Write to happiness
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
I must admit I’ve been paralyzed about what to write a newsletter about this week. There is a LOT going on right now for me personally and professionally— but politically, things are bluntly terrifying. There has never been a crisis point like this in in the US in my lifetime. And I’m saying that, when I have a safe haven in Scotland. What friends, colleagues and strangers are going through inside the States is the stuff of nightmares.
I am grateful and inspired that authors and artists like Kendrick Lamar and Louise Penny are stepping up and making passionate moral stands against this despicable regime. I am grateful to the journalists on Substack who are doing the real reporting of this era, who are holding these monsters accountable and documenting their crimes against the Constitution and against humanity, every day.
I hope you all are staying informed - within reason — and taking activist action — within reason.
I also really hope everyone is taking good care of themselves and doing their best NOT to doomscroll. There is only so much reportage of this fascist coup any sane person can take and still stay relatively sane. These days I try to do about an hour of reading through my trusted Substack journalists. Sometimes (like today) I feel so much physical revulsion I don’t make it anywhere near that long. Then I summarize a couple of the most egregious developments and/or critical actions to take, and write them up in a couple of daily posts for my various social media pages (Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads - I’m happy to follow any of you on any of them).
I don’t always make it through all of those, either.
There are so many outrages daily, it’s hard to point out just one. But how about this one? The unelected ketamine-addicted billionaire, who is slashing and burning our country for his own gain, routinely calls his political opponents “NPCs” —”NonPlayer Characters,” only there to populate the world of the game for the actual players. The online right wing refers to anyone who opposes ELON-FELON’s agenda as an NPC.
That’s what we are to them. NPCs.
And if that’s not enough to make you write ELON-FELON out of your life story, I don’t know what is.
So you know what else I do to oppose them? I write. I do my activism and then I turn it all off and focus on my book, whatever chapter comes next, whatever problems need to be solved, whatever advances my page count for the day. Intricate, absorbing — and so simple.
And in that, I’m so lucky, to be paid to do what I love. To be able to support myself and my family, to know I’ll leave them provided for.
And I have to remember that, on days like today when I wonder what is the point at all of writing a newsletter about writing when we are in the midst of a authoritarian coup by a criminal gang of predators, bigots, and sociopaths.
I have to remember that working on my book every day is both supporting me and keeping me sane. That every day, by doing this one thing, I am simultaneously making a living, meditating, fulfilling my deepest creative impulses, and speaking out politically.
And I remember that no matter what this band of goons is trying to destroy for us “NPCs”, this country is actually based in our inalienable right to pursue our happiness.
Those depraved, soulless scum don’t get to take that away.
So whatever I can do —within reason! — to help YOU, who show up for this newsletter, to do that… that right there is the point of continuing to write this newsletter, despite everything.
For today, an easy but oh-so-important reminder:
15 minutes of writing per day equals a book
I’ve come to believe in easing into the new year instead of making frantic pages of resolutions. But how about just this one?
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All material © Alexandra Sokoloff, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
I can bear to watch maybe a half an hour of news a day. That's up from none. Unfortunately, our shared liberal depression is destroying MSNBC. Luckily for me, I'm at the end of my book. The last section was rough, so I continue to get ideas to improve it and it happily continues to be not quite done. We look at art, and read and watch TV and movies to sustain us. We saw Anora, which was a HUGE disappointment. Really? Quirkier Pretty Woman dragged out to 2 1/2 hours and most of the dialogue scrapped in favor of f***ing? Some nice performances. But then we watched Small Things Like These, which is going somewhere on my best movies ever list - top 20 if not top 10.