Update on…everything

I had planned to finish Slayers before I did anything else. The story is so close to being done. Well, at least the rough draft is close. The finished, polished story is far from being done since revisions take months. But my agent called me the end of March and told me he wanted me to turn three of my books into screenplays.

The first problem with this instruction was that I don’t know how to write screenplays. It’s sort of like telling a comic creator to do a watercolor. Some of the principles are the same but it’s completely different medium. So I’ve been reading screenplay writing books and working on Just One Wish, and All is Fair in Love, War, and High School. When I’m done with those, my agent wants me to turn My Fair Godmother into both a screenplay and a pilot for a series. In case you’re wondering, writing series pilots is different then screenplays so I’ll have to learn another new skill.

In some ways it’s been good for me to work on something so different because it reminds me that learning is a process and I should have more understanding and patience for people who haven’t learned the craft of writing yet. Just because you tell people a rule and even give examples doesn’t mean they’ll know how to implement it. I’ve been told in screenwriting books to avoid overwriting, and I’m still not sure what that looks like.

It takes a lot of hours to learn a craft and I’m just at the beginning of that journey.

Part of me wants to stop with the screenplays after I finish All’s Fair and get the fifth Slayers done. Another part of me realizes that I have an agent for a reason, and I’m supposed to listen to his advice. Strike while the iron is hot, and all that. I might be able to make a decent wage as a screenwriter whereas I know I won’t make that working on the last Slayers book. Harsh truth, I know. But these last books have been a labor of love and not profit.

I also have been working on my novella: Covertly Yours, which is supposed to be out in the With a Kiss anthology. Unfortunately, Amazon took down the anthology on its first day and we haven’t gotten it back up. Fortunately everyone who preordered got the book. We hope everyone else will be able to buy it soon since it’s a fundraiser for Rob Wells.

I’ve been at Storymakers and Phoenix Comic Fest where I filmed a whole bunch of episodes of So You Think You Can Write with amazing guest judges. Standby for episodes with Shannon Hale, Melanie Jacobson, Sarah Eden, Donna Hatch, Lisa Mangum, Ben Grange, Brandon Mull, James Owen, and Brandi Stewart (From Changing Hands). I’m probably forgetting someone. But trust me they were all awesome.

Those episodes will be coming out in the next month months.

And that’s what I’ve been doing and why I’m behind on everything, or at least behind on Slayers, which feels like everything.