The View Up Here

I've been working on a new screenplay, and this time I started with a step outline instead of a time-line. The difference is astounding - and I'm finding that this tool more than any other is made for me. The irony here is that all of our advanced screenwriting students at Ithaca College are required to do this as part of their writing process, but I'd never done it myself until now. I'd always eschewed it as a waste of time when I could be writing, but I now know that writing a step outline IS writing. Oh, this is like discovering a new country and planting a flag or something. Appropriately enough, I've found lately that the step by step approach to my entire life is a much easier, stress-free way of setting and meeting goals. I am feeling energized and excited about the momentum this year. In the words of Apolo Anton Ohno, who I've come to admire for his spirit, commitment and positive focus, "No regrets!"

I just finished reading this book I grabbed off one of the spinny-shelves at the library where I work, because I needed something to read on my lunch (and had left my short story book at home like a bonehead). Anyway, it's called Peony In Love , by Lisa See, and it's about a teenaged, well-bred Chinese girl just after the volatile transition from the Ming to Qing dynasties. She's betrothed to be married (one of those arranged marriages, you know), but she meets a romantic poet and falls in desperate love with him (as much as one can at the age of 15), and pines away, obsessed with the tragic romance opera Peony Pavilion and her lovesickness at marrying a total stranger. I won't give away the rest of the story, but I will just say it's not at all what I expected. There is a lot going on in this story with regard to feminism, cultural mores, women and literature, etc. Now, to my point. A certain amount of attention in the novel is spent on the practice and procedures...