NaPiBoWriWee 2011: Day 2

A sad schedule today made it a touch day. Got some great momentum and excitement for picture book 2 going this morning, then my alarm goes off telling me I have to stop and eat some lunch then go to work. I really didn’t wanna! …but I did. I figure I made it a little under 1/3 of the way through my intended story.

Work has become this never ending pondering of “I’m not in charge so why am I in charge?” — which also meant that my dinner break only got me through about 200 words because I was interrupted too much. Not according to plan at all. I need big headphones that scream, “go the frell away, I’m writing now.”

So when I got off (half an hour later than I was supposed to) I went to pick up my bro-in-law at his job. Spent the half hour as I waited in the parking lot with my laptop jammed in between me and the steering wheel, feverishly typing, and got to about the 2/3′s point. At which point it’s 10 after 11.

Home now at last. I’ll do some more writing tonight, but it’ll probably fall on the opposite side of midnight. Because I have job aps I need to do first, and if I get too tired, I can’t do them. Word count for the day hovering at 1800ish. Not my best, but not bad. The downer is just that the draft isn’t complete.

On the positive side, tomorrow is my day off! =) I can catch up!

NaPiBoWriWee 2001: Day 1

Silly name aside, if you don't know what NaPiBoWriWee is, you definitely need to check out the blog of lovely Eureka writer and YA author, Paula Yoo.

But the bare bones basics?

Seven picture books in seven days.

You heard me, seven first draft, rough basic beginning points for picture books generated in seven days. Sound like fun??

I thought so too! I've been doing doodles and cartoons like the one on the right for a while now, and my big bro (brother-in-law-to-be, actually, but bleh, what a mouthful!) had been encouraging me to think about doing a children's book (something new and wildly different for me) when the first of Ms. Yoo's tweets about the event caught my attention.

Who am I to ignore the pokings and prodings of fate? ;)

Day 1 started with a bang, my midnight writing sprint running over when I forgot to stop and the first draft for the first book was finished before I went to bed. About 1100 words, and not all of them terrible. I've planned out (roughly) at least the next three, so we'll see how far I make it this week. I'll be getting back to work here in a little bit, hopefully making inroads into the next first draft. But today? Already a good day!

We now resume our regular (ha ha) posting schedule..

I really am laughably bad at keeping committed to this blog. Mostly because I'm really bad at journaling and talking about myself, neither of which suits one well for blogging. But I figured a general update would be nice, and I have a blog planned for later today talking about a great spiritual experience I had yesterday. Eureka will be back in July, and I intend to pick up my reviews again then.

I've continued to plug away on "Heights" which will be a major editing/rewriting project sometime this summer. I'm also working on the revamp of "The Devil's Wife" as a full length screenplay I've been working on.

I'll of course be at the Great American Pitchfest this June, because I adore Signe and Bob and will probably volunteer every year I live in this town, even in years like this one, where I don't really plan on pitching anything. Maybe "Heights" to the one or two book publishers who show, but we'll see. Not sure it's quite ready for that (or will be come June). But I encourage everyone to check out the event! I have a blast every year.

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 30

Well, it's finally here. Day 30. The end is here.

Wasn't sure I'd make it. I just barely got to being on pace the day before Black Friday, when I worked at 4:30 in the morning with the crazy people. (Yay, retail).

Surprisingly, Black Friday didn't break me. I dragged what remained of my carcass after the shoppers were done with it down to my local Starbucks and cranked out 1700+ words before the urge to collapse beat me into submission.

Black Saturday, however, killed me dead. Or perhaps the urge to push so hard on Black Friday did it and Saturday just nailed the coffin closed. Either way, Saturday was a zero sum day.

Drew it down to the wire, but powered through almost 5K on the 29th day. Was looking good to finish, with only 508 words to go...

Of course, then I had to go back to the retail hell, and I sat at a measly 508 words for almost 24 hours! Talk about feeling ridiculous!

What?

Oh, I've already given away what happened on day 30? My images?

Oh. Cutting to the chase then.

I WON!!!!

Seriously, though, it's been a great month. (Also, those 4K on the first abandoned NaNo project? Didn't count them. Felt like cheating.)

