Skip to main content

ROW80 R2-2: Back At It!

For this round, I want to read more and write more. Those are two things I want to focus on. Unfortunately for some, it means I'm not going to be showing up to every event even if they stay online for the quarter. And they are certainly going to. Let's face it, I won't accomplish my goals if I keep sitting around on Facebook, Google Hangouts, or Zoom instead of working on my goals.

During the downtime, I wrote a children's book. I want to learn to draw, so I can finish it and do more in the series. I found it rejuvenating to write something short.

I've also found myself sucked into Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have so many plans for my little island! I pretty much played it through the entire weekend, but it was good for the soul. I needed a break from work and everything else.

Things got a bit disordered while I awaited the construction of the museum!

DRAWING

I bought access to a drawing course and I'm going to aim to practice 30 minutes a day.

FINANCES

Canada Revenue Agency has moved the date for tax filing to June, so that is one less stressor. I'm not going to wait that long, but I don't have to rush to fit it in this month.

HOME

I was finally able to get my shut-off valves in place in my bathroom. I did it myself. Because it was the lowest point in my condo, there was more mess than usual and I was glad I had buckets and an old towel to catch water and the gross stuff in the drain. I'm actually sort of glad that I'll have to rebuild the drain because I have a P-trap that has an access on it for draining the grossness out more regularly. I've been gradually making some progress on it throughout the weeks.

I've started working on my filing. I think cleaning up the paper around my house will help a lot. I found my regular birth certificate while doing it. It will help with the taxes likely too.

READING

I'm currently reading iD by Madeline Ashby.

4/20 Books

TRUMPET

I'm enjoying my trumpet. I haven't got into playing every day, but I think I need to pick some songs to attempt to master.  I think I'm going to first try to learn everything in the one book I have that comes with a CD to play along to. Then I can follow the timing like I used to in music class or band. I've always been terrible at counting. I play better with someone else bringing me in.

WRITING

I just want to touch on something here that I'm seeing a lot in screenwriting groups. That is the question about using "We" sentences. For example, early on in The Matrix it says, "We FOLLOW four armed POLICE officers using flashlights as they creep down the blackened hall and ready themselves on either side of room 303." A lot of people who are starting out want to use this form and don't understand why they shouldn't. 'We FOLLOW' is a camera direction, which is in the director's wheelhouse. If you're not the director, you shouldn't do it. It's also a turn off to a lot of people, so why cling to something that makes it harder to get someone to take you seriously? It's really not hard to infer the same thing in a different way. For example, "Four armed POLICE officers creep down the blackened hall with flashlights. They ready themselves on either side of room 303."

If you want to sell your work through a traditional channel, editors and producers have lists of no-nos that you need to care about. If you want to write for yourself and plan to do everything to bring it to market, then you can do whatever you want. That level of freedom can be to your own detriment though.

- Agent O: I wrote the first book. Next is to learn to draw the characters.
- Sparks: 77,117/80,000
- The Mockumentary: 14/120 pages

I hope everyone found a way to spend some time with their loved ones despite social distancing. Stay safe!

~ Rae

Popular posts from this blog

The Gauntlet That Was October

I had a lot of things happen in October. I watched Frankenstein in the cemetery with friends. I had tea with a friend. I started a new sport: curling. This is really fun and I'm enjoying the level of activity it provides and all the strategic elements. I'll do a separate post on it soon. Unfortunately, soon after my first game, I came down with Covid and so did the friend who I had tea with, so I think we both caught it at the place we went to. That wasn't fun. I already posted about that. I was fortunate to be free of it in time to attend Can-Con where I took in lots of panels, saw some of the wonderful writer community, bought many new books, and volunteered to help out in the rooms. The following weekend, I went to the livestream for Danielle Allard's new album release, followed by the in person release. As part of this, she has a 6 video series that releases every Sunday on her YouTube at 1:15 PM EDT. Video number 2, Falling Into Place, is one that I feel fortunate

Frisky Friday - Maple Syrup Porn

[caption id="attachment_10523" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] While delving into some Canadian film history this week, I learned that there is a thing called Maple Syrup Porn. I laughed when I read the term. I thought, "Is our adult film industry really called Maple Syrup Porn?" It's not. Some is Canadian, but it mostly refers to getting around censorship of sex. It was not only common in Quebec due to religion, but several places in the US. You can read more about it here . If you're looking to heat things up this weekend, consider a sweet old film from the early days of the sexual revolution. Maybe even drizzle a little syrup on your partner ;) Guid cheerio the nou, R~

On Edge - ROW80 R1-16

This sounds superstitious, but the fact that this is Leap Year has me on edge. Why? The last two have been rather difficult for me. In 2012, my work place was being divested and I was working multiple job roles because of all the people who had left. My marriage also ended. This led to a major life change, which included moving to Ottawa. I love Ottawa, so at least that worked out. The rest was hard. In 2016, I was restructured out of my job. This led to me floating about for a while on EI as I tried to figure out my future, trying some things like Copywriting out, and going back to school for screenwriting. After school, it took time to find work and I almost lost my home and car in the process. Scary stuff. It's now 2020 and I have a full-time permanent job again, but I'm filling multiple job roles because we're short-handed. We're also so far into year end that it's hard to train the person who is learning to be me for one of those roles. I'm just hopin