Clear the Decks

I'm writing too much.

No, I take that back.  I'm not writing too much (I don't want my writer friends who are blocked right now to get pissed at me).  I'm not focusing on enough.

No, that's not right either.  I need to clear the decks.  Maybe that's it.

I just had a reading of a play of mine a few days ago.  It's called The Snake Charmer and it's a riff on the Pygmalion myth that takes place in three different eras.  The play travels back and forth in time and the characters kind of riff and play off of each other, even though they never interact.  It's a little "the more things change, the more they stay the same."  But in the course of the talk back that happened after the play

SIDEBAR: I hate talk backs.  I don't really want to know what you think of the play because at this point I'm still raw and I need to see my play clearly again before you start ripping her apart.

Like I was saying...in the course of the talk back it was mentioned that maybe some of the story lines were distracting from the point of the play: someone's trying to save someone who might not need to be rescued.  I need to get rid of some superfluous characters that are distracting from us getting to the point.

In a similar way, I think I need to clear the decks to get my work done and figure out what's the most important.  I just finished this play reading and I would like to develop the play further and eventually have it produced at the theatre.  Okay, that has some priority.

I have another play that I rewrote last month and that I'm trying to put together a reading for so that we can independently produce it.  And I think this play will make a great TV sample.  Not really a priority until we get this reading scheduled.

I have some sketches that I'm writing with a friend.  We're trying to put them together to film a sizzle reel that we want to use to shop a show around.  This would be a higher priority, but my friend is an actress and busy working.  We meet up and work, then don't meet up for another month.  Too slow to be a priority right now.

I have a play I'm starting to write for a commission opportunity.  I love the idea.  I think it will make a great play, both stylistically and in terms of the idea.  High priority, but I don't have to write the whole play for the submission process.  So maybe a lower priority, once I get the number of pages written that are required.

I have a TV pilot I want to rewrite.  High priority.  I am looking to get new representation.

It's hard to focus when you have a bunch of scripts in various stages of development that you're juggling.  I could just write one thing at a time and finish it, then move on.  But my brain doesn't work that way.  I like to be busy.

But I do need to prioritize, otherwise nothing is getting done.