Of course, the thing about writing is that, until a book is published or a screenplay is turned into a film, it isn’t really time to celebrate. It’s good to acknowledge the milestones – finishing the first draft and all – but then you still have to keep your head in the work. This is maybe why really being serious about writing is so daunting to so many. It’s an accomplishment to finish writing a piece – but there’s still so much work to do even after the initial writing part is done. This is where most writers give up - myself included, on past projects. My computer, desk, and the attic at my parents’ house are filled with first drafts I then was never motivated enough to revise or send out.
The thing about the No MFA Project, though, is that now, with a finished full-length script, it’s time to really get started with the most interesting parts of my ‘syllabus.’ Writing is only phase one to a writing career. Phase two (the much trickier phase, the phase that I would have hoped to achieve in an MFA program) is getting the writing out there.
May is going to be all about revision and also research - where to go from here.
I love the script. The final scenes turned out better than I’d anticipated. A few of the mid-way scenes are a bit blurry, though. There are things that need to be tighter, dialog that needs to be shortened. I feel I owe it to the work and myself to get it as polished as I can and then do all I can to get it out into the world.
If, up to this point, my project has been first-year MFA, it's time to get into second-year form. :)
