My Most Popular Post

On this site I open up far beyond what I do in real life. I share things with you guys that I don’t verbally communicate to my own mother.

I let you know about my achievements, excitements and fears… everything that I experience throughout my journey to becoming a professional screenwriter.

The site is over three years old and in that time I’ve written over 500 posts.

Out of all the posts where I open up to you guys and expose my inner self, do you want to know which out of the 516 receives BY FAR the most hits?

This one.

Thankful Friday 7/1

Oh yes. It’s the first of July and the brightness in my room is what woke me this morning (that and the squeals from my cat as he had gotten his claw stuck on his scratch post). Today is a going to be a busy day, because not only do I need to get my writing time in and knock out my freelance articles, but I need to do some preparation for upcoming our weekend-long trip.

We’re actually doing something for the Fourth of July!

Despite it POURING on Tuesday, this week was a good one…

+ Got a much needed haircut! Why do I always feel like I can take on the world afterwards?
+ Albeit slow, there is progress being made on both the Super Ted rewrite and the thorough outline of my new script.
+ Kicked the ass of my weekly freelance article quota.
+ Took a quick road trip with my friend so she could purchase a sweet 1960′s record player. I’m juiced for the upcoming listening parties. Speaking of music and this particular friend, she put me onto Bon Iver this week. This morning I spotted a video of Justin Vernon, the lead singer of the group, covering one of my favorite songs, Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” (via Put Me On It). You need to watch it.
+ The Foreign Exchange dropped their acoustic CD/DVD release “Dear Friends: An Evening with The Foreign Exchange.” This alone makes the week awesome.

Hope you all have a great 4th of July!

First Day of Summer

Ah yeah! The sun is blazing today on the official first day of summer. It’s time for longer days, outdoor movies and an abnormal consumption of Pyramid Hefeweizen.

With only a week and a half left in June, I’m going to need the longer days and to somehow fight the longing to hang outside and soak up the sun if I’m going to get through this month’s list of goals.

Jay-Z Argues that Emcees are Writers

Respect for hip-hop emcees as writers is ridiculously absent.

Last November, Jay-Z released his book, Decoded, which broke down the lyrics in his extensive catalog. In the video below, he expresses his motivation of the book, which was to expose the depth and showcase the quality of his written work, as well as make an argument that emcees are true poets.

What Keeps Me Going

Yesterday I spent a little bit of time catching up on the posts at Go Into The Story and came across one titled, “Writing Question: What keeps you going?” In the article, writer Scott Myers discusses maintaining motivation to continue screenwriting when the possibility of making it your professional career is so grim.

Numerous writers commented on the post, responding with their own personal reasons for persevering towards their writing dreams.

This of course got me thinking about why I love writing and why I’ll continue to write no matter what happens. You want to know why?

Well, first off… I’m a major loner.

I like being by myself and managing my own work flow, which is why working from home makes me want to do the happy dance.

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like or need to connect with people. In the real world, there are only a small handful of people I emotionally bond with. If I don’t trust you, it’s not happening… I’m not opening up.

I’m quiet. I’m a listener. Take me out to a group event and you’ll probably be spending the entire evening wondering if I’m having a good time. The truth is I’m busy taking everything in around me.

Writing gives me that opportunity to actually express my thoughts. And it may sound a tad-bit cocky but I believe that when I feel the need to share, it’s worth it to you to listen.

My best friend once told me that I’m much more open on my blog than I am in real life. I’m not afraid to expose my weaknesses or share my thoughts about things.

Writing allows me to make connections with people. I nearly jump out of my chair whenever I receive comments on this blog.

When I completed my feature script Queen To Be in May and shared it with a couple of people, them emotionally responding to it gave me the ultimate rush. I hit the submit button for the Nicholl’s Fellowship and felt my heart rate immediately rise.

As scared as I am to share my work sometimes, it is why I write. Having my work published or produced and thus being able to make an emotional connection with a large number of people, being able to affect them in someway, makes me feel like I’m truly alive and present.

Just don’t call me or talk to me in real life.

I’m Proud of my Foot

After taking a week off from running to let this plantar fasciitis situation settle down, this morning I finally threw on the kicks and made my way around Lake Merritt with my friend/running partner.

My foot held up like a champ!

By the way, I did finish my rough outline for the new feature script last Friday. Now I’m going to take two weeks to fill it in thoroughly, starting by plotting each of the scenes and then writing the entire story out in somewhat of a treatment form.

Currently drowning in index cards and loving it.

“Don’t Take No for an Answer!”

“You can’t take no for an answer!”

That was amongst the statements spouted by my wife as she was on my butt last week about getting my work out there to agents.

I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to promoting my work. I don’t like not looking GREAT at anything, which is why even though I have rhythm and can dance a bit, you won’t find me participating in the festivities on any dance floor (that is, however, unless I’m four glasses of wine in). A character flaw, perhaps, but I don’t feel comfortable showcasing my dancing unless I can moonwalk like Michael.

I know I have talent and that I’m doing what I need to to continue to improve, but if I’m going to keep it real, I guess I’m still building up my confidence.

I’ll bring it when the time is right. I’ll promote my work valiantly once I feel comfortable that my work is ready to kill it.

I personally wouldn’t go looking for a one-on-one hoop game against a talented player until I’m confident that I can dribble.

The key is… I’ll practice dribbling, or in this case screenwriting, for hours and hours so that I can eventually get to that point where I feel 100% comfortable to show it off. At that point, I’ll shove my work in the face of agents, believing that it truly deserves their attention.

And at this moment I do have confidence that I possess the work ethic needed to become a quality screenwriter.

Goals for June

Today is June 1, which means it’s time to take a look at my goals for last month and lay out what I’d like to accomplish during this one.

By the way, it’s still raining. June 1. Raining. Lame.

Okay, here we go:

Goals for May:

Submit Queen To Be to Austin Film Festival and Just Effing Contests
Begin to outline new feature script
Improve this website’s design
Complete 15-20 freelance articles/week
Make a dentist appointment (woops)
Complete sketch of backyard (more progress made)
Plant a small herb garden

Goals for June:

Complete thorough outline for next feature script
Read through Super Ted and complete a rewrite
Two hours of uninterrupted screenwriting time daily
Complete 15-20 freelance articles/week
Plan a trip down to Los Angeles
Make a dentist appointment
Complete redesign of the garage
Finish this book I’m reading

Hey Guess What?

I’ve come to the realization that I’m not a web designer. I really have no idea what I’m doing.

I have some skill in Illustrator and Photoshop, but when it comes to creating a functional website, I might as well snort some crack and I’d be just as productive.

After spending hours trying to make my site pretty and failing miserably, I’ve brought my old theme back.

The old theme works; I’m comfortable with it.

I may put some work into tweaking this theme, but other than that, I’m letting it go.

Now I can spend my time writing instead of messing with html codes… which seems to be appropriate considering I’m a writer.

Published: J Moses Ceasar & Oakland’s Parkway Theater

This weekend was one of those breaks that successfully charges your mental batteries, but also leaves you anxious for Saturday to come again. It was the perfect combination of fun and productivity.

As the weekend kicked off last Friday evening, my latest article was published on SF360.

A few months ago I sat down with J Moses Ceasar, who is working his butt off trying to reopen the Parkway Theater, a community-loved movie joint in Oakland. Despite the never-ending set-backs, he doesn’t appear to be giving up anytime soon.

You can check out our conversation via SF360.