Cinerant

Flying By

What a difference a weekend makes.

Last week I was in some kind of funk, not sure what was going on. I couldn't get any writing done and I was barely able to see my hand in front of my face.

But force a little self-discipline, throw in a good movie, an evening out and everything is fine again.

The writing wasn't coming naturally, so I forced myself to sit down Thursday night. I blocked everything out, didn't answer my phone, and suddenly, I was rocking and rolling. So much so that I'm into my last act. This time last week, I had gotten half a page of my first act done. Am I happy with it so far? Not really, but it's a place to start.

Which leaves me wondering, why was I able to accomplish this now intead of a week ago when I was struggling? I'm sure part of it had to do with seeing an impending deadline and knowing something had to be ready before that point. Getting over the initial hump of "Can I do this" suddenly lead to a, "Well, can't I stay home and finish already?"

The other two things that were really helpful were decompressing. Friday night I went with a friend to see Inside Man. Nice muscular film. A couple of plot hole problems, but solid performances from Clive Owen and Denzel Washington. You'd never know this was a Spike Lee film (minus the language). It's a seamless project of hiding his usual baggage behind the camera.

Then Saturday night, I went with some people to the beach and we played volleyball and later goofed off by diving into the ocean. (We also celebrated the engagement of some friends.) I was still digging sand out of myself on Sunday. Very odd. Overall though, it was a good weekend, topped off by the charming premiere (or sneak preview) of What About Brian?" on ABC.

posted by cinegod @ 11:50 AM