Of Writing and Striking

My union has been on strike for nearly a month now.

My union is, of course, the Writers Guild of America. I'm an emeritus member, which means I haven't actually worked as a writer (for film or TV) in ages, but I'm still a member. And I'm proud to support my striking brothers and sisters in their cause, especially on the issue of DVD residuals. Even though nothing I've ever written has been released on DVD, I strongly believe that we deserve more than a measly four cents of the price of a DVD.

Being in Nashville during this time has been hard. I'm still very attached emotionally to the TV world; heck, at least twice in the last week I've attempted to give someone my old screenname (writetv) instead of my current one (ex-tvwriter). I want to support my fellow scribes, but at the same time I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again (or trying to) and still looking for a job (doing anything really, although getting paid to write again would be really nice). And even though writing my NaNo novel isn't for money, and I know that some writers will work on spec scripts during a strike, it's felt... odd working on it while all this has been going on.

I don't know, maybe that's just an excuse for procrastinating, for surfing the web when I should be writing, for why I won't make it to 50k this year (again). But it just feels weird. I want to be there with my friends (whoever might remember me, anyway), walking the picket lines, protesting and networking at the same time.

Heck, I think sometimes I just really want to be back in L.A.