2021 is just a smidge past the halfway point. How’s it been for you, writing-wise?
Have you been as productive as you’d hoped back when the calendar switched from December to January?
Mine’s been okay. I got a few first drafts done, and have been splitting time among a few rewrites. Some of them have been proving to be quite challenging, but I keep chipping away. A little bit of progress a day is better than none, right?
And maybe some of you remember back to earlier this year when I read A TON of scripts. Glad I did it, but no plans to repeat that. Probably ever.
There’s also a big project that’s been stewing for quite some time, and that took up a lot of time – especially during May and June. Hoping to put the finishing touches on it over the next few weeks, with the intention of revealing more later in the year.
I’ve also seen a lot of positive news from many of my trusted colleagues within the writing community; representation, contracts, options, production(!). I’m more than thrilled for each of them, and hope to eventually be able to include myself among that select group.
A big part of this year for me has also been a whole lot of self-reflection and evaluation. Do I feel any closer to achieving the goals I’ve set for myself? Is that light at the end of the tunnel the growing glimmer of hope, or an oncoming train?
Like a lot of us, I’ve had my fair share of days where things seem extremely gloomy and I wonder if I still have a chance at making this work. Maybe. Maybe not. But I do enjoy coming up with all these stories.
So I’ll keep at it, doing my best to stay positive and trying to do better with each draft, while also taking the time to not overstress about working my through the whole process and just try to have a good time with it. This plays a much bigger role than you’d expect, and can make quite a difference.
Who knows? Maybe it’ll all pay off in the end. In the meantime, I humbly refer you back to the title of today’s post.
Maximum Z 
I gotta admit, Covid didn’t affect me as much as I thought it would. I’m still “sequestered” in my office staring at a computer screen. In June of last year, I was hitting a wall with a script I was working on when the Muse yelled out to me. I dropped what I was doing and started a completely new story idea./ script. The Muse talked, I took dictation. Finished a 90-page first draft in twelve days.
Only once before had I ever done anything that quickly. Polished it over the next six weeks. In the span of twelve months [from that June], I’d finished two more scripts, one a complete rewrite of something I’d done forty years ago and the other was an old idea I’d had. Three scripts in twelve months. I don’t know if I’ll ever be that prolific again, but it sure felt good!