Dropping out and reinventing

This blog began in August of 2009 and seems to still be going. In that time I failed to raise funding for Travel Day, the title of this blog and talked about my adventures in television episodic. I also started to get a no-budget  movie going, Casualties of Love but put it aside as I was not comfortable with the screenplay, even after a reading with 5 actors who gave of their time and did a great job.

Now I'm working on trying to fund Ghostkeeper 2, which started as a joke and is now being seriously considered. The idea of a sequel to a movie that was at best, "obscure" in the first place was a crazy idea, but as the distribution of the original 1980 version continues with commentary to be recorded June 4th, the potential became very real.

Could that be "reinvention" as a lot of experts suggest people do now. Or is it the reluctance of a baby-boomer who refuses to quit.

I'm often asked by friends not in "the business" when will I retire as I am of that age. My usual answer is that I'll retire when I drop dead over my laptop keyboard. And I usually add that I want my laptop buried with me.

In case I get a good idea. 

Writers have  a double-edged sword of sorts beginning with the fact that I've stressed over 2 years of this blog; writers don't have to have a job in order to work. I have 34 spec scripts yet unmade and as of today, am writing #35, the Christmas script called "Christmas Carole". It should be finished by next week.

I have a bit of an advantage as there are 4 producers, all of whom make TV movies, who want to read it when it's done. Hopefully one will bite. Even though I had good ratings with Town That Christmas Forgot, none of them would pay me to write it. 

That seems the norm now, which itself is worth a blog, maybe next week.

So, am I taking away from some young wannabe writer? Maybe, but around 85% of the WGA is unemployed in any given month so it comes out to "you're only as good as your next script."  

And I keep getting ideas.

Truth is that most of the producers I've worked for have gone; either retired or left the business. One passed away. But writing is different, you don't really retire from it as it's one of the few jobs a person does alone.

Excusing series TV where anywhere from a handful to 10-15 writers work, or David Kelly who writes ALL of his scripts alone, writers like me keep going. As of now I've heard that Quinn Redeker, who wrote the original version of The Deerhunter, is working on a new movie, and he's 76.

And James A Michenor was 90.

So I got a few years.

And a few more stories you haven't heard.