Graduation

Tonight Nerd Dad's wife Megan graduates with a bachelor's degree for nursing. She has been an RN since graduating with her associate's degree, but obtaining the bachelor's degree opens the door for further schooling, and better paying jobs.

It makes me remember my graduation this time last year. I graduated with a bachelor's for screenwriting. I knew it was a silly thing to have a degree for, but it was the third thing I changed my major to, after pursuing psycology and criminal justice. I found out that I would need much more schooling to make any kind of money with either of those majors, so I changed to something that my heart was in.

I have had that $30,000 piece of paper for a year now, and what have I done in that time? I have started two screenplays. I have a feature that I wrote in school, and I dread looking at it. I'm really glad that I wrote it to get the first one out of the way, and to see what it takes to write a feature. As with any script, it needs a rewrite. It needs about 12 rewrites. It features about 6 "main characters," the obstacle isn't really clear, and it has a lot of problems. In my mind, the script looks like this:

But I know what it takes to get through writing the length of a feature. That is the biggest thing I got out of it. The stories of my two scripts that I've started since graduation have much more focus, but writing them is where I get into trouble. I like to map out the story first and then write, but if a character takes it in another direction, I follow it. That's what makes my feature look like that picture above.

But Nerd Dad, you said you've started two scripts. What happened to them? Right. I get all geared up to keep writing them, sit down and re-read what I have so far, then I daydream about where it can go. No problems there. Then I realize that I could be sleeping during this time while Ozzie is quiet, or catching up on Homeland, or another show that is piling up on the DVR. So I think I've made good progress for the day and go do something else. I'm writing this right now. I could be working on a script.

The thing is, I don't have any deadlines. No one is paying me to write, so it really is for the fun of it. I feel that I can take as long as I want, because I really can take as long as I want. I think telling you about it might kick me in the pants enough to bear down and finish one. Then again, I do have the Homeland season finale to watch. Then I'll have to get Ozzie from daycare and get ready to go to the graduation. Oh well, they're not going anywhere.