Now I just have to finish. Provide some answers. Resolve the story. ...get to the climax? Right, so... still have a ways to go.

But as of 4:30ish PST, I cleared 50K words (112 pages in all) and won NaNoWriMo. I think I'll take the rest of the day off (Except I'm stuck at Starbucks in WeHo for several more hours, so I won't. Bah.) I'll probably flit around Twitter for a bit and cheerlead for those still making the push. Because good encouragement can be all it takes to gets you through that last push!

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 22

I spent days 18 and 19 over the moon, excited because I'd caught up to the "recommended" word count, felt like I was back on pace, and two of my characters had sort of opened up and decided on this amazing subplot that altered the ending and made everything lead toward a much more amazing conclusion than previously planned.

So naturally, days 20 and 21 played host to a migraine and it was all I could do to get through working my "real" job. Looking at a computer screen just wasn't on tap.

So now it's back to playing catch up. I think I prefer it, though, because it eliminates any sense of complacency or saying, "Well, I got out 1000 words today, I can hit more tomorrow."

No day but today.

And once more into the breach, dear friends. I have a web lies to untangle and a wedding to break up. And that's just the tip of the ice burg!

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 16

Okay, so it's technically Day 17 now that we've gotten past midnight, but I don't have anything much to talk about since we're only an hour into the day.

Day 16 was a big work day, push hard to make significant progress in closing the gap between where I should be and where I am. Finished 5040 words today, bumping the total over 25K. Feels pretty good, and most importantly, I find myself arguing things out with characters and occasionally wondering who's in charge, me or them, which in my experience is a good thing. They get to that point and you're going to stick with them for a while, enjoy the ride, cuss the fights but later love them for tearing into you, and hopefully, come up with something on the page that isn't utter rubbish.

Of course, I was making the big push to break 25K total and 5K for the day which had me hyped and had me on a nice roll, good momentum, and after I cleared both those goals, I wanted to keep going. Got myself to mid-sentence and promptly stopped at point, so hopefully I can spin that into some great momentum for tomorrow. The downside is now that I got there and have stopped for till morning, I'm drained! Energy just died once I stopped.

Which I suppose makes it bedtime. Good night, all!

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 09

An early post today, courtesy of the cracked out work schedule which has me going in at 5 (when everyone else gets off) and closing tonight. Still had to ride in to WeHo with my sister for her regular(ish) work day, so I've had quite a bit of time to work today (which is wicked sweet!)

Got over 3K words written, breaking the 10K barrier about midway through those 3K words. Have tomorrow and Thursday off, so equally hopeful that I can hit this thing hard during my time off, maybe clear 3K on each of those days (I'll settle for making goal of 2K though, speaking practically!!)

Really glad I made the decision to switch stories. As usual, enjoying my villains the most- my out and out villainess who plays so many games she ought to be named Hasboro, started the first of her ploys today, which was a blast to write. I also got to write about Daniel, who is much more coherent while drunk and has the misfortune of currently having been forced into sobriety. I let him go on a little tangent today which actually ended up creating a great comic beat that resolved on a very serious and somewhat sad beat for him. Not bad for a 'eh, how bad can it be if I let the sober drunkard babble a bit' moment. Daniel's a bully and has the loyalty of the lowest snakes, but there's something tragic and likable about him, not to mention the fact that his rambling often proves amusing, so he's another enjoyable character. My main character (antihero) Hunter is interesting, but being an anti-hero, he doesn't get to have quite as much fun. But he is proving delicious to torture, and I have plenty more of that planned!

Next on my to-do list though, is looking into finding a public library or different coffee shop to work in near my workplace. Today at Starbucks has proven to be TEH DRAMA all day long! Not to mention dodgy internet connection! Suggestions welcome!

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 4

You may notice if you look back at the day 1 post with the counter widget that today my word count hasn't gone up much. That's not really accurate. The counter only reflects what I wrote TODAY.

Early in the October planning process, I was caught between two plots. Definitely something to be grateful for now, because I was struggling ridiculously with the one I chose, and sometimes fighting myself to get to work on it. Worse? It felt boring to me. I picked something outside my usual style, genre, and medium to be a challenge, but maybe going toward all three was a little much. Plus idea #2 has been nibbling away at me for DAYS. Unlike the first NaNo idea, it hasn't petered out this week. Fortunately it was still early, and after reading what I'd written so far, I decided to try switching ideas today.

