Screenplay #2 is now complete!

My second screenplay, "A Conventional Life," is now complete! What a fun project this was!

Now that the story is finished, the hardest part, finding an agent to help sell it, is again at the forefront. As mentioned when the last screenplay was finished, if anyone knows of an agent interested in looking at this powerful story of a man who is the reincarnate of John Barrymore, please post it here.

A Taste of Shakespeare

In writing, "A Conventional Life," I've discovered a lot about the life and times of John Barrymore. One thing I've learned is that he was an accomplished Shakespearean stage actor, his Hamlet being one of his crowning achievements. With that in mind, I thought I'd take a moment to recite Barrymore's favorite soliloquy from Act II Scene II of Hamlet (please forgive the formatting, it's a direct copy and paste from the actual play):

"O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit That from her working all his visage wann'd,Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suitingWith forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!For Hecuba! What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue for passionThat I have? He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,Make mad the guilty and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause,And can say nothing; no, not for a king,Upon whose property and most dear lifeA damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,As deep as to the lungs? who does me this?Ha! 'Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot beBut I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gallTo make oppression bitter, or ere thisI should have fatted all the region kitesWith this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain!Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! O, vengeance! Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave,That I, the son of a dear father murder'd,Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing, like a very drab, A scullion! Fie upon't! foh! About, my brain! I have heardThat guilty creatures sitting at a playHave by the very cunning of the sceneBeen struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaim'd their malefactions; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speakWith most miraculous organ. I'll have these playersPlay something like the murder of my fatherBefore mine uncle: I'll observe his looks; I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds More relative than this: the play 's the thingWherein I'll catch the conscience of the king."

Screenplay Update

I've just cleared sixty pages of "A Conventional Life." That's halfway for those of you keeping score at home. This is a big milestone in my second screenplay and I'm just so giddy about it that I felt that anyone who feels compelled to read this blog should be giddy, too, so there you go.

"A Conventional Life" update

My second screenplay, "A Conventional Life" has now just cleared the forty page mark. In case you aren't aware, most screenplays are right around 120 pages meaning that I'm now a third of the way through. Yes, I still have two-thirds to go, but it's getting good so stay tuned.

I also have one other thing to say about this screenplay: It's quality is a bit above "I Wish," and I believe that the more screenplays I write, the better they will become. Such is the world of writing, I suppose.