Man, I’m beat.

I’m not sure if it’s because I shocked my deltoids tonight or because the marketing and sales department burst out in a fit of sporadic fall cleaning at work today. And if you’re joining the party late, I’m in the marketing department. Somewhere, someone high up (probably even the highest) decided that these two departments needed to be organized today. And I guess that meant vacuuming, dusting and general emptying of trash from drawers. The Executive Vice President was right next to us, digging through the refuse of empty cubicles. She apparently found Chiclets gum in one drawer. My parents used to eat chew that brand back in the 80’s. I didn’t know it was still in production.

Anyway, so here I am. I’m tired. My eyelids are heavy. But I refuse to sleep, probably because I’m masochistic. I think, also, that this is what you need to do if you’re going to get anywhere in the creative industry. Sure, you could be amazingly talented and be discovered with minimal work or you could just get lucky and catch someone’s eye who’s feeling whimsical. Barring those two circumstances, I think your best bet is to maximize your “off-time”: the time after you come home from your day/night job. Depending on what you do, I think it’s all too easy to just come home and veg in front of the TV or on the Internet and let your life pass you by. Thankfully, writing is my relaxation. So while I still haven’t shelled out the cash for satellite TV (all they offer at my complex), I haven’t felt it at all. Moreover, I’ll be able to weather the writers strike better than most who’ll have to deal with reruns.

Anyway, I find that I’m in a unique position now in my career. Before, I had a day job that wasn’t related to writing in the least. That meant spending my off-time looking for a writing job, which prevented me from taking gigs that didn’t pay. Sure, I took a few non-paying gigs here and there to build up my portfolio, but for the most part, I looked for steady, paid writing work. Now that I am a professional writer (God, that sounds so weird in my head), I’m feeling the itch to get back out there in the freelance world just to get some creative stuff going again. More importantly, I want to get my name out there, as well. So, if you’re a fan of those small-time, free, regional magazines out in LA, look for my work.

Follow-up on the whole Scab Writer thing: I was chatting with a literary agent Online last night and she warned me about being blacklisted by the WGA if I did that. She’s not sure about the legality of it all, but I’m sure they could make it very difficult for me to find work after the writers strike blows over. That’s the last thing I want.

One more thing, I’m gonna be in Los Angeles this Sunday around 6:00 p.m. or so at a screenwriters’ seminar. It’s offered through ScriptShark for free to their customers. It’s supposed to go over the business side of screenwriting, like agents, query letters, etc. They’ll probably try to market software and other classes or whatever to me, as well. We’ll see. If you’ve been invited to this shindig too, drop me a line so that we can meet up. I hate going to these things alone.

I lied. Here’s the real last thing: If you use Facebook, add my page!

Now that the writers strike is in full force in the film and television industry, I can’t help but feel that this would be an excellent time to scab. I mean, hell, every writer in the industry has basically said, “You see this highly coveted job of mine that someone needs to do? Yeah, I’m gonna step away from it for a while.” It’s not like there are a shortage of wannabe writers in the world, willing to work for horrendous pay just to get a writing credit. Writers everywhere are working for less just to get a byline in some regional rag. I know there are, because I was one of them.

The idea of becoming a scab writer seems so strange to me. When I think of the entertainment industry and how hard it is for people to break in, I imagine that it’s because everyone in the industry are talented, one-of-a-kind people that cannot be easily replaced. And maybe that is the case and the idea of becoming a scab writer really is just a pipe dream. On the other hand, the industry is losing money everyday these writers don’t work and how hard is it really to look up current events and write Jay Leno’s monologue every night? If I’m a producer, why wouldn’t I bring on scabs until the writers break?

As far as I stand now, I’m all for the writers striking. They’re entitled to everything they can get for the work they’ve created. I’m also all for the producers hiring scabs to fill in empty positions. Most of all, I’m all for becoming one of those scabs, though I wouldn’t look forward to all the dirty stares I’d get around the office once the strike was broken. The way I see it, the writers are gambling on the opinion that they produce singular, inimitable work. For their sake, I hope they truly are the talented, one-of-a-kind people I’ve always perceived them to be or they’ll find me walking through their picket lines.

What do you think; am I despicable?

Also, how can I become a scab writer?

Anyway, I’ve missed a couple days of blogging lately, mainly because of my intermittent Internet connection. I’m not sure if it’s my provider or if it’s a weird side effect of Windows Vista’s “sleep” feature, but whenever I come home from work, my primary blogging time, I always find that my Internet connection is down. Hours later, I’ll find my connection back up and running. Sometimes, though, it won’t come back up until late at night. Anyway, I’ve turned off the sleep feature and we’ll see if the same thing happens tomorrow.

Star Wars fans can rejoice! Looks like George Lucas is bringing the Star Wars universe to television. Don’t expect to see any major characters from the films, however, since the plot is planned to focus on minor characters. Cameos by major characters has not been ruled out though. Supposedly, the show will be similar to Lucas’ Young Indiana Jones series.

This is just the sort of thing that SW fans need to continue the war with Star Trek fanboys. Still, I’m worried about how it’ll all turn out, considering that Lucas plans on writing the entire first season himself and then handing off the writing responsibilities to staff writers. I wasn’t too impressed with how the prequel trilogy turned out, writing-wise. In any event, this could eventually lead to more Star Wars films and even the possibility of Lucas opening up the license to independent writers.

When I watched The Lord of the Rings trilogy, I couldn’t help but think that that was how the Star Wars trilogy should have been treated: with respect. Now that Lucas is getting older, perhaps he will turn the mantel over to the throngs of rabid fans that maintain the original vision he seems to have lost.