we could have met in a bar, if i'd known it would just be us.
It was raining, I'm a wimp.
Tom Tomorrow rocks.
We always hear that writing is a lost art, that no one learns how to write any more. I have 20 journals that I check regularly and another 20 or so that I stop in on periodically, and I know that this is a small percentage of the journals out there. There's a ton of good writing out there.
Last night Michele wrote me and said, Hey, you going to the Step Up meeting? My writing group had been cancelled for the night, so I figured, what the hey.
Step Up is a philanthropic organization devoted to women's causes--that's also a networking organization for women in the entertainment industry. Do something good, meet people doing the same thing you're doing. There are lots of organizations like this; Step Up is less than a year old and has already been wildly successful.
The big upcoming project is the Filmmakers Lab in May, during which they're going to have panels and guest speakers, but the central focus is going to be three screenplays that are chosen to be the subject of the lab: the screenplays will be discussed and workshopped and sections read by industry professionals.
There's been a lot of interest in this lab: a month ago Step Up had had 125 script submissions, and I'm quite sure there were at least 300, if not more, by the deadline.
At the meeting last month, there were at least 100 women present. The woman running the meeting asked for volunteers (who hadn't entered the contest) to take home scripts and give them an initial read. There weren't enough people then for the 125 scripts.
I assumed that there was going to be another call for volunteers at last night's meeting.
When I got to the Writer's Boot Camp building in Santa Monica, I found 6 other women there. They asked me, "Isn't this where the Step Up meetng is supposed to be?"
It was cancelled, or forgotten, or something. Only 10 women showed up. We chatted for a while--one young woman (with cat's-eye glasses, a mod haircut, a purple wool coat pinned by a giant gold brooch--talk about a "look") wanted to organize a writer's group, but neither Michele nor I could join in, having too many other committments.
I sent e-mail to the woman running things when I got home, and today she replied, saying she'd just gotten in from Australia--didn't someone tell us the meeting had been postponed until next week?
I am just a little nervous about how well organized this Filmmakers Lab is going to be. Well, it's probably always a little disorganized at the beginning. Sigh. Just don't expect to hear about your script come April 18.
Tonight Michele and I have our first session at UCLA Extension: Novel Writing. There's an idea I haven't been able to wrestle into shape in a screenplay; I'm going to attack it as a novel, to see if that doesn't get it into shape.
Also, I've been reading so many damn novels lately, I think I want to write one.
(No, it won't be a Regency romance. I leave that to you, Lucy. Get cracking!)
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Copyright 1999 Diane Patterson
Send comments and questions to diane@spies.com