totally trounced 5 with a plot twist that I knew was coming, but didn’t realize was happening so soon. Oops.
Back to the drawing board with episode 5, I guess. It’ll get slated for later in June, I think. It is festival season, after all, and it’s going to be a long, sweltering summer on the island! And anyway, it’ll be good to have a few backup episodes that I can throw in anywhere in case I end up with some nasty writer’s block later on this year. Hoping that doesn’t happen, and honestly, Scurvytown is sort of an exercise in giving writer’s block the finger anyway.
I am pretty pleased with the way the story is going, and believe me, there are a lot of ideas that haven’t yet been fleshed out, with the list of possibilities ever lengthening. As I drove home tonight, with my cinnamon not-a-latte (because the new girl at HDs couldn’t figure out how to make a latte), a sort of blissfulness kind of surrounded me. Even if Scurvytown is utter crap, it doesn’t matter, because I finally feel like I am being a real writer. And anyway, my mom reads it and likes it, so I have one fan from the start. (Hi Mom, love you!)
I guess that is all it really takes for me to have *some* confidence in my work. I feel like I am obviously in need of some serious editing, but for now I am happy to consider all the roughness around the edges as part of the charm of Scurvytown. I hope others can convince themselves of that, too. C’mon, feed the delusions! Starving them will only make them stronger! Or something.
And now, off to catch up on some TV. So glad that Castle is on hulu, as it’s delightfully fun for an aspiring writer, much like the movie Stranger Than Fiction.