productivity

Just call me the human perpetual motion machine

Maximum Z contest, Dreamship, half-marathons, Movie of the Moment, Nicholl Fellowship, productivity, rewrite, running, screenwriting, script, Tracking Board, westerns, writing ,
Stop working? That's crazy talk!
Stop working? That’s crazy talk!

Well, this has been an interesting week, to say the least.

-Rewrite was completed and sent it off to my manager. Hope they like it.

-Found out DREAMSHIP was one of 25 semifinalists in the Tracking Board’s Launch Pad competition. The top 10 finalists will be announced at the end of the month, followed by the winner a few days later.

Even if the script doesn’t advance, I don’t mind (although it would be nice). I’m just thrilled to have made it this far.  As K said to me after I got the email from the Tracking Board people, “See? Somebody who doesn’t know you thinks you’re a good writer.”

That’s a nice reminder.

-The Nicholl deadline came and went. DREAMSHIP was sent to that back in March, which makes it one of at least 7,200 submissions. The final count should be tallied sometime soon.

(If you have the time, do a quick search to find out what past winners are up to these days. It’s a fascinatingly diverse range of material, including film and television.)

-With a lot of this contest stuff out of the way, it’s time to return to the first draft of LUCY.  It’s been about a month since I last worked on it, so it’ll be interesting to take a look at what I’ve written so far.  Nothing like fresh eyes on your old work!

-I can also start running again. Next race is in 6 weeks, and I really want to be ready for it.

-Movie of the Moment – SKYFALL (2012) Took me three separate viewing sessions, but I finally made it through.  I enjoyed it.

Easy to see why this was so popular. It was a well-written combination of old-style Bond movies with 21st-century themes, thankfully without dipping too much into cheesy joke territory.

Don’t mind me. I’m just regrouping.

Maximum Z goals, motivation, pie, podcasts, productivity, Rocky & Bullwinkle, screenwriting, writing
Cut a little slice out of each day for creativeness (and done literally, you get pie!)
Cut a little slice out of each day for creativeness (bonus – pie while you work!)

Remember that New Year’s resolution you made about being more diligent and really sticking to a writing schedule and how you were going to be super-productive in 2013?  How’s that working out for you so far?

Well, here it is almost the middle of February and what does yours truly have to show for it, script-wise?

Zilch. Zip. Nada. The proverbial big fat goose egg and other colorful metaphors.

An outline with barely any dents in it and podcasting equipment that’s been taken out of the box twice.  How am I supposed to move ahead when I feel like I’m standing still? Not acceptable!

I could claim that most of January was focused on the query letters, but that’s kind of a lame excuse.  There’s no reason I (or any writer, for that matter) shouldn’t be able to set aside at least 30 minutes a day to work on something. Anything.

Maybe you’re like me and you’ve got that constantly-burning fire inside you that makes you want to write, create or produce something, and when you aren’t able to do that, you feel like you’re taking a step backward.

So consider the reset button officially pushed.  Let’s call this my New Year’s Resolution, Take 2.

I will do my best to try and accomplish at least one important thing each day for both script and podcast.  To be fair, there will be days where circumstances are just beyond my control and nothing will happen. It’s inevitable, and I accept that.

But the rest of the time – no excuses.

-Movie of the Moment. Not necessarily a movie, but a rediscovered treasure.  All 5 seasons of ROCKY & BULLWINKLE on Hulu Plus. Want to see countless examples of smart and hilarious writing in action?

Bullwinkle and a general watch helplessly as a missile takes off with Rocky strapped to it.

GENERAL: That squirrel is headed straight for Washington!

BULLWINKLE: Do you think he can carry the farm vote?

Look no further, my friends.

Going for that streamlined look

Maximum Z antagonist, creativity, editing, outlines, podcasts, productivity, protagonist, rewrite, scenes, screenwriting, story, structure, westerns, writing ,
No, no. The car.
No, no. The car. Aw, never mind.

With most of the querying out of the way, I’m now focusing on two things: getting the podcast up and running, and fine-tuning the western outline.

There’s not much to say about the podcast, except it just hasn’t been a priority. I could have spent more time on it, but opted to get the queries out, which was very time-consuming. It’s looking more likely now to be a February launch.  Stay tuned for more details.

Regarding the outline rewrite, although I had a pretty solid outline already done, it still needs a lot of work.  Up first: tightening things up.  There are just too many scenes.

Using the existing outline, I’m now figuring out ways to move story details and plot points around so everything moves along faster.

For example: the earlier draft didn’t really introduce the villain until around page 17 (he’d been lurking around in the shadows up until then). I’ve since moved things around and now he shows up around page 4, which also includes a follow-up scene to show just what kind of a bad guy he is.

