As we close the first quarter of the year, I'm recapping the things I'm grateful for in the first three months of 2014.
It has been a productive year so far and I hope to continue that productivity into the Second Quarter of the year.
January started out with a lot of planning. Setting up the goals for the year. I knew I had a play I was going to write, which I had been thinking about for awhile. My playwrights group has a challenge they do every year, so I knew that this play would fit into that challenge. I still didn't really know what else I would be writing, although I figured some sort of TV pilot and maybe some other things.
So at the end of the month, I started working on this new play. I had a structure. I had a plan. I started writing and by the end of February, I had 118 pages of a brand new play completed. We did an informal reading of this very early draft and I took lots and lots of notes. I knew I would have a reading of it in May, so I had two and a half months to work on it. But I also knew I needed time to let everything digest and I had a TV pilot I wanted to do next.
Again, I had been bouncing some ideas around. I also had a larger goal in mind. I have been back and forth on whether or not TV writing is something I still want to pursue. I have a few teaching jobs I have applied for and that I would be interested in. But I knew that if I wanted to have a shot at trying to get seen and read for a TV job, for it to even be an option I would have to start looking for new representation. So I started on that journey. I met with a few contacts of mine who like my work and asked them if there were any agents or managers they liked working with who they could put me in touch with. And thankfully, they did. So my material went out to those folks.
Just like the February playwriting challenge had been useful for me, I knew that I needed an equally rigorous challenge to get this TV pilot done. So I got together with my friend Andrea and I told her that I thought we should do a TV pilot writing challenge to write a first draft in a month. At first, I thought I was going to write a 1/2 hour spec pilot. I had an idea I had been working out since the end of last year, and it seemed to make a lot of sense. Plus, Andrea's a comedy writer and I thought we could be good for each other. We would share with each other our outlines, our story ideas and our drafts.
Then these agents read the play I sent and seemed to respond. So they wanted something else to read that would feel consistent with my play. One person read a half hour sample that she didn't respond to, so when the second person asked for something I sent an hour pilot. Then I thought about what I was writing and what would be consistent with both my theatre work and my other TV samples. So I decided that I would write a pilot I was going to try and write later in the year. This script is an hour drama. So I started outlining that and working on a story bible. I had that done in a week. Then I decided to write the script. I had that done in another week.
March was only half way done and I had finished a first draft of the script. That was good news. I kept doing research that would help me with the next draft. I then picked up a book that I think would make a great TV show and I'm currently looking into the rights. Then I saw an opportunity for a TV writers workshop that I want to apply to, but it's by invite only. So I'm getting one of my contacts to recommend me to that.
As I approach the end of March, the end of the first quarter of the year, I look back at how much work I had gotten done. And I attribute it to a change in attitude that I am incredibly thankful for. At the end of 2013, I read an article from Entrepreneur magazine that talked about setting up systems, ways of getting things done, instead of just focusing on goals. Goals can be disappointing if we don't accomplish them in the time frame we set out for ourselves. But if we set up ways of getting things done, such as writing everyday, then we never feel like we are falling behind. And in working on a system of productivity, I was even more productive than I thought I would be.
I am grateful that I wrote a new play in a month.
I am grateful that I wrote a new pilot in a week.
I am grateful that I will have new material to share that is finished and polished when asked.
I am grateful that, when asked, I will have work that tells the story of who I am as a writer.
I am grateful for friends and colleagues who only want the best for me and who have acted on that.
I am grateful that I have taken initiative.
I am grateful for these opportunities that showing up for me.
So as I head into the Second Quarter of the year, I have set a great pace. In April, I am heading to Portland to teach a three day playwriting workshop at PSU. I have been getting ready for that during the first quarter of the year and I will be going to do that in ten days. I love working with students and I am excited about exercising that muscle again. And that opportunity came because I took a free workshop from the head of the theatre department at PSU randomly when I was in town last summer. I opened my big mouth and an opportunity came from that. I am reaching out more and more and the Universe is responding to it.
In the Second Quarter, the annual flurry of applications for the various studio-sponsored writing fellowships are coming up. I want to be ahead of the game. So I am spending April writing a spec of House of Cards in time for the May 1st deadline for the CBS workshop. That still gives me time to revise my script for the NBC, WB and ABC programs, whose deadlines are June 1st. I also have the second draft of this pilot to continue to work on. I have started it, but took some time to take notes and to think about this next draft.
May will bring my play reading at the middle of the month. Unfortunately, my play rewrite might have to wait until the first of May. Realistically, I don't think I can get a spec pilot rewritten and a spec script written from the ground up and a new play draft. But I can spend the first two weeks of May busting my ass and getting it done. Plus, the public reading is only there for me to set another goal for another rewrite. The play will continue to be rewritten for the Fall deadlines for all of the theatre submissions. And by then, I will have a tight, wonderful version of this new play to send out.
May will also be about the rewrite of this House of Cards spec.
So far, I don't have June figured out. It could be writing a new pilot. It could be teaching a new class. It could be writing on a show. I'm just going to leave June open for right now. Plus, I'll be exhausted. Maybe I'll spend the month of June doing research for another play I want to write. I had a great idea for a new play during this First Quarter as well.
I am just happy that I have found a pace of working that seems to be opening up my senses. I keep having new ideas that come my way. I am glad to be open to all of it.
I am grateful that I already know what I'll be writing in the next three months.
I am grateful that I am going to be teaching in April.
I am grateful that I continue to generate work for myself.
I am grateful to be building momentum.
I am grateful that the writing muscle is being conditioned.
I am grateful that this is all preparing me for things I might not even be aware of.
I am grateful that my system is allowing me to far surpass my goal.
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