What’s Going On with You, Jeffrey Ellinger?

I don’t normally do this, but I’d like to ramble. Please allow me.  It’ll be a short, I promise. Is this ok? Ok? Thank you.  Here we go.

First and foremost, the most recent story in the project is done. I finished typing it last night and I’ll send it out tomorrow. I hope that she, who I wrote it for, likes it. I care very much for the person I wrote it for so I do, sincerely, hope she likes it. Or, at the very least, appreciates it.   I wrote the story I wanted to write. I think did at least, I have my doubts.  Though, then again, I have my doubts about all my writing. Just today in fact, I was thinking about how silly it was that I write anything at all and, really, how silly it is that anyone, anywhere, writes. I think, as time accelerates, it will seem even sillier that made up stories exist.  I don’t know.  Maybe not.  Maybe we have an infinite need to empathize, to know that we aren’t alone, being alone, that there are people just like us.  I don’t know.

Anyway, after her story, I have two more stories to write in the project.  One is for a young woman I met through the internet by way of a tweet concerning a famous alternative Christian rock singer.  This woman is young and seems smart so I hope the idea I have in my head turns out.  Ideally, I’ll be done with it by the end of October, though, it could take longer than that. Whenever it does get done, I’ll start writing the ninth story in the project, one for an old friend.  I also know the general direction of the story I’ll write for him.  I know where it will be set for sure, in the house I currently live in, and I know what it will about, deceitfulness, jealousy, and longing.

That’s about all I have on the project for right now.  I will say, in case anyone wanted to know or ever wanted to do it themselves, it is a very time consuming thing to type on a typewriter. I can see why all the writers of the past wrote on paper and had their manuscripts transcribed onto a typewriter, professionally. That said, I have enjoyed the process of writing these stories, but I’m also looking forward to having time off from the project for a bit, as I have a couple other things I’d like to start working on.  One is, and I’ve mentioned this before, trying my hand at writing a screenplay.  As everyone already knows, I’ve mastered the novel (long ellipses here), and since I’ve done that, I’d like to try and see what I can do with a screenplay.  My plan is to do either one of two things.  Either write the adopted screenplay of the novel The Easter Parade, which would be completely unauthorized and completely not requested by anyone and completely possibly already written by someone and just awaiting some kind of Hollywood’s executive approval. The other option is, and this is perhaps more likely, to write an original screenplay based on the biography of Richard Yates, A Tragic Honesty by Blake Bailey (again, not authorized, but something I think would be amazing, if done right).  I’m finding myself warming more and more to the second idea. It would take more work and, I can only assume now, would be very slow going since I have little clue on what I’m doing. But, I think it might be a good thing. It might very well be my ticket to the bright lights. It might very well be my ticket to pathetic insanity. We’ll see.

The other thing I’d like to do is probably even more involved and that is editing this, (if you don’t want to click, it’s a summation of the other novels I’ve worked on) and distilling them into one novel and one novella.

Now, all of this is probably a bit ambitious and even if I didn’t have a full time job, as I do now, it’s possible I would be unable to write a screenplay, continue writing short stories, and have enough time to rewrite a couple of novels. Oh yeah, on top of that, I want to write a book of essays on religion and also, a weird comic novel.  Again, “we’ll see,” it’s all just stuff in my head at this point, though stuff I really would like to do. Then again, I’d also like to be happy all the time and marry Rashida Jones.  So, let’s just try and keep things in perspective here Jeff.