Off to the Races

I just spent a week working on the outline for a screenplay I'm getting ready to write.  I feel spent in a way I haven't felt before.  It's like going on a 10 mile run.  When you're done you feel exhausted, sore, spent but totally invigorated.  Almost giddy.

And that's not even the marathon.

That's how I feel about this screenplay.  I went on a training run, a long exhaustive training run but I still have the marathon ahead of me.  I have had this idea for about a year, maybe.  Maybe less.  But I figured I would just write it as a play after I finish this other play I'm working on.  But the opportunity to write a screenplay came along so I figured I needed to do it.  And now I'm going to start that screenplay on Monday.

That means that this weekend, in addition to some social events and camping, I need to work on a pitch I'm putting together with my best friend.  At the very least, I will have a new spec to write in October.  I have three ideas I'm working on.  So one of them will make a good new spec.

Yeah, this was a great productive week.

Tim and I just got the office set up for an event we're having here tomorrow.  This office is lived in.  It's ours.  We have a base of operations for all of the things that we're doing.  It feels nice.  It feels right.

I have 113 scenes of this screenplay!

I had some fear this week about writing a screenplay!  Like I've mentioned, it has been a while.  Then I realized that everything I have been doing has prepared me for this.

I have been writing a lot.
One hour pilot after one hour pilot.
Play after play.
I have been working every day.
Character studies.
Plotting.

Everything I have been doing has led me here.
So now the idea of writing a screenplay isn't as scary or as intimidating as it used to be.
Writing something in a relatively short amount of time isn't scary to me.
It's hard work.
It's a lot of dedication and time spent away from other things.
But I don't have fear of it.
I just need to make sure my life can happen around it.

So yes, here I am again…
off to the races.

I checked my 2014 Plan, the document I wrote up to note what I wanted to get done this year.
I have already surpassed the amount of work I told myself I would get done.  That's why, for me, it's not important just to set "goals," but to talk about the work I will be doing.  My goals have to be about work and not about wishing.  I can't set a goal that's a hope or desire because I have no control of that.  I can control how much work I get done every day, whether or not that work happens every day, and the degree to which I am focused.  Those things I can control.  The rest of it is not up to me.  But if I am always working, then I am an easy target.  I'll be noticed easily for being someone who gets shit done.

Here I am at the end of a work week, at about 5:30 PM.  I have worked hard.  I am exhausted.  And rightfully so.

I am grateful for the amount of work I have accomplished this week.
I am grateful for my office being set up.
I am grateful for my commitment to this space.
I am grateful that I got everything done that I planned to.