"A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio."
Anyway. Today is the 10th anniversary of Vallvi—the craziest, longest, densest, most populous, and most personal book I ever wrote (pending the upcoming Heaven Park, which will beat it in all those areas).
Vallvi is also my least-read novel. And it hasn't aged well. I would never reissue it today without substantial changes to mitigate my ignorance, and still I fear it would go bad again in another ten years. In spite of that, I'm fonder of it than I am of later mistakes. That's because Vallvi was my first time addressing (albeit clumsily) questions that have haunted me for a long time: Gender. (My) masculinity. (My) sexuality. Emasculation. Self-destruction.
I was 29. I am 40 now, and I'm still figuring this shit out. I'm beginning to accept that there'll be no big epiphany at the end of the journey, so I might as well enjoy it.
Heaven Park, I'm afraid, won't contain any answers either. But it will hopefully touch more people, and provide bigger, better-aimed laughs.
And if you support anti-trans legislation or any such sort of reactionary bullshit, just know I will always save one queer kid over a thousand of you. Any day. Bring in the trolley.
Though I often scorn research, it is fun to engage in some laid-back worldbuilding and to fiddle with a few graphics before jumping into writing out an idea. Some project folders are created years before the actual text file, either cause the ideas need time to ripen, or you're too busy to get into it now, or you're just afraid of compromise. The good news is by the time you finally start writing, you already have elaborate, enigmatic puzzle pieces to show.
