Looking Ahead to Q4: 2015

Last year, I got in the habit of dividing the year up into fiscal quarters. Q1-Q3 this year have been taken up by my play. I tried to go back and work on other stuff. But I just haven't been able to. Now that the play is officially over (we had our last reading on September 19th), I can focus on other things.

I decided that working extensively on one play this year was going to be enough for me. I needed to spend the rest of the year working on TV spec pilots. That's the main reason I decided to run our Playwrights Union TV pilot challenge again this year. I knew I would need something to do after finishing this big 8 month play development program.

So as I'm rounding out Q3 and looking towards Q4, which starts on Thursday, I want to plan out the end of the year in terms of productivity and such.

Fall is typically the season of play submissions. So far I have submitted the new play to nine different places. Now I've got a few more to submit before the end of the year. Thankfully this year, the play is done. I'm not going to do any more work on it before development folks get their hands on it.

In addition to sending the play out to places like the O'Neill and Sundance, I've got a new pilot that takes place in the 1970s in NYC. I have the outline and the treatment done and October will be the month that I'll be banging out the script. As with last year, I hope that I can get at least two drafts of the script done in time for lots of things. My goal is to have one more solid drama sample for me to send out to get representation before the end of the year.

I would also like to take the end of the year to work on the revamp of the pilot I started writing last year. I wrote a bunch of drafts of it and it felt like it was going nowhere. So if I can get both of those done before the end of the year, I will have written three solid scripts and I will feel good about going into 2016.

I already know that I'll be writing a new play in early 2016. But I want to get to writing some new TV samples next year. I have a serious drama idea and a period idea that I'd like to try and work on. I have a lot of light work and a lot of soapy stuff. Now I'd like to have a few samples that are a little darker or a little more serious. Things that are a little more research intensive. Maybe something political to pair with the last play I wrote.

I am grateful to have a play to send out that I feel strongly about.
I am grateful that I have the time to write.
I am grateful that I still have things to say.
I am grateful for food.
I am grateful for friends.
I am grateful for vivid dreams that let me know my mind is working.