One of those silly things: writing "the worst is past" rather than "the worst has passed", and keeping it that way, simply because the visual pun appeals to me.

(this is the post where my story Many Odd Little Steps was originally published; look for it April 2020 in M. K. Dreysen - Collected Volume 2, coming soon to retailers near you.)

Here's a thing I discovered in the past week. If you ever get into a car with lane assist, take a minute, when you can, to play with it.

Discovering how it feels for the lane assist to kick in when you're winding your way through curvy mountain overpasses in icy fog, with trucks and traffic and all the rest of the noise, is not the best way to learn the limits of the thing.

Short description is that it feels like under- or over-steer, depending on the circumstances. If you've every hydroplaned in the middle of a hard turn, you'll know what I mean.

Or, if you've ever driven short-track, dirt-track in a sprint or mini-sprint, you know that feeling? The one where you dive into the turn, with just the wrong amount of speed, and you have to trust to feel and instinct and God knows what else to balance the throttle and the wheel pressure?

Like that, only with none of the honed instinct that comes with trusting your car.

I'm fine, but for those first few seconds I wondered. Once I knew what was happening I could plan for it. But I suspect that, however many of one type of wreck are prevented, there are going to be new ones to go along with it. Probably fewer, but it's another thing to learn in the whole driving thing.

Of course, now that I consult the All-Knowing Wikipedia for Harry Potter, I see for the movie: a 2 year time, 1999-2001, from purchase of rights to release of the movie.

No development hell, they know how to make a movie when they want to.

A few preliminary thoughts on reading Hollywood versus The Author. I took it up after seeing it in Kris Rusch's December Reading Rec's.

This isn't a review; just ideas as I read through a group of writers kibbitzing, trying to figure out the ways and mores of Tinseltown, and how to navigate them with a bit of grace and skill. Overall, the picture isn't a clean one.

I've a few, well, theories I guess, but I'm far too new a writer, and the time if/when Hollywood would come knocking for anything I put up is far in the future. I'd say there're the obvious things that "everyone knows", that the town's a pit, a trap for the unwary, consuming all that come looking for glory.

Or, and here's the key: a quick buck. All the scams boil down to greed. And, at least from this outsider's point of view, the competent pros in the movie and tv business being surrounded by an awful lot of people who aren't in it for anything but the scam. Or the "fame" or the loose change or all of the other things that come along.

Stealing ideas, development hell. Endless re-writes. These are signs that, to me, sound like wanna-be's, not pros.

Look, well-run tv shows put out 20 to 40 hours or more of video every year, like clockwork. Spending year after year in "development hell" doesn't sound much like competence, not when there are people who do it every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Looks to me like the only defence a writer with a novel to sell options/rights on has is time. Use the option, put a deal, and then a movie, together in a limited time, or lose it. Period.

I suspect that's at least part of what was behind how competently the Harry Potter movie series was handled by Warner Bros. (if you're of a certain age in the HP fandom, you'll know jodel-from-aol, a.k.a. RedHen. Her description is that the first two movies were little more than boilerplate; I'm not saying they're the world's greatest ART, just that the movies were, for Hollywood, handled with a level of fidelity and competence that are far more the exception than the rule) I think Jo Rowling had not just the "leverage" of a hot property. I suspect she had a time limit on when the first movies, and the ones after, would be done, or they'd lose rights.

Such deadlines likely force: one script with minimal re-writes, from a scriptwriter who's a pro and is just translating, not "writing to their vision", i.e. writing their own script and passing it off under the flag of convenience. No re-writing for girlfriends/boyfriends/whoever's the hot young thing under contract. No games with casting, no prima donna's behind the camera or in front of it.

Only pros, people who can put together a movie in a timely manner with no muss, no fuss, and none of the drama queen business. People who just do the work.

I'm sure this isn't the whole of it, but right now I suspect it's also the only realistic grip that an unknown writer has on their story.

Addendum to previous: caveat for mobility and space. However, the principle is still good. Having the printer and files (or microwave and coffee pot) across the room, down the hall, rather than right there where I can grab it, may be frustrating in one sense, but I've found two major long term benefits.

Time to think.

Extra movement.

Both have their utility far and away from the momentary convenience of grabbing paper or stuffing files from my chair, in my experience.

I'm not gonna say this is one of those "happy writer" tips. But then, that may depend on your point of view...

Put the printer upstairs, and the filing cabinets, and take advantage of the laptop to work downstairs...

Not foolproof, by any means. It's often way too easy to talk oneself out of doing the up and down dance. But, when you don't have a choice, it sort of pays off.