Where to?

I've got a bunch of story ideas rolling around in my brain right now. I'm still finishing up with Not Dead Yet, but I'm also trying to get something new started so I don't just peddle around for eternity on the same project and never move on.

I'm toying with the possibility of adapting H Ryder Haggard's She. Mystery Man pointed out a list not long ago that includes all literary works in the public domain and I noticed She was on it. I loooooved that book in grad school. It's had a few adaptations, including one successful one with Ursula Andress. But my main reason for wanting to do this adaptation is to use it as a work sample just in case I end up in the right place at the right time. There is a book I want to adapt more than anything in the world. I would probably knife somebody for that opportunity, but the book has gotten tossed around Hollywood over and over and every now and then we hear about some new effort to adopt it and then it lands in development hell.

I want this book. So maybe I'll adapt She to prove I can do this book. You know, just in case I meet the right studio head at a party.

I'm also thinking about this athletic competition thing based on contests I keep going to, but I'm a little worried about my ability to maintain enthusiasm for something with no fight scenes or gun battles. Every time I try to write something without lots of violence I get bored and can't finish. So I think I'll put the athletic thing aside for now.

There's this space bounty hunter pilot I've been thinking about for years and I've got it pretty well set in my mind, but I've wandered further and further away from television over the years. I used to think I was headed for TV but the more I've worked on features the more I want to continue working on features. And this pilot could never be a feature.

But then the other night I realized that if I took the backstory I created for my pilot I could form a solid feature story. There's a whole drama I created for my lead to explain her life choices that would actually make a pretty slick standalone story. With fights and gun battles the way I like.

So it will either be an adaptation of She I take on next, or this bounty hunter story. I'm hesitating because I just hate starting on something and then losing interest. I've got too many half finished screenplays and first drafts in my box of scripts. I don't want another one.