AM(A)A

LegalDispatch 0.12

Hello, sports fans.

Welcome to another edition of LegalDispatch where, this week, I’m getting kind of annoyed at Substack’s methodology for embedding graphics. I love Substack in every other way but, man, they’ve gotta dial this in. The widgy-ness I’m experiencing might be because I’m writing this on a plane, but truth be told, I haven’t been thrilled with this one aspect of the interface since, well, forever. For whatever reason, I have to type out all my text first, then go back to embed graphics lest my attempts to go from graphics to text delete/overwrite the aforementioned graphics.

Anyway, it’s something to work on, Substackfolks.

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But I got the divider to work (apparently), so that’s something…

THIS PAST WEEK

So. On to the past week… I just finished my latest draft of Prophet which reflects Jake Gyllenhaal’s smart and well-taken notes. Fingers crossed he likes what I’ve done, but I’m kind of happy with the changes and additions.

I also did some rewrites on PROJECT ARTERY. This project has been under quite a cloak of secrecy, to the point where some of the artists working on it haven’t been given a look at the script yet. To make their lives easier, I worked on a synopsis of the whole thing. The exercise was rather instructive. Looking at the script purely structurally revealed some logic/choreography issues — particularly in the third act — that I wanted to address. It was a real learning experience, to wit: Gaining a new perspective on a story (e.g., reviewing it as a synopsis rather than a full script) revealed a variety of new and different aspects of the narrative which revealed issues I was able to correct in the script.

Or maybe I’m just too darn close to the thing and have reached the point where I’m over-thinking everything.

But I don’t think so.

I think this was a bona fide learning experience.

COMING SOON

I also think a formal announcement of PROJECT SOLSTICE is imminent. I did an interview for [REDACTED] via email this week, so it’s just a matter of time before this one goes public.

(Speaking of public, in law school, I was the Managing Editor of the Public Interest Law Journal. This was, essentially, a legal journal focusing on social justice issues, but as Managing Editor, the thought that kept me up at night was making sure that “public” was always properly spelled with its “L.” Sometimes, the little things are very big things and to this day I don’t type that word without a certain amount of trepidation because the gaffe I’m alluding to isn’t the kind that shows up on a spell-checkers.)

ASK ME (ALMOST) ANYTHING

One thought I had this week is that it might be fun to add a new feature to this newsletter: Me answering questions from subscribers. I’d call it an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA), but the truth is that there are projects and things, both past and present, that I’m not allowed to talk about, so some qualification is required. But I’ll try to be as open a book as possible. Swearsies.

That being said, there’s a massive gulf between the number of people who read this newsletter and those who actually subscribe to it. This is both understandable and expected because I post this newsletter to Twitter, where it has a reasonably large reach. Still, I’d love to increase LegalDispatch’s subscriber base because (a) I have a fragile ego; and (b) every day is a day where I might make good on my promise to myself to drop Twitter. (Even now, I’ve noticed that publishing this newsletter has led to a massive downturn in my Twitter usage, limiting myself almost entirely to tweeting in the blind and not looking at my timeline at all. Note: I am not losing sleep over this whatsoever.)

Anyway, all of which is a long way of saying two things. First, reply to this newsletter (there’s a comments feature) and ask me anything and I’ll provide whatever information I can. Second, please consider formally subscribing ‘cause my days on Twitter are numbered.

(Well, wasn’t that a conveniently-placed button?)

NEXT WEEK

The holidays are fast encroaching and next week will be my (and, I suspect, most people’s) last full week of work. I want to make the most of it, which will include a major push on PROJECT MONARCH, finishing revisions to Issue Three of PROJECT SOLSTICE, and a state of the union on PROJECT SUBWAY.

Much to my surprise, I’m ending the year with a lot of deadlines conquered. I’m enjoying the rare feeling of not being behind the eight ball in terms of deadlines. It’s a feeling I could most certainly get used to.

In the meantime…

Be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

JetBlue Flight 1373

12.10.21