What a difference that made! I wrote over 4K words today. I wrote more today than I've managed to squeeze out in the previous three days.

I'm going to have to push hard to make up the gap in words that restarting 4 days in has made, but it's definitely worth it. Sometimes taking a step back and looking at the options in front of you is a good idea. And in this case, it definitely is.

I feel rather flaky with this year's NaNo project, which is almost funny, because usually I'm the opposite. I get too attached to an idea or character, and it takes me longer to see it needs to be cut or changed. Hopefully coming from the opposite side in this project will help me find some good balance in future writing projects.

Tonight, NaNoWriMo.org featured the pep talk from Mercedes Lackey which is an amazing read and unlike many published authors, not disparaging of authors who aren't working on original projects. I have to agree with her, because I also feel fanfic makes excellent practice work. And my chosen field leaves very little room to talk, to be frank. TV writing has us break in by writing spec scripts, which when you boil it down, aren't all that much more than fanfic. Okay, granted, it's not the kind of fanfic featuring gratuitous sex and such, but it is formatted, gen, fic in a way.

I also decided to work today at Starbucks, because minimizing distractions is good. There was no, "I could just go clean this" or "Hmm, you know I haven't seen last week's Merlin" (I still haven't by the way, no spoilers!) just a nice green tea, my headphones, and air conditioning. Not usually essential, but it was over 90 degrees in LA today. Frak you, global warming.

Day four... let's just say it kicked my ass hard, so I started kicking ass back. Here's hoping the momentum remains through day five!

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 3

Not much to report today, except for the reminder that when you schedule every moment of your waking day, your word count suffers. As mine did today...

Thank goodness I've got a day off tomorrow and I can double down to get back on track.

A secret from Ms. Meredith Lindsey, aka Merlin to her friends and fans, to tide you over:

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 2

First, the quick and dirty: Still ahead of goal, though as you'll notice from the counter (see previous post) not by nearly the margin I held yesterday.

I really loved Lindsey Grant's day 1 pep talk as I read it this morning, especially this line:

"As we write our novels this month, join me in taking complete omnipotent ownership of our novel-worlds, where we, the writers, reign supreme and unopposed."

Yes indeed, I am supreme Goddess, all shall love me and despair!

Except today of course, when I resumed writing and my main character David had himself a little fit and sat int he corner and refused to speak to me till I saw things his way. And sure, maybe his way was right, and I was fighting him and should have known better but still... my universe!

I bet Yahweh never had this sort of problem. Noah wasn't like, "God, I know this is your Bible and all, but two of EVERYTHING?"

Just for that, I'm going to reveal one of the post secrets I created for David:

NaNoWriMo 2010: Day 1

And so it begins...

Got off work and spent my time in a Starbucks, typing away. This will become my natural state of existence for the next 30 days.

Felt like I was behind, because so many did a midnight kickoff, morning sprints, etc. I had to work, so I was asleep well before midnight, at work all day, and didn't start till 5pm today.

But at the end of the day, I still surpassed my goal for today, I'm on track, and I got an early kick in the butt reminder that I'm on my timetable, my goals, and to stop worrying about being behind or not keeping up. I'm here to write... and to do some quality cheerleading for my cohorts, most of whom, it turned out, were feeling just behind and in need of that reminder themselves.

Time to kick butt!

NaNoWriMo 2010: T-Minus 9 Days

As expected, it was an eleventh hour decision on which project I'd move forward with, and I mean that in a very literal sense. At 11pm on Wednesday (which I affectionately referred to as 'that day by which I'll make up my frakkin mind or else the hat comes out') I reversed my decision of six hours earlier... and not by drawing it out of a hat, either. Actually made a decision and have started kicking the whole show into gear.

