give sleep a chance

Spoke with a writer-friend last night and she dropped some interesting knowledge. See, she's presently experiencing a creative paralysis. Sure, we all go through this every once and awhile, but get this: she said she feels like she owes her characters more than she could possibly give them right now. Heavy. My characters and I usually don't have a relationship like that. In fact, they yell at me, I yell back at them. They tell me their motivations and I thumb my nose at them, tell them they aren't shit and I'll write what I damned well please, thank you very much. But that's only in the first draft stages. During subsequent drafts, my relationship with my characters tends to improve; still combative, but in a constructive way.

For example, my character Romo was very angry with me when I offed his Abuela. I couldn't understand why; it's not like I wrote him feelings or anything. But his anger gave me a glimpse into his psyche which then allowed me to flesh out his character. Twas fab.

And speaking of fab, Liverpool, England just opened their Hard Day's Night hotel. Rooms start at $370 dollars. WTF?! Gullible tourist types can also rent the John Lennon Suite for $1300 night. Listen, for $1300, they'd better dig up John Lennon's bones and let me sleep with them shits. For that much money, I expect to be able to spoon with a dead legend.

The next writing contest winners aren't announced until 15 and 16 February, so unless I hear from the BBC or the Hollywood agent-types, all should be quiet on the writing front. I know this is dangerous, but I'm starting to have a good feeling about the BBC. It's taking a while and that can only be a good sign.