No Book Today

Back in 2004, I joined a screenwriting group at Ithaca College. I wanted to write a movie with an ensemble cast, when I tried to push the material, the other people in the group shot it down, primarily because there aren't too many ensemble films evaluated--mostly because the studios aren't interested in buying them.

Cut ahead to the summer of 2007. I'm at a library at a local college when I decide to pull out a book on psychoanalytic criticism, which I had read about elsewhere. In the introduction, the editor of the anthology made a point to distinguish Psychoanalytic criticism from other forms of literary analysis, like New Criticism and Post Modernism. A passage about Aristotleian criticism really inspired me. If you've read at least one or two screenwriting books, you know that many of them to some extent regurgitate Aristotle's Poetics. To realize that the Poetics was only one form of criticism (as opposed to the form of criticism) really blew my mind.

Thus began an 18 month odyssey in which I devoted myself to researching and debunking popular screenwriting theories. It would either manifest itself as a book, or a "consulting practice", by which I could've marketed myself by having a contrarian view.

Last month, after I got hired at my last job, I decided it was time to bring some closure to the project. I realized that maybe I didn't need to write a book, and I'm not sure if I have too much interest handling other people's scripts. I decided I would write a paper. I ended up writing 2½ pages, enough for a position paper. This past weekend, after finishing The Huffington Post Guide To Blogging, I thought about created a "side blog" devoted to posting my findings. Then I realized: there are plenty of options open to me. What do I have to prove?

Part of me is glad I did the research: I know at some point, I'll be able to use it in my own writing for sure. Another part of me, however, regrets wasting so much time that--at least some of it--could've been spent writing. Oh well, live and learn.

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In other news, I sketched out the website for the DVD. At least I'm making progress somewhere...