I've been getting the music stuff in order. If you don't remember from last year, I do two lists- one all instrumental or languages I don't sing in and the other directed at the theme, lyrically and tonally. The instrumental is for writing, the other is for kicking my butt into gear in the in-between times, like driving in the car. Last year's favorite music for writing came from "Friday Night Lights" and the band "Apocolyptica", both of which will still provide a ton of music, but this year's awesome music is the "Inception" soundtrack. Have you listened to it? It's amazing stuff, plus totally hits the right zone in my brain to keep me moving but not hearing the music. Tempo and tone over content is how my sister describes my music when I write, but this is pretty amazing on all counts. On the lyrical playlist side, it's a heavy "What If" mix, lots of songs asking what if, because the project is all about "what if".

The plots are coming together nicely- yeah, plots. It's the story of the types of relationships fracturing out from four alternate choices made by the main characters, but in all four lines, they're connected by a death. Yes, I enjoy making things stupidly complicated. One of my main characters would call it "unnecessarily playing cat's cradle with string theory just to study characters and relationships", but she's got a vicious streak and likes talking back already, so I totally ignore her at times like that. She's going to be more trouble than my other main character, David, who seems pretty content and along for the ride.

Four story lines, so life gets interesting-- four post secrets for each of two characters, for example. Four parts to my music list, which is about to get divided into four lists. And even though it's the same two people, because I'm all about giving them a lot of life's left turns, I'm exploring a lot of range on who they are and what can change them, which means deeper character breakdowns, sometimes labeled with multiple answers by plot line.

Part of me is still wondering if I should have picked the nicer "retelling of Wuthering Heights" idea, but for the most part, decision made. And stuck to. Maybe.

... no idea where I'll be at in nine days. Starting one or the other. And as long as I don't psych myself out, starting a NaNo version of underwater basket weaving. And possibly tempting my sanity. Yay NaNo!

NaNoWriMo 2010: T-Minus 17 Days

I think my "Dear Plot" letter summed it up best earlier today:

Dear Plot #1 and Plot #2,

One knock down drag out fight. Only one may emerge from the octagon. Seriously. One of you needs to kill the other. That way I can focus on just one of you and make it work.

Don't make Mommy choose. Sort this amongst yourselves. And maybe next year, the loser can come play.

Thanks,
Your author

I see myself drawing one of the two titles out of a hat in the near future! And sadly, there is no hope of merging these two bastards into one idea, and neither is falling into the tangle of plot holes or irreconcilable logic failure.

I know, whine more. Because it's actually an awesome problem to have. Suspect I may lean more toward the modern relationship/character study fiction piece, because it is a little more removed from my comfort zone. The fantasy "apocalypse meets Wuthering Heights"? Yeah, that's right up my alley. Both original and novel format, so no rebel writer status for me this year. I'm doing it straight old school! ;)

For now though, I'm continuing with both outlines, both sets of character developments, and plodding through set up work on both pieces. I've given myself till the 20th to make a decision on which project to go through with, so about then, I'll start some of the more fun projects, like covers, post secrets, and sketches. After a name comes out of a hat.

The Envelope Please...

I've decided to pull an old project out of the storage file, where it's been dwelling for a little over a year now. I started toying with an idea in a similar vein to it, and that turned into a fusion of picking up the characters and some smidgen of world rules from the first project and fusing them to the second world concept I've been spinning a little. Interestingly, I've decided to pick up those characters in their arc where I saw them ending up at the Season2 or Season 3 mark and beginning from that place.

So to start with, I didn't open the old script drafts. I pulled out the old envelope. When I finish with the "big board" (you may have seen an old incarnation of the big board on this blog, which is really brown package shipping paper and painters' tape that my landlord doesn't object to having adhered to his walls! Cheap, easy way of making a visual space for blocking out an outline, for those who need one!) and all the scenes and beats and character addendums and such, I tuck them all into an envelope, seal it, date it, and tuck it away. I come back to projects often enough that having the old notes doesn't hurt! Sorting through the "Thursday's Child" envelope, I doubt I'll use many of these notes, but it's a good refresher and is helping me make notes of some ideas I want to lose and some I want to keep.

And yes, the original title (currently in the "keep" pile) comes from the Mother Goose:

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
But the child born on the Sabbath Day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.

Today's writing tip is a reiteration of something I pulled from playwright Leslie Sloan Orr. Hang onto the old stuff, even the tiny notes! It may come in handy again! Also? Deconstruction and tearing apart the old stuff is FUN! Pulling it all apart and slicing out slivers of the best of the old world and bringing them to a new world is FUN!