There was also the decision whether or not two scenes could be combined into one. I’ve gone back and forth on this. Scene 1 advances the story/continues to set things in motion, while Scene 2 provides some backstory about the connection between the hero and the villain. Although each has merit on their own, I’ll probably remain undecided up until the end.

Happy to say I’m still enjoying the whole thing.

-Movie of the Moment Two-fer!: THE OTHER GUYS (2010)   I don’t really care for a lot of Will Ferrell’s films, but this caught me totally off-guard. It was actually funny and had a good story. Surprisingly entertaining.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011) Another clever film from Woody Allen. Probably doesn’t hurt that I love Paris too. Kind of wish he’d write characters other than those from the upper classes.

It’s either optimism or hypothermia

Maximum Z baking, blog, exercise, half-marathons, inspiration, manager, motivation, podcasts, productivity, representation, running, screenwriting, The Script Adventurer!, writing
Luckily for me, it doesn't snow here
Luckily for me, it doesn’t snow here

My bike ride to work is an enjoyable 6-mile pre-dawn journey across most of San Francisco. The temperature when I left the house just after 4 this morning was 43 degrees, so by the time I got to work 40 minutes later, some of my outer extremities were a bit chilled and are taking longer than I’d like to thoroughly thaw.  Especially my feet. They’re still cold.

But looking back today at how this year developed for me combined with what I’m hoping to make happen in 2013 make for that warm glow of satisfaction.

-My writing has definitely improved. Several drafts later, DREAMSHIP is much stronger now, and I’m feeling really confident about it. While a sale would be fantastic, I’ll focus on getting representation for now.

-Because of the feedback I’d received on DREAMSHIP, the outlining process for LUCY is working out much, much smoother. Once the outline is ready, and it almost is, I’m really looking forward to getting started on pages.

-I didn’t get to read as many scripts as I’d wanted to, so setting a weekly goal of at least 2 seems pretty doable.

-I had a blast doing The Script Adventurer!, and am that much closer to bringing it back as a podcast. Still planning on a January launch. This is becoming a real learning process, and is actually kind of exciting.

-I did three half-marathons, finally breaking 2:00. I plan on doing at least three more this year, hopefully adding 1-2 more into the mix. Once again, the objective is to break 1:55.

-Since the running took care of my lower body, 2013 will also see more attention to upper body. Hoping for bigger arms and flatter abs. First up – the 100 Pushups program.

-I made a lot of pies this year. So many that they’re now strongly requested when friends invite us over for dinner. Pie-making will continue, but baklava remains at the top of the “I really want to make this” list. (This is not necessarily counter-productive to the previous item – it’s all about moderation)

-I’ll try to keep posting on a semi-regular basis. As always, my appreciation and gratitude for those of you willing to endure my ramblings continues to be limitless.  I hope 2012 saw good things happen for you, and that 2013 is even better.

Happy New Year, and see you on the other side.

Three to get ready…

Maximum Z creativity, editing, feedback, goals, motivation, productivity, rewrite, screenwriting, script, self-confidence, writing
Yeah, it kind of feels like that…

It took a while, but the initial editing phase is complete.  There aren’t a lot of significant changes to be made, but almost every page has something that requires some kind of fix. Fortunately, most of them are very minor, like changing a verb or rearranging the way a scene is described.

There are at least 3, maybe 4 scenes where something needs a little more attention, so I circle it and write my standard “Work on this”.

So all that’s left is one or two thorough typing sessions, one more read-through, a little feedback (professional and trusted colleague), and then diving headfirst into the fray and getting the script out there. (which reminds me I really need to get on the ball and get back to the research phase)

And honestly? I’m getting a little nervous.  But in a good way.

This is what I’ve been working towards, and now it feels like it’s just about here.

Is it wrong for me to think there could possibly be a good chance of something happening?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not expecting a million-dollar sale.  Although selling a script would be fantastic, I’d much rather get representation and take some meetings that result in steady projects.  That would be phenomenal.

For some reason, I’m flashing back to a meeting I had about 11 years ago with a professional writer. I’d written 2 scripts and he read both of them purely as a favor.  When we met, the first thing he said was that I was a good writer. I had the talent, but really needed to keep writing in order to get better.

Which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do ever since.

Keep in mind that like everybody else, my first efforts were incredibly lousy (at least compared to my current stuff), so either he was being kind or he actually meant what he said. I really hope it was the latter.

For now, this remains an ongoing process. I’ve said many times it’s all been an absolute blast, and that still holds true.

And something deep inside tells me there’s bigger and better things ahead.