Mugen Punch

So I have more or less been in self-imposed exile from screenwriting and associated activities for a while.

I took all of 2006 off when I changed jobs and cities and then promised my new boss I would take six months off when I changed careers again in April 2009.  But I haven't started back up again.  Since then I have turned down three or four screenwriting jobs and numerous offers to take up review writing again; though I could not turn down my old friends in Palatine Illinois and judged the new Blue Whiskey Film Festival this summer.

I have to say that being hired to write 20 screenplays in 10 years has a nice round ring to it.  And I wish that a few old friends like John Polonia and Ivan Rogers were still on the trail with me.

I've been thinking for a while that there was a new model coming and I think it is still emerging.  As the neterrati like to say, free is the new black.  How that will work for writers, actors, directors, and so on to make money I'm not sure.

I used to like saying that a lot of my career was in the long tail, and now it seems like the long tail will be part of that new model.

I keep thinking it might be time to get a recharge by doing some different kinds of writing.  Conveniently, there's NaNoWriMo.

I last tried National Novel Writing Month way back in 2004.  You can click here and follow my adventures for the entire eight days I tried it before throwing in the towel.  I'm contemplating giving it another stab this year, if nothing else than to maybe get the machine running again.  As longtime fans of my blog know, I have been a fan of Nerd Extreme Sports, having done a 24 Hour Zine and two 24 Hour Comics, Bad Eggs and The Liberator.  And I made my goal of visiting six ballparks this summer, so who knows?

Until then I am at johnoakdalton@hotmail.com.