I keep promising to go back to The Devil's Wife and work on a full length screenplay from the short, but I'm still not at that point where I can sit and just watch it without the urge to tear it apart in a non-constructive way. Maybe for my NaNo project this year... =) Meanwhile, I'm re-building character profiles and a new sci-fi genre world for a pilot alongside continued edits for my "Castle" spec and edits on my most recent pilot, "Divine Judgment". In between, I hunt for a real job. Glamorous life of an aspiring TV writer, huh?!

Comic-Con Report: Sunday, July 25

Sunday started early for us. We were in line at 3:30. And still I was probably a dozen or so people back in the line headed into the "Castle" panel first thing Sunday morning, and the rest of the Geek Girl group was further back in their quest for "Smallville" and "Supernatural" panel seats. But it was weirdly fun, being tired, camped out well before dawn, and hitting that magical "close enough to 6am" and making a Starbucks run that woke everyone up! Starbucks was angling for "geeks in good moods" by playing music like the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" theme and "Pinky and the Brain".

If you don't normally follow this blog, you may not know that I've been working on a "Castle" spec script, so I was uber excited about the "Castle" panel. I actually had a moment when show creator Andrew Marlowe mentioned wanting to do a show that was similar to the spec, and had to check with friends sitting nearby to be sure I heard him correctly! Took a lot of pictures and video, so I'll probably cram them in here like a mad woman! The panel kicked off with a video sparking the Twitter mystery, a game leading into Season 3, which can be found by following WriteRCastle on twitter for clues. Funny video, with a little meta humor with Nathan Fillion as Castle tweeting a pic of the dead body.

The panel was amazingly funny. The moderator gave Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Stana Katic (Det. Beckett) a copy of "Heat Wave" to read from, and antics from consulting cast mates Seamus Dever (Ryan) and Jon Huertas (Esposito) on how to pronounce words to a rogue ice cube getting into the guys' pants while Katic was reading kept the audience in stitches more than the dramatic reading of the infamously steamy page 108 scene in "Heat Wave".

Also on tap was the moderator asking Dever and Huertas about the depth of the relationship between Ryan and Esposito. The moderator even mentioned that there is a growing and popular segment of the fan base who ships the slash pairing, which lead to Huertas trying to answer about the relationship, but Dever just continuing to dig a deeper hole by saying that partners were sometimes as close to a marriage as some cops get. Huertas finally managed to get around to talking about how they were brothers, and Marlowe mentioned that Dever and Huertas have the same banter and chemistry off screen as on, which translates well for the show.

The panel screened a scene from the upcoming Season 3 premiere and it looks like a great kick off for an awesome season! Other big season reveals include Castle's daughter Alexis (played by the adorable Molly Quinn who came to the panel in Trek uniform, making her the coolest one up there in my books!) having a boyfriend and continuing to push the boundaries the way her dad says he wants her to, but giving him a heart attack when she does! They also mentioned a multi-episode arc featuring a serial killer smart enough to be a worthy nemesis for Castle and Beckett. A challenge to Fillion's "Dr. Horrible" castmate Neil Patrick Harris to come on the show was issued, with Fillion asking the fans to tweet the challenge at Harris.

The cast shared some great stories of pranks played on set, including the prank Stana Katic played on Seamus Dever, managing to get the entire cast and crew in on convincing him that the upcoming episode would feature him and a strip tease. This resulted in Andrew Marlowe dodging Dever because he didn't think his acting skills were up to the prank, and Dever being more convinced it was true. Restrictive diets and body makeup were all in the mix before Katic and the cast and crew presented him with a g-string that read "Kiss me, I'm Irish."

Fillion of course tapped into his ability to say "Double Rainbow" and have his twitter fans yell back "Double Rainbow All the Way!" though the level of the response from the audience seemed to surprise the panel. When the lights came up for the Q&A, the audience learned why- the cast and crew thought the room was less than half the size it was, and they didn't know that quite a few people were actually turned away and didn't get in. A pleasant surprise for them!

