Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, February 17, 2021, or: Adventures in Screenwriting – The Tale of the Sleep-Deprived Scribbler

Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s a cold and gray afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 64˚F (18˚C) under cloudy skies. With humidity at 87% and the wind blowing from the north-northeast at 4 MPH (13 KM/H). the feels-like temperature is 64˚F (18˚C). The forecast for the rest of the day: we can expect scattered showers and a (supposed) high of 77˚F (25˚C). Tonight, scattered rain showers will affect our area. The low will be 69˚F (20˚C).

I woke up way too early this morning – at 3:10 AM Eastern, to be exact. I don’t know what roused me from my sleep – maybe it’s the futon on which I lie down at night or maybe it was the light from the kitchenette area (the Caregiver always forgets to turn it off when she goes to bed), or maybe it was the predawn chill. I don’t know which one of those factors woke me up well before the dawn, nor do I care. All I know is that I’m tired, I’m cranky, and not in a mood to suffer fools lightly.

I do care about the fact that I was going to start working on the first draft of my new screenplay for my friends Juan Carlos Hernandez, Adria K. Woomer-Hernandez, and their production company Popcorn Sky Productions. I have the basic premise for a new comedy-drama that will be another story, as Juan would probably describe it, “about today.”

I don’t want to talk too much about “Project X” too much before I email my first draft to New York. First, I only have the basic “what if X happened to certain characters because of Y?” idea in my brain, not the entire script. Second, even though I’m not writing a franchise blockbuster script under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), I think the film will work better for you – the audience – if I keep the details under wraps for the time being. Suffice it to say that if I do my job right and give my friends a crackerjack script, it’ll be a good film.

And this is why I hate it when I get up much too early and can’t go back to sleep. I had my daily writing schedule for today planned before I went to bed last night: write my blog – this post – early in the morning, take a shower, shave, get dressed, then start writing the first pages of “Project X” while listening to John Williams: Greatest Hits, 1969-1999 – the CD version, not the digital version which has three musical themes less.

But as a result of my predawn meanderings – guess who had to turn off the pesky kitchenette lamp because none of the other five adults I live with can be bothered to turn a little switch? That’s right…me.

Sleep-deprived writers can’t come up with good story beats, witty dialogue, or strike a balance between drama and comedy. Maybe William Goldman, David Koepp, Tony Kushner, or Ben Hecht could – alas, I’m not as experienced as those screenwriters. Hell, even writing this blog post feels like I’m that guy from Greek mythology who was condemned to push a boulder up a steep hill for eternity, only to have it roll back down to the foot of the hill, in a never-ending causality loop.

I’m so tired that I think I’ll go to my futon and – in the words of my most recent ex – “sloth.” I can’t take naps during the day unless I’ve been up and about for over 36 hours (something I’ve done a few times while waiting for hurricanes to pass through the two areas of Florida where I’ve lived or on the day my mom died, almost six years ago), so a cat nap is out of the question. I could read for a while, though, or watch something on my Internet-connected TV.

And if I’m lucky, maybe tonight I’ll sleep well and won’t wake until 6 AM!

On that note, Dear Reader, I’ll close for now. And until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.