A Moment of Reflection on a Job Well Done

I finished another script last night.  So as of March 20th, I've written two first drafts: one play and one pilot.

I celebrate that.

I have work to do and since I am giving myself the entire month of March to work on this pilot, I have more I want to do in the next 11 days.

Goal: Finish another draft of the script.
System: Write every day between March 20-31.

I think it's important to celebrate the victories--small or large, as long as I celebrate each one.  I thought I was going to spend the month of March on a comedy pilot I had been thinking about for a while.  I had the characters laid out.  I had a title.  I even had ideas for future episodes.  But I had no idea what the pilot script would be. I didn't know how I was going to introduce these people.

Then I did some more thinking and I thought that maybe I should work on a script that makes sense with what I already have.  My plays tend to me more dramatic, even though they have comedy in them.  I'm the funny guy who writes drama.  All of my scripts have comedy in them--human moments that are seasoned with humor.  And I had this idea for a one hour pilot since the summer.  It was in the same world of another pilot I wrote three years ago that never really went anywhere.  But I loved the world and I knew that if I could find a story and characters that worked in this world, I could have a lot of fun writing it and it would be interesting.  I've been dying to write a Dynasty or Dallas.  And I think this world is a great world, but the approach I took was not great.  I wanted to write a straight up soap and I was getting in my own way because I wanted to create a fabricated hook.

So I just started thinking about this idea.  If it has stuck with me for the past three years, there's something there.  And like I said, I attempted this pilot.  I wrote six drafts of a version of this story three years ago in about a three month period.  When I like something, I'm fast.  But I don't think I was playing to my strengths.  Also, a lot of things have happened in three years.  Soaps are back.  Yes, now they're known as serialized dramas, but House of Cards, Scandal, Grey's Anatomy, Revenge…those are all soaps.  But I wanted to write a soap where the characters are having a great time in their world, whether that's as a hero or a villain.  But especially the villains.

The more I thought about it, the more things came to me.  So I wrote this story bible in a few days and I got ready to write the pilot.  I figured out a hook for my main character, which felt organic and interesting.  This felt like a character that we haven't necessarily seen before for a bunch of reasons.  So I wrote the pilot in a week, taking the weekend off to watch a bunch of documentaries about my subject.  And I'm reading one particular text that's helping me out as well.  Just to get the way these characters talk about the world they're inhabiting.

As I look at the next 11 days and I think about what I want to tweak in the pilot, I think about the basic things I always think about when it comes to my writing:

• Am I cramming too much story in? I attempted to solve this problem by writing the series bible.  If I had story ideas, I knew that I could save them for later.  It helped me pace out the story for the pilot.  And I had a real advantage this time, I set up exactly what my show's about in the first scene.  And I knew who this lead guy was.
• Do I have a clear villain?  Who's the antagonist here?  Since I have such a clear protagonist, I need that nemesis.  And this is where it gets to be fun.  There are actually a few people, and a few different hero/villian combinations.  But there's one female character in particular that I want to set up as a person who is an ally but could very easily turn.
• Are all of my wants clear?  I tend to think that they are clearer than they've been in the past because this pilot was so quick to come together.
• Do all of my stories track? I have A-E stories in this pilot.  I have a lot to juggle, but I want to make sure I've set everything up correctly and that there are actual stories happening in the pilot, not just things that happen and not just one big, huge, enormous A storyline.
• Characters - Are they distinct?  You know, I actually think these characters are the clearest characters I've written.  And again, it goes back to the "What do they want?" question.  It really always goes back to that.  If you give them something to act on or to suppress, then there's real action and there's real character because they have a reason for doing what they're doing.
• What can I punch up?  I don't think it's just comedy scripts that can be punched up.  In the case of comedy, you're adding jokes when you're punching up.  With this script, I think it's more about heightening the drama.  I want this script to be a big soap.  There are great character moments and I want them in there because I think that adds depth to the script.  But I want those big operatic soap moments as well.  You have to have those.  It's what makes it fun and "juicy."  I love House of Cards, not just because it's a smart show but really because it's scandalous and juicy.  That is what makes it fun to watch.  I want to make sure that the fun factor is there in this script.

I am grateful that I worked on this script so quickly.

I am grateful to be accomplishing my goals.

I am grateful to have this forward momentum.

I am grateful for things to be inspired by.

I am grateful that this script is different than my other script.

I am grateful that this script goes well with my other play that I'm sending out.

I am grateful that a style is emerging.

I am grateful that the writer I am is starting to make sense and is starting to speak to people.

I am grateful that people will get to see the writer I am at this very moment and this writer is who I want to introduce them to.

I am grateful that these scripts that I have written recently will be the starting point.