Following the "Castle" panel, Anthony Head (Uther) and Colin Morgan (Merlin) of the BBC's "Merlin" took the stage to promote the upcoming Season 3, which is currently being filmed. The panel started with a video from series star Bradley James (Arthur) who couldn't make it to the panel. The next video in the set was a blooper reel, which revealed that Head is incapable of keeping a straight face for long, in contrast to the intimidating and fierce character he portrays in the show. The third video was the Season 3 trailer-- looks like Uther will expend every resource possible to bring his ward, Morgana, home again. And when she comes home, she'll be apologetic, but all in a ploy to work her way deep into the court for a mischievous end. The panel implied that there's a good chance Morgana will learn about Merlin's magic this season, and leaned toward ruling out the use of the part of Arthurian legend where Morgana seduces Merlin.

In wrapping up, I do have to say Comic-Con was an amazing and almost unreal ride of simply awesome panels and screenings, with a lot of fun making new friends and bonding with old ones. I'm really hoping to return to Comic-Con next year, with the Geek Girl group, for more fun and crazy antics!

Comic-Con Report: Saturday, July 24

Saturday for the Geek Girl group was "take it easy" day. The only day we weren't in line before 5AM and slept in. First stop of the day for me was the Expo floor, to do some strolling, shopping, costume spotting, and general playing around. Was also trying to hunt down a few people I knew would be there, but with no luck. (Estimates of 100K people attending and I don't bump into the 2 I'm looking for? What are the odds?) But I did get to pick up some comics and such, and made a girl envious of the Global Dynamics Eureka shirt I was wearing. Good way to spend the morning!

Part of the reason Saturday was my kick back day was that there were two panels I was hyped about, and all my focus was on them. The first was a genre TV writing panel, composed of writers I admire (and many I follow on twitter!) including Javier Grillo-Marxuach (Lost, The Middleman), Jesse Alexander (Heroes, Lost, Alias), Jose Molina (Castle, Firefly), Robert Hewitt Wolfe (The Gates, DS9, Dresden Files), Charles Murray (V, Criminal Minds), Sarah Watson (Middleman, Parenthood), Ashley Edward Miller (Fringe, Terminator SCC), Steve Melching (Clone Wars), Steve Kriozere (NCIS, VIP), and Mark Altman (Castle, Elvis VanHelsing). Great group, and as Sarah Watson observed, rather representative of the gender split in most writers' rooms right now. (Which is another reason to adore Eureka even more! Girl power!)

The panel kick started with ideas that never go to air, and a hysterical pitch from Jose Molina about an episode of Firefly that went something like this. Crew takes a job, goes to make the deal, bad guy turns out to be a 9 months pregnant evil lady. They have to shoot her to get away, but Simon being his awesome self saves the baby. Cue a "Three Men and a Baby" Firefly style. They of course get the baby a new home, but turn a profit doing so, also in true Firefly style. (Seriously, Firefly was canceled long before its time!!)

Next they talked the craziest network notes, and I had to write a bunch down, because they were too funny to believe. For example, on an episode featuring an evil twin, a note was sent back reading, "This is great! Who are you thinking is going to play the evil twin?" In another, following the description of a murder where the victim was stabbed with a stiletto, the note read, "Does he have to be killed with a shoe?" When the question turned to the serious end of dealing with the network notes, the panel noted that if there's a note that something isn't working, then it isn't working! Fix it in your own way though, don't treat the suggestion from an exec as the "how to" on editing. They also noted that notes that read "Explain this" or "Clarify" were the polite way of saying "Please dumb this down!"

On the subject of break-in advice for young writers, my favorite by far was this:

Sarah Watson: Be a girl!

Other valuable advice included writing and reading to excess (check), always be working on projects, be it spec, pilot, novel, or essays, be professional, be polite, but be tenacious and confident. Consider getting a Canon 5-d or 7-d and shoot your own project and bring it to the web. If it worked for the House season finale, the little Canon cameras that can are definitely good enough for beginning pilots and webisodes! Crank out material, always focusing on character first before building the world rules, then go back and make sure you color in the lines with those rules without sacrificing the great character stories. Because the best FX are two people having a tense conversation in genre TV. Also, this may stop your budget people from shooting you. Do your homework and know what's out there- vampires are flooding the market, so shy away from the fangs and glitter, girls!

