It's Really Okay To Admit You're Not Ready To Tackle A WIP Just Yet. Whether It's Too Big, Too Complex,

It's really okay to admit you're not ready to tackle a WIP just yet. Whether it's too big, too complex, deals with themes that are mentally exhausting—whatever. It's not going anywhere.

Putting it on the shelf for a while to develop your skills/work yourself up to it and coming back when you're good and ready is Self Care 101.

“To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.”

— Confucius, Analects

“Avoid those situations of life which bring our duties into conflict with our interests, and which show us our own advantage in the misfortunes of others; for it is certain that, in such situations, however sincere our love of virtue, we must, sooner or later, inevitably grow weak without perceiving it, and become unjust and wicked in act, without having ceased to be just and good in our hearts.”

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions

writing tip: if you can’t decide what happens next, just throw in a murder. it works, trust me

I loved Dracula's ex-girlfriend and I love your channel! I wanted to ask you about Alex and his apparent disdain for Fay. Like I understand him resenting her for essentially c0ckblock him in the dessert ordering scene, but he just seems to hate her guts from even before Belladonna show up to the restaurant. Why is that?The movie was amazing and you all look stunning!

I'm so glad you asked because the answer ties into an extremely important job Brandon had in literally the first shot, and he nails it

When the film opens we need the audience to quickly know when and where the story is taking place.

We can see and hear it's a restaurant so we're situated in space but we still need to be situated in time.

The clumsy way to do it would be to have Fay look at a clock and sigh, "Where is she?" But we can do better! Actors are there to serve the text, and Brandon's a great actor so he does it for us!

Alexander's irritated reaction when he flips his notebook shut tells us Fay has been here for a long time i.e. it's late at night.

This is how it looks in the script:

So the reason he dislikes her is she's been sitting here for ages not ordering anything! We set up a little about their relationship, we learn something about Belle (she's late), and we're situated in time.

When Belle finally does arrive Fay orders tap water and a burger - which we can reasonably assume are the cheapest things on the menu. Alexander corrects her: it's not just 'a burger' it's the Oak-smoked California hickory burger, they're not just 'fries' they're organic chipped potatoes twice-cooked in our house spice. Fay asks for ketchup and Alexander is visibly disgusted. We surmise he doesn't think she's classy enough for this restaurant.

"I should write" *looks at memes about writers procrastinating writing instead*