The steps back are all part of the dance
Even though you never see it when you are in the middle of it.
The last three weeks have been this vortex that I haven’t been able to break out of. I came down with a cold at the end of January and it really wiped me out. Not only the usual congestion, sniffling, coughing, achy kind of cold but it was that lingering, foggy brain, going through the motions, exhausting, thinking this will never end one.
Add on to this, lingering hip and leg pain, and a mishap with a sharp knife. I’ve just been a mess these past few weeks. I’ve just been doing the minimum and taking it day by day. Having to cancel so many things. But the good news is that I am finally feeling about 98%, my finger is almost healed, my cold and cough has mostly cleared, I can breathe, and I think I can make it through the day without tylenol today. I’m ready to get back up to speed on my projects. I think this forced step back has helped me reframe a few things and has given a fresh perspective to move forward.
I’ve been working with a filmmaker in Paris on a short screenplay. He is a very talented filmmaker who was introduced to me when a friend here acted in one of his films in Paris last year. That film is starting its festival circuit at Cannes. He is in his last year of film school in Paris and his films are just beautifully done, so I am honored to be helping him with his latest story. We are polishing up an idea he had and then he will film it later this year. I find it challenging to create an emotionally impactful story in a container of less than ten pages. I look forward to seeing how it further evolves and becomes a film. I think I needed this sort of foggy-head thinking to really dive into this emotional story.
Today I am meeting up with five other writers on a project that has been ongoing for over a year. We are getting close to making this reality and maybe filming this six episode series early this summer??
I am about halfway through a feature Christmas screenplay that I hope to finish up very soon because I have a psychological thriller feature in the pipeline that I started last year and set aside when I filmed Almost Boston. Then I have two other feature screenplays I’ve been slowly jotting down some ideas about.
It feels good to be back in action with some refreshed energy and while I’ve been really beating myself up about not getting things done, I now realize the forced break was needed so that I could take a step back and focus on the few things that needed deep focus, and take some time away from the other things.