It was a great panel, with some absolutely hysterical advice, and if you're interested in the twitter-sphere, here's the handles for the writers listed above. Javier Grillo-Marxuach (OKBJGM), Jesse Alexander (globalcouch), Jose Molina (JoseMolinaTV), Robert Hewitt Wolfe (writergeekrhw), and Ashley Edward Miller (ashman01).

After the Genre TV panel, I slipped over to the panel before "Eureka" and "Warehouse 13", which was a Cartoon Voices panel. If you have an open slot in your Comic-Con schedule, and this is at that time, run, don't walk to it! A group of some of the best voice actors in cartoons doing a somewhat dirty and hilarious version of Cinderella as a cold reading? Hilarious!

Next came the Warehouse 13 panel, moderated by Eureka's Neil Grayston. Good fun, with Eddie McClintock making his entrance by doing a lap of a section of the audience and high-fiving fans. The panel reassured fans that CCH Pounder is not a scary woman and that she's actually hysterical to work with on set. We'll learn more about her character, Ms. Fredricks, int he upcoming season according to the panel, and there's a little one sided romance in the works for poor Artie. They also talked a little about the artifacts being "science not yet understood" and not supernatural, which is how they see it co-existing in a universe with Eureka, which is a pure science show.

Eureka's panel followed the "Warehouse 13" panel, moderated by the lovely Allison Scagliotti. The panel kicked off with the extended trailer for the new season of "Eureka", and an interesting little new clip that caused the audience to completely freak out. Mid-trailer, a very distinct and familiar voice says, "Hey, Carter. Miss me?" In his usual tailored suit and cocky smirk, was Nathan Stark (played by Ed Quinn), definitely appearing this season in some incarnation or another! The fans were so excited the entire next clip with Neil Grayston and Allison Scagliotti was lost under the cheering, and Jamie Paglia had to repeat it, because it turned out to be a Comic-Con shout out that got lost in the excitement over the return of Nathan Stark.

The panel confirmed that the new rebooted Eureka is here to stay. As Jamie Paglia put it, "The network asked, 'so when is it going back to normal?' An we said, 'Uh, it's not?'" This was met by a lot of enthusiasm as well, which bodes well for the show, given that the idea of rebooting pretty much everything was a pretty big gamble! Paglia also confirmed that both Colin Ferguson, Joe Morton, and Salli Whitfield-Richardson will be directing episodes this season, with Colin Ferguson's episode involving a Eureka rocket trip to the moon! Fargo, we now know, is in charge of GD, and as Grayston laughing observed, has access to every single button now!

James Callis talked a little about joining the cast of "Eureka" and said that he hadn't been looking to stay in sci-fi genre TV, but the opportunity -- time traveler, fish out of water, and the show itself-- were just too amazing to pass up. The major casting announcement for Eureka was that Felicia Day (Dollhouse, The Guild) will be joining the cast for Season 4.5, along with some further episodes for Wil Wheaton.

I chatted with "Eureka" writers Eric Wallace and Ed Fowler after the panel, largely because I wanted to stop and say thanks, because they were both writers who spent time talking to me when I was an intern and hit the strike lines with them back in 2007 and were very encouraging of my efforts. Surprisingly, Eric recognized my name from the blog and even gave me a suggestion of a radical out of the box idea for how to get hired into a room that I plan to try. I mentioned how much I loved the episodes and the reboot, and was told to hang on, because there's even more amazing stuff on the way.

After the panel, we had dinner with friends at the Hilton, and had one last little crazy surprise or two during our time at the Hilton. We saw Chevy Chase, Simon Helberg, several members of the cast of "Community" and "Supernatural"'s Misha Collins while we were there! I was thrilled we saw Collins because I'd committed to the hard choice of "Castle" over "Supernatural". Okay, I kid, it wasn't really a choice for me, but the rest of the geek girls agonized over it and ended up choosing "Supernatural".

State of the Union, Aspiring Writer Style

Yes, I was planning to reduce this to a West Wing based extended metaphor, but better sense reigned me in!

It's that time of year, Disney/ABC and NBC tell us to come running and bring our spec scripts! Today was the deadline, and fortunately, June provided me with a great model for my writing.

