Saint Petersburg: 7.24.10

Not too much to report today...after our chat with Boris the previous night, he instructed Jon to carry the bottle in his pocket and sent us off. When we returned to our hotel room, Jon took an hour long business call with a wonderfully stereotypical New York Jewish woman. The call was interminable, but in kept us up until 8am when breakfast is served and Jon now has a very high profile interview set up. Other than that, the last day has been very low key. There was lots of work to be done, so we stayed in Friday night and were diligent. I also managed to get in some great writing on the story I devised during our last trip abroad. Well, not writing exactly, but planning. I'm really starting to believe that I am more creative while traveling than while sitting still. It's something about hotel rooms, I'm sure of it! My big problem now is that I'm unsure of how to proceed. I feel like I'll want a fairly good plan before I start writing, but I also don't want to suck the spontaneity out of the process. Where artistic endeavors are concerned, plans are always subject to change. I don't yet know when "Planning so that you have a complete, well-thought-out story with direction" crosses the line and becomes "Procrastination to avoid the actual hard work of writing." I'm also a little stuck on:

1. My writing style. My creativity is very visual (a remnant of years of writing screenplays, no doubt), and while I enjoy watching the way stories write themselves in my head, I'm having difficulty translating it into prose. I see exact looks on character's faces, hear specific tones in their voices, and often find myself confused about how to explain precisely what I see, hear, and feel without sounding cheesy or amateurish. I also find transitions troubling. I understand "Cut to" and "Fade to black" but elegant transitions in novel form escape me. What do you say? What do you leave out? I'm sure by now you're thinking "Just make it a script and stop whining about it," but the novel format is all that feels right for this particular story. A movie is too short, and a TV show is too long. A mini-series would could work - and would actually be quite fun down the line - but only on a big budget network like HBO or Showtime.
2. Execution. I can't quite shake the nagging feeling that I'm good at coming up with ideas, but not so good at turning them into readable prose. My writing always feels juvenile. Maybe I need I writing partner...I can be the idea person, and he or she can transform my ideas into something readable!
3. My shoulder, which insists on aching every time I try to write. I do not need Skinnerian negative reinforcement where writing is concerned!