Scary word....Screenplay!

It is so much easier for me to say I am writing a short drama THAT we are going to film then to say, "Oh I am writing a screenplay." But in truth, that makes more since. Because it is a short film, but you don't write a short film, you write the screenplay and you produce the film.


Last summer my daughter asked me to write some monologues she could perform or direct, which I love doing. One acts and monologues come rather easily to me. However as I sat down to write this particular day, I realized that what was flowing was so much more than a one person scene. So I continued to allow the ideas and words to pour from me and ended up with what was the beginning of an interesting high school drama that would offer a message of hope and encouragement to struggling Christian teenagers. Whew, that was a mouthful to say.

So we are embarking on new territory. And I am in the midst of cultivating a screenplay. How is this different from writing a drama I ask myself? Well, I am not completely sure yet. Of course production will look different, rehearsals, set, tech, all these things will revolve around film rather than stage.

But this initial process? For me it seems quite the same. I have a story line and I know the beginning, middle, and end. I have very interesting and even colorful characters and the dialogue is developing quite easily, I love writing dialogue, LOVE IT. That is what comes the easiest, the conversations that make up the lives and shape the characters for my audience, the witticism, the banter, the verbal sparring, these are my favorite parts of writing. For me the rest is just gravy. I jump right into the middle of the meat of the script and then fill in the rest.

When I am writing a play I can actually see the scenes on stage as I put them to paper. But this time was so different. I pictured my character in their more natural surroundings, her car, the hallways and gym at her high school, the parking lot, the emergency room. I was seeing all of this, before I even knew it was going to be a film.

As I was writing, the vision was not the same. So it became more and more clear to me that, yes, I am writing a screenplay.

Now doesn't that sound exciting! (Stay tuned for excerpts and story previews.)

A different kind of book...

I am writing a book.

Actually I would love to gush about a novel I am in the process of, but that project is shelved for the time being. Instead I am going to talk about a marketing piece I am in the process of. I am WAY excited about this.

My husband Lionel and I are starting a new company, Notes Handwrritten. It's a relationship marketing resource company. Lionel and I have been in the planning stages of this for, oh five plus years. So now we are taking the plunge! Leap! Step! Jump! I am out of illustrations here, anyways you get the idea.

So I had this crazy idea to launch the company with a book! Soon to be E-published. Is that even a word, I should know if I am doing it. Can I just say I love the internet, it's where something could never happen before but now it can because of the INTERNET. I wanted to know how to create an E-book, googled it, and in three minutes I was downloading the adobe tutorial for FREE on creating an Ebook PDF.The book is written journal style and will be the day to day entries of our "marketer" with real life experiences of the good, the bad, and the hopeful business practices of a marketer or sales professional. The fun thing is that these stories are really from our own real work endeavors, 20+ years combined sales and marketing experiences, yes, we have seen it all.

The thing is I am having SO much fun writing this. In a few hours one day I had written ten journal days. I began thinking about that, hmm, why is this so fun for me? I write plays, poetry, short stories, real life events, have reported news, written interviews, some column work in high school, wrote for marketing news letters, wrote ad copy, but this well I am just finding so much joy in. Then it hit me, it's what I know.

It's what I know. I have so much of these experiences and stories and all of Lionel's and well it is just flowing out of us, like we were meant to do this. Ok, God, I hear you, we were meant to do this!

So here we go, starting a new company and sharing with anyone who will listen, what, over the years we have learned with the hope that it will benefit them too.

One day from our "Marketer"

Wednesday 2:00PM

Mid-week blues have set in. So I will take a break from work and share.

Today I sent five, not three note cards. Mostly because yesterday I only got one in the mail but also because I actually had five people I wanted to get them out to.

It is funny now how I think of my week around “who” I am connecting with rather than what transactions have incurred. Its like before all I could see was the paycheck and now it is the process that I am most focused on.

Last night I was talking to my daughter about a struggle she was having with one of her teachers and just as naturally as it should have been I responded, “honey, send them a note card.”

When did that spill over into my real life? It makes sense though. The actions we find most valuable in work life should be more than appropriate in our home life and vice versa. It should be a natural part of our world connecting with people and valuing our relationships, nurturing them in every day life even more so than at work.