Since June was Pitchfest month (see previous post), I had to focus on my pilot for a period of about two weeks. Which was perfect because it had been back shelf-ed, so that my Disney/ABC/NBC spec script (Castle) could take precedent. It had time to cool off, get a clear head and clear eyes, and then be brought back to the front burner for a heated round of good edits and deciding how to pitch it.

Likewise, Pitchfest forced my Castle spec to the back burner while the pilot was center stage, and it got a short breather that allowed me to come back with a new attitude and outlook. Gone were my grumbled complaints that, "oh god, this sucks, am I really going to turn this in to Disney/ABC/NBC or anyone?!" and instead I was saying, "Okay, this scene doesn't work here, this beat needs to be funnier" etc.

The Castle spec was an absolute BLAST to write, by the way! Just enough drama, just enough comedy, and characters I really loved spending time with... though to be fair, Esposito gave me a few fits and I caught myself attempting to smack the back of the computer screen to get him to behave, lol! I'm hoping to get in a few more cooled off edits before Scriptapalooza in October, but once it's submitted, I'll add it to the available scripts on my website.

PitchFest 2010

So if you weren't around for last year's Great American PitchFest and the explanation of what exactly PitchFest is, I'll direct you back to last year's ramblings for the full guide to what I was up to today. Actually, up to all week, because I work as a volunteer in order to afford my pitch time at the event.

Last year was my first year pitching, and it went amazingly well. Got some scripts on desks, had some interest, but nothing that went anywhere. This year was sort of a different story.

See, the thing is, I expected an uphill battle, where at least 2/3 of my pitches would end with "thanks but we just can't take a risk on a project like this." I figured I'd be lucky to get a request for a follow up, and I wouldn't be fielding any script requests this year. Why? Cuz I was pitching something edgy, out there, and wicked risky-- I pitched my NANO pilot project I talked about last fall/winter on this blog.

My "no"'s actually came out more like "It sounds really original and I really love it, but I just can't take the risk." The general consensus was that it was edgy and had the potential to be brilliant, but I'd have to find a way to get someone to take a risk on it. No big surprise there, but some nice feedback that the concept was appreciated and liked. Then the shocker--

I pitched 11 companies. That feedback is what I heard from only 3 of them.

One company asked me to send a followup email, because he needed to think about what he wanted to do next. He loved the concept, wanted to think about how to submit it through his company, and definitely wanted to think about the whole thing first. I really loved this pitch, because he was so clearly invested in just how big a risk and figuring out how he might be playing it.

Another company is in early development for television, meeting new writers and collecting cards from writers they might want to bring in as they move into developing shows. She asked for my card, said I'd be hearing from them.

Four companies asked for followup emails with 1 page synopses they could present to others for consideration.

One major company run by a pretty big name (to geeks anyway) asked for my treatment. I was thrilled beyond belief because he loved the idea, and he hadn't been a fan of much all day. Word around the lines was that he sent people away before time was up a lot! And actually, I saw that the round before my pitch.

The last company of the day was sort of a toss up pick. I had two of pretty equal merit on my list, only time in the day to pitch one, and I was responsible for checking the executives in that morning, so I knew a pretty fun, joking around lady was at one and a slightly cranky gentleman was at another. Now, it may just have been a lack of coffee to blame, but that tipped me over to the lady. Who loved the pitch, expressed that she felt I was a very smart person, and she wanted to read the script! (I think I picked the right line!)

I also had a great time personally, as one of the people taking the pitches turned out to be an old friend from college! Spent some time catching up afterward during the cocktail reception, which was really nice. Funnily, he'd taken a pitch on a Vegas centered story earlier in the day and told me that all he could think about during it was how we and three other friends had gone to Vegas and gotten up to all sorts of trouble. (When I tell the story, it usually starts with "did I ever tell you about the time I ended up in bed with two guys?" Good times...)

So overall, had a blast at PitchFest again this year. And I really feel like this year was somewhat more successful for me than last year. Even though last year I got a bunch of script requests, this year was a hard sell, not as easily accepted and commercial, and yet I still got a lot of interest. Tomorrow will be a day filled with emails, and that makes me incredibly happy. Why not tonight? Because this truly horrible (aka awesome) fellow volunteer of mine made sure I always had a drink in hand, and you never email execs when you've had vodka tonics passed your way all evening. ;)