In 2014, I decided that I would write every day. I used the deadlines that came up for competitions to make deadlines for myself. I wrote a play in February that year, which was read in May 2014 for our reading festival. Then it was read in May 2015 and it will have another staged reading in April 2016. Then in March of 2014 I wrote a new pilot really quickly. When the deadline for Sundance came along, I sent it off with the story bible I had in May. Then I had to finish the play rewrite for our reading series and I started a spec House of Cards for the studio fellowships. I went away to Monterey for a week to get that stuff done. Based on that, my friend Tim gave me his office while he was away. Then when he came back that office became available and I took it. I wrote more until I had five scripts written by the end of October 2014.
This year, I had a play development fellowship where I got eight months to fully realize a new play. I had two internal readings, a workshop and a public reading. That kept me busy until September. Then I wrote a new pilot and rewrote another one. The rewritten pilot is being worked on so I can start sending it out to agents and managers in my search for new representation. If 2014 was the year of productivity, then 2015 was the year of focusing on a project through several drafts. And 2016 is set to be the year of the monthly challenge. I am taking that concept of these deadlines I am setting