Let’s Play “Reader’s Choice!”

Can’t pull the trigger on your next project or story? Neither can I!

Here comes a plea deal: Fellow Writers and Friends in Quarantine, I need your help. And I’ll be more than happy to return the favor.

Since it appears that a goodly portion of my brain has hiked off to parts unknown, I am dealing with what can only be called a conundrum of the creative kind.

We writers all experience this at one point or another. That unsettling feeling that we’re tapped out. Done.

Why? Because our once overfloweth well has run dry.

Normally, when our muse says “Fuck off, chump!” it’s all sound and fury, signifying, as Faulkner put it…nothing.

But it’s scary, nonetheless. And we’re often at a loss as to how to reclaim that spark. That creative flow that is our very sustenance.

So I propose that we help one another lasso our skedaddling muses and slap him or her into submission.

I’m suggesting that we run our ideas by other writers here so that we can bust through our creative slumps and untangle those “great thoughts” from the gray matter in our sluggish brains.

Let me give you an idea of what I’m thinking.

I have projects, one in particular, that I have inadvertently kicked to the curb due to the enormous effort required to maintain a presence on Medium. Which, to the uninitiated, make come off as “whiny.”

That said, you vets know good and well what I’m talking about. It takes a tremendous amount of time and energy to ride the Medium wave.

Not only do we have to pump out quality stories on a regular basis — daily if possible — but we also have to read the work of our peers, comment on said work, and engage in the many Facebook groups where, thankfully, we can share our stories.

Translation: We’re expending a shit-ton of time here while attempting to keep up with what has become our “New Normal.”

Our NN is sprinting through the grocery store at top speed, face masks in place, and then sanitizing everything in sight, from our steering wheels to our bags of Tostitos Scoops.

Good times!

I think the only thing I haven’t used hand sanitizer on is my butt crack, which rarely sees the light of day, anyway, so…so far, so good.

Okay, here is where I’m stuck and can use your input:

I have my screenplays, which I’ve been half-heartedly pitching since Hollywood is at a virtual standstill and many projects in production have been pushed back. That doesn’t necessarily mean a great script won’t get noticed, but it’s terribly daunting.

So, with the above in mind and In your estimated opinion, what should I put my time toward friends? Remember, this is in addition to Medium:

I have a screenplay I started called Cheat. It is a contemporary take on the 1970s film, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, starring Diane Keaton and based on a true story:

Here’s my logline or “elevator pitch” for Cheat, of which I’m about forty-three pages in. Translated to screen time, that means roughly a minute per page:

A writer adopts a false persona in order to document “the psychology of the married cheater,” but her seemingly self-possessed existence takes a frightening turn when she falls for an unattainable man.

Another screenplay, a female-driven thriller, with a unique premise, has been slowly dying on the vine since its option by the Executive Producer of The Dallas Buyers Club fell through a few years ago, due to the fact that he decided to take his company in a “truth-based-projects-only” direction.

DEAD TIRED is the name of this script. I am considering turning this into a novel or graphic novel: Here is the logline:

After an unavoidable accident, lifelong insomniac, Dani Knox, discovers that killing…can lead to a killer night’s sleep.

Another thought: Keeping in mind that pandemic themes will rule in Hollywood, I’m considering turning a recent Medium story called Killer, into a full-blown screenplay. I wrote this as a hybrid of sorts: Part story/part screenplay. Here it is:

Finally, I have yet another idea for a screenplay. Working title: Genevieve Stays Home.

I don’t have a logline worked out for this one yet, but I’m thinking something along the lines of:

A lonely woman teeters on the edge of madness while quarantined in her apartment due to the spread of a worldwide pandemic.

As scattered as I’ve been, I really do need your help in that I believe these are all viable ideas, but I can’t seem to focus on one.

So, lovely writers and readers, what should this “chicken running around with her head off,” do? Which of these projects do you believe would be the most satisfying, as well as the most lucrative? Yes, I said “lucrative” as I’m tired of not making any money.

Finish the screenplay, Cheat?

Turn the screenplay DEAD TIRED into a novel?

Turn the story Killer into a full-blown screenplay?

Work on a totally new screenplay, Genevieve Stays Home?

Please don’t think I’m wimping out, but we all work in a vacuum and, in my humble opinion, I don’t think it would hurt to bounce ideas off one another from time to time. Don’t you agree?

If you’re as stuck and unfocused as I am, sing out to your writing brothers and sisters and I, for one, will do my best to help.

Because I’m not one for the weeds. Are you?

I’m going to tag some people here who I believe will be forthright in their suggestions. I will definitely and accidentally leave people out so please feel free to add on. P.G. Barnett, Helen Cassidy Page, Timothy Key, Desiree Driesenaar, Caroline de Braganza, Gurpreet Dhariwal, Rasheed Hooda, Charlene Fate, Tina L. Smith, Henery X (long), Chris Hedges, Joe Luca, Robin Klammer, Suzanne V. Tanner, Noma Dek and everyone else!

THANK YOU!!

Sherry McGuinn is a slightly-twisted, longtime Chicago-area writer and award-winning screenwriter. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and numerous other publications. Sherry’s manager is currently pitching her newest screenplay, a drama with dark, comedic overtones and inspired by a true story.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this story. If so, please check out the others, below.

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