Welcome to My Brain

“Write to please just one person.” — Kurt Vonnegut

I found this quote in perfect timing. I started this blog in that very spirit. It’s the reason I post once a day (I’m the one person). It must also be the reason I gave up on journalism in college (I went to Pitt for English originally, and my mother — an English teacher — pushed me to move into journalism so I could find a job when I gradated).

I write what interests me, be it a screenplay or web article. If it’s something that doesn’t interest me, how will I ever finish it? Screenwriters are notorious for this — we all start writing a new script before finishing the old one. Sometimes we go back to the old one to keep working. Sometimes. I always think about when I die and my laptop is opened, someone will discover a treasure trove of first pages of novels and countless first-ten-minutes of unproduced movies. And notes. Thousands of notes on ideas, concepts, titles for things that’ll never be written.

I keep a Notes file on my MacBook Pro full of these fragments of lost ideas. I also keep a section for names. I found having a well of names to draw from keeps the writing process going on a script or (potential) novel. You come across a new character and you’re mid-flow you don’t want to take your fingers off the keys and wonder what their name is.

I should break this names up into categories. “Heroic.” “Villain.” “Gunslinger.”

If you want to write, write as if you’re the only person who’s going to read it. If you don’t want to share it, that’s ok too.