I shared with my daughter for several minutes about the effect that cultivating good relationships at work is having on my business. And here is the real heart puller, she said, “dad, I really admire that.”

Wow. Scoring major points with clients, well that’s good. But with your teenage daughter, that is priceless. I hope to continue to be the businessman she is proud to call Father.

Thanks for reading!

Writing A Bible Study

I have been stirred about so many things to write this year.

One of the projects I am currently in the middle of is a bible study, mostly geared towards young people, girls specifically, from the book of Ephesians. 2009 was an extremely hard year for my family. We had many spiritual ups and downs. As a result, I pressed into the Lord really out of desperation at times. I felt like we were coming apart at the seems. My heart was so distressed it felt on days that it might burst out if it's skin. I remember on so many mornings crying out to Jesus, what do I do and He said one word to me...STAND. (I blogged a little about that here.)

I began to search the scriptures about this word that was pounding my brain and the Lord set me directly in Ephesians 6. I camped there for weeks. I read it over and over allowing the words to resonate in me, I meditated on it, read commentaries about it, and then dived deep into the entire book.

Since my daughter had been walking through some struggles of her own, I really wanted to speak to her about what it meant to Stand, having done all to stand, continuing to Stand. Our new High School Pastor was going to need some help with the girls discipleship and so I prayed about and asked him if I could share with the girls about Ephesians 6. He was willing and the studying began.

As I started to discover so many nuggets in Ephesians, I realized that I could not skip over the rich treasures of truth and just jump into chapter six. So I began with an introduction summarizing Paul's letter and then hit the basic outline, leading up to chapter six.

Here is an insert from the introduction:

In this book we do not find Paul rebuking the church at Ephesus over some intense sins like he did in some of his other letters to the early church. They do however seem to be a church that though they are rich beyond measure spiritually, they are living as beggars, spiritual paupers. In reading a commentary on the church at Ephesus I stopped to ask myself…

"Am I living as a Spiritual pauper? Or do I live as heir to the throne? "

Recently God gave me a vision that really spoke to me. I saw an amazing banquet table spread to the fullest with a feast of delicacies, it was surrounded by chairs of people so beautiful they could only be royalty, I saw a King extending his hand as a welcome or an invite to come and dine. I then saw a person turn away and settle on the floor with the scraps. Then I saw that person was not alone, many were seated on the floor. The vision switched and I saw people eating with pigs from a trough. I asked the Lord if the person was me…He did not answer and so I think yes, sometimes and He wants me to be very aware of the choices I am making. Where am I feasting? He has prepared a table for me.

Ask yourself, ask the Lord, how are you living, are you settling in your Christian walk, have you settled for scraps living like a beggar, or are you feasting with your King of all that He has for you or have you grown an appetite and desire for things of the world?

What I want to say is that I am learning so much as I work on this study. God has showed me to ask more questions, to challenge my own thinking about a passage, and to wait on Him for revelation. He has also been teaching me how to write a bible study. It is a process that He is taking me through to which I am sure will develop and grow over the years. But for now, this moment in this season, I am writing and I am studying and I am enjoying what God is teaching me and how that might effect those that I am teaching.

Do you have a desire to write, or teach, or both? Do you find yourself relating your every day personal experiences and walk with the Lord to other people and what they are going through?

Write it down, tell us about it.

A Note to Writers...

I write.

It is a big deal to me and with little reasoning at all that I say out loud and very boldly in my humble opinion, "I am a writer."

I have struggled with those four words for over a decade now and I have recently come to the conclusion that it is silly of me to pretend that I am not, something that I so very much AM.

I love to write.

I really do not know why. Quite often in my life something isn't real or happening to me unless I have written it down somewhere. And though I would not categorize myself among the many talented and gifted authors I so eagerly read, more like devour on occasion I am nonetheless a writer in my own right.

I journal, I blog, I write on facebook, I scribble words on almost everything, I write scripts, monologues, poems, songs, phrases, note cards(actual printed ones), notes to people, comments, critiques, reviews, the list goes on...I write.

There, I have said it. My daughter will be so proud.

And to you reader, what is it you do?