The past few days have seen some significant progress regarding the rewrite of the dramedy.

There’s been a lot of cutting, tightening, reorganizing, and at least several attempts at how a particular sequence plays out. Took a while, but I’m happy with the results. Funny how sometimes it always seems to take a couple of tries until you find the “just right” solution.

One thing that happened more than once during all of this was that I would spend a good deal of time rewriting something until I was satisfied with the results, and think “That’s good for now. What can I work on next time?” That would usually be followed by jotting down some notes to be used in that next session, and then shift away from script work.

This time, however, things were a little different. Couldn’t say if it’s experience providing me with a little more insight, or having a little more time to work with (what with Ms V being done with school and soccer), or just my writer’s brain constantly on the job, but as I would wrap up revising one part of the story, there was no hesitation to immediately jump into the next one and start on it.

This occurred more than a few times, and provided some very positive results on several fronts.

Continuously pushing myself to do a little bit more, even if it was just some minor edits or tweaking some a few lines of dialogue, helped take care of stuff that needed to be taken care of, which in turn would (in theory) make the script better than it was. A gradual chipping away at the list of fixes a script needs can complete the list quicker than you realize.

And it certainly must be mentioned about the impact it had on me as a writer. Rather than think “I’ll just take care of it next time,” I got into the mindset of “despite how this might look, it’s not as big a problem as you think. Give it a try.” I did, and while the first attempts may not have yielded immediate or desired results, each one was at least a step in the right direction.

Call it what you will. Positive thinking. Going the extra mile. Exercising the writing muscles. No matter the nomenclature, it’s become a big help for me and will no doubt be an important part of my writer’s arsenal for all future endeavors.

-Since 2003, the National Hispanic Media Coalition has hosted an annual Writers Program in partnership with Comcast, ABC, Disney, and Final Draft in efforts to prepare and place Latinos in writing jobs for major television networks.

The program consists of a five-week, total immersion workshop that is mentored and guided by former NBC V.P. of Script Development Geoff Harris and is conducted in Burbank, CA. A total of 10 writers are accepted nationwide from an established network of non-profit agencies, schools, universities, guilds, and media organizatons. The goal of the program is for writers to garner the skills necessary to obtain employment in the industry.

NHMC’s Latino TV Writers Program has prepared and connected more than 100 graduates sine 2003, and 35 percent haev earned positions on TV and onlin shows featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CW, BET, HBO, Disney Jr., Hulu, Amazon, Lifetime, and Netflix.

The application deadline for Fall 2018 is August 5th, and winners will be announced mid-September to begin the program in the Fall. More information on NHMC and the program can be found here: nhmc.org/writersprogram.