Been secluded for over a month now and loving it. Banjo and I have cross country skied, snowshoed, walked, played frisbee in the snow, slept in, listened to music, played piano and read books. Most importantly, I feel like this time off produced what I came here to accomplish.... a new direction, healthy habits and to start writing the next project.... the story album. Before the story could start... there had to be a story, and Holy Wah (UP for "And Wow") has this story evolved over 5 years.
While on a flight from LA to Austin, I met a screenplay writer. He loved the premise of the story, said my story coming up with "the story", was a story. Most importantly he told me to not rush it.... to let the story write itself. The story has done just that, and now it was time to begin to put it on paper. Five years worth of traveling, notes, audio notes, research, discovering and life events have all gone into this story. Most interesting, when posed a questions to myself, I found the answer on the airplane. In an enclosed metal tube, 40,000 feet in the air, I would find answers. From passengers and crew members. New groups of people every few hours. A new set of crew members on every trip. This vast resource has got me where I am today in this story and to all these places that I call home.
Because I travel much.... healthy habits are a challenge. This month I loaded up on vitamins. Being over 50, I could tell my body was low on this or that. Tomorrow I'll list the vitamins.... they are all downstairs and I'm upstairs at the moment (comfy in my writing chair). I purchased a Ninja Blender for smoothies. I do have a juicer that will make it's way here from Arizona this summer, but for now I wanted to experiment with smoothies. A great way to get the greens in and good fats. Also, when on the road, I will be able to follow thru with this... hauling "the bullet" around. A single serve blender.
To start the day with protein (which is hard while traveling), I mix protein powder in the smoothie. Then throw in spinach (big handful), protein powder, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 apple, blueberries if I have some, or 1/2 of a banana, Some ice cubes and a little water. Wha la.... a great filling drink. On the road, it's easy to find ice in the hotel. At least I can travel with fruit and protein powder. Kale travels really well and broccoli.
Journaling and yoga has been a great meditative way to start the day. Yoga has made a big impact on my health... the stretching and practice is like gift to myself. Banjo however thinks I want to play fight with him and sometimes a challenge to get through the whole lesson.
Then writing.... but where to start. This was the hardest part.... where to start and what to write. It was all in my head.... a great story.... but now the work. How to put it on paper and have it make sense and be able to create the same passion for the story that I have, for others.to feel the same. I've got years worth of notes and ideas and partial writings. Books collected along the way. Audio notes. I don't have the luxury of piling my work in organized stacks. I'm on the road and living in 3 different places, together with wherever Southwest Airlines flies. How could I be effective and build the story and have all my research. During this time, I researched and used YouTube much learning about the different writing programs. I needed a novel building program and a screenplay program. I'm a novice at writing a novel and really needed something that made sense to me and that I could grow with without wasting and duplicating time.
Found it. A program called "Story Mill". It builds the story by using scenes. I'd already started filling out multiple index cards with scenes, so this made much sense to me. This will also help with the screenplay portion. The timeline was crucial because there are two stories paralleling each other during the course of history. How could I keep track of this? Once again, Story Mill has a great timeline view. Easily ties everything together and builds each part of the story separately. Locations, Characters, Research, Timeline, and the actual writing of the Novel and Chapters. A place for all of my information and idea's.... also as many drafts as I need... no information lost..... MUST BE DILIGENT IN BACKING THIS UP. So far I will online and with my USB thumb drive.
The screenplay program I will use is Final Draft. An industry pro steered me in this direction. I will dabble in this program....but I feel like a pro should be left to write the screenplay.... I just need to build the information the best I can for the pro.... in the meantime...I will dabble. Again, the screenplay is based off of scenes as well. Getting the experience with scenes in the novel program will help with the screenplay program.
I must leave soon, but I feel like a good beginning has begun :)
P.S. I so want to paint my bathroom before I leave