Letting It Happen

I finished a new draft of a play in a month last Friday.

Now I'm outlining a new pilot.

This is a pilot I have been thinking about writing for a while.  I had been thinking about writing a new comedy pilot and I even came up with the characters, but I couldn't figure out the pilot story although I had plenty of ideas for future episodes.

Then I thought about the fact I am going to start writing a spec of House of Cards for the upcoming TV writing fellowships for the studios.  And it makes sense that I have a pilot that matches that and a play of mine which has been traveling well.  Plus, the shows I'm watching that I would like to write on are all one hour dramas.  So even though I think this is a good idea, the comedy pilot, and I think I'm funny…I think my time would be better spent working on a one hour drama pilot.

So I sat down over the weekend to look at this idea I have.  I knew I had a good world for the play and a world I had been wanting to write in for a long time.  I just started writing down ideas for types of characters.  Who would inhabit this world?  For a long time, the head of the family was a central figure to the story, but he was in his 60s.  And I didn't know if I wanted to write another guy in his 60s who's the head of a family.  I wrote another pilot that had a guy in his 60s and the pilot was really about his kids.  As I kept writing down ideas, it became clear that this guy is the protagonist of the story.  And instead of being 60 and bonding with his teenage grandson, he could be in his 50s and bond with his son who's in his 20s.  He's a billionaire.

I had an idea about him being a bit like Jerry Weintraub, so I watched Jerry's documentary again on HBO Go.  Then an idea popped into my head of how the pilot opens and about a choice that this guy makes.

I immediately thought: This is what the show is about.  I have it in that very first scene right from the top.  That never happens.

And after that, everything seemed to follow.

I had an idea for the pilot story.
I knew what would happen in the middle.
I knew how the pilot ended.
I had ideas that I knew I had to save for the second episode.
Then the first seven episode stories started to come together.

Again…that never happens.

I just started writing things down in a document, not worrying about whether or not I'm going to use it. Not worrying about formatting.  But knowing that I needed to create a document just for myself to write down ideas as they started coming.  I started to just meditate and let the ideas come through.

I had been away from home for three days, so I had a ton of TV to catch up on, including Bethenny Frankel's talk show.  And I saw her do an interview with Russell Simmons.  He started talking about meditating and more things clicked.

I didn't censor the ideas.  I just let them happen.

I knew that this guy would be Latino and that LA would figure heavily into the show.  Other things started becoming clear, his relationship with his family.  It just started coming out and now I'm on the eighth hour of a writing session, just coming in and out and writing things.  I'm at my favorite Korean Spa in LA, so I could grab lunch, write a little, nap, go into the steam room and take my computer out as necessary.  It really is a nice way to work.

I'm taking a "break" to blog and to look at some other materials.  But I'm going to go back to the work soon, maybe eat a little dinner, and see how much more I can get done.  I'm not going to force anything.  I'm just going to move on to the next thing if something isn't working.

Letting it happen.

I am grateful for my time at the Korean Spa.
I am grateful that my friend Andrea joined me for a little bit.
I am grateful that the words and ideas and connections keep happening.
I am grateful that I am listening to my instinct.
I am grateful to be inspired.