I’ve had a week of craziness, consisting of fun goodies like catching Toy Story 3 and Winter’s Bone, going to the Giants game, attending Erykah Badu/Janelle Monae in concert, and wine tasting.  But, I’ve have also had to deal with not-so-fun stuff, such as conversing with insurance agents and attending a funeral.

There has NOT been enough writing going on over the last seven days, so I have some major making up to do.  I received some kick-butt notes from Reader Proof on Super Ted, which I will elaborate more on sometime this week.

The big news is that my wife and I put an offer down on an adoreable house over the weekend.  It’s a major long-shot that we’ll get it, but I’ve been doing the “lucky” dance all day nevertheless.

Photo by Robert Herman

I’m using the month of May to recover.  Just as if finishing a marathon, I’m going to take some time now to allow my brain to rest.  Yesterday I spent time analyzing what I wanted to accomplish over these next four weeks.

My goals for the month of May include:

* outline new script

* rewrite Super Ted

* write 30 fitness articles for Livestrong

* watch 15 movies

* read 10 scripts

* sharpen up the resume

* fix up and decide on a direction for this website

* start the summer garden

* paint/redecorate the apartment

Damn it… what happened to me taking it easy this month?

Art by Marc Johns

It’s been a ridiculously awesome couple of days.

I’ll keep it short and sweet.

* I successively submitted my super hero script, entitled Super Ted, to the Nicholl Fellowship, the Silver Screenwriting Competition, and Script P.I.M.P.

* I attended Julie Gray’s writing workshop entitled “Idea to the Page to the Screen.”  The best way to sum up the experience is to compare it to back when I was trying to improve as a basketball player in college.  You can bust your butt doing individual work, practicing and improving your skills, but there’s nothing like going against up to head to head competition. 

I’ve improved because of the work I’ve put in on screenwriting, but when I shared my script and was put to the test up against much more experienced writers, I drove the lane with confidence only to get my shit swatted.  Julie and the group consistently challenged me and made me work, so while it was somewhat of an uncomfortable experience since I was thrown outside of my comfort zone, I came out of it with a much better knowledge of where I need to go from here.  She’ll be teaching a couple more workshops around the country, and I highly recommend signing up if she teaches around you.

* My Brother Mick, the script I completed last year, made it as a quarterfinalist in Script Doctor Eric’s Screenwriting Competition.  Semifinalists will be named on May 10th and the finalists on May 15th.

* I was able to catch a couple movies yesterday, including 1952′s High Noon (wow, great flick) and last month’s Death at a Funeral (so far wins my vote for the worst movie of the year).

I took yesterday completely off to get some sleep and let my brain take a much needed break.  Today I spent time organizing how I’m going to spend the next month, laying out goals and deadlines of things I want to get done by June 1st.

Art by Marc Johns

It’s April 30th, one day before the Nicholl’s deadline.  This week has been a motherfreaker.  I haven’t slept and it’ll probably take days for all of this caffeine to flush out of my system.

This morning, however, I finished my Super Hero script.  I’m going to do one more read-through and clean-up pass, then send that thing off later today. 

It’s a damn good feeling.  Although this week has been tough, I’m thankful for every bit of it.

+ my wife for handling all the chores, brainstorming with me, building my confidence up, and giving me honest feedback

+ Coco Swirl, for supplementing the every important final brainstorming session last night

I went to celebrate a friend’s album release party (which was a blast, but that’s besides the point) and completely forgot that I’m not twenty-one anymore. 

I’ve set myself up for an incredibly difficult week, with nobody to blame but myself.  In five days, I will submit Super Hero on time, but it’s going to require me to absolutely bust my butt.

Art by Marc Johns

Wait… it’s Friday already?

I’m close to needing scotch tape to keep my eyes open.

I haven’t had much going on this week besides work, but that’s enough to be thankful for:

+ made huge strides on Super Hero.  It will be ready to submit to Nicholl’s.

+ the landlord disposed of the wasps’ nest on the front porch

+ this weekend I get to write, and also have a little bit of fun planned

Have a great weekend.

This week’s positives of which I’m am thankful for include:

+ the absolutely gorgeous weather

+ the ability to spend every day writing

+ getting to spend time with my sister from another mister

+ waking up this morning with my gorgeous wife

+ taking today off to go hang with my wife at the ballpark for Giants’ Opening Day!

Have a good weekend.

Oh, and read this great article on the “6 Not-So-Secrets to Success” by John Southee.

Yeah, yeah… in regards to Superhero… I’m still chugging away.

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Julie Gray put up a podcast this morning on the importance of a visually captivating opening scene.  Check it out here.
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For those of you blessed with beautiful weather today, or perhaps those who aren’t but want to pretend:

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I was able to catch Hot Tub Time Machine this weekend, which was entertaining, to say the least.  I laughed out loud a bunch of times.  It’s not as good as The Hangover, but it had the same type of strong comedic performances.

It’s been added to my “Flix Watched in 2010” list.  Scriptshadow recently reviewed the script and has it up for download on their site.

Because there’s no screenplay available for the movie (Jeff Bridges claims there never was one), I watched it scene to scene, writing down what I thought the purpose was for each.

I’m far from a sci-fi lover or fantasy fan, but Iron Man is a damn good flick; the humor and non-stop excitement of it is exactly what I’m trying to inject into Superhero.

Watching it got my brain going again and got me amped (finally) to get back to work.