Sit Rep

Freedom...

That feels so good...

I've just stepped down as manager of the WeHo (West Hollywood) Online Screenwriters Group like I'd been thinking I would. Except it's taken me a lot longer than I expected since I tried to give WeHo the benefit of the doubt and didn't want to do any thing hasty and irreversible.

I joined WeHo in November 2006 when it was started and became its manager in December 2006 when the owner got too busy to keep it going.

I encouraged discussion on the craft and business of screenwriting organized seven consecutive group script reads, offered a 1st draft online screenwriting workshop, a rewrite class, and a Q&A event with novel consultant Michele Wallenstein.

Unfortunately, WeHo members didn't post much, leaving me to be the single largest poster than everyone else combined. The script reads got progressively fewer critiques as time went by. People either backed out of the 1st draft workshop or didn't respond to my offer. I didn't have the energy to run the rewrite class. And no one except me asked Michele questions about networking in the film industry and the Agent/Client relationship.

The non Q&A event turned out to be the last straw; hence my bidding farewell to WeHo.

I can imagine the reaction of the WeHo members when they wake up and realize I'm gone.

My goal is to sell my fiction/film stories and be produced, not run a comatose writers site.

Now I'm free to concentrate on me.

Free...

What a sweet word.

I did manage to finish work on my rom com "Twice In A Lifetime" in which a widowed man finds love a second time, but with an engaged woman.

I'll have that consulted on, along with my Chinese Joan of Arc tale and my American "Master and Commander" epic. I'm also moving ahead with entering the Nichols and Austin contests with at least two scripts this year.

I also plan on taking a course on creating my own production company either this summer or later.

Right now, I'm eking out the newest draft of my "The Way of the Peacemaker" short fiction story for the Writers of the Future Contest. It's like pulling teeth to write 500 words in 4 hours.

Ugh...

But at least I'm on the right track with this draft. Penning the pilot story for one prospective series I have in mind to be the next thing after Star Wars and Star Trek is no easy feat it seems.

I'm still gonna do it.

And without WeHo weighing me down.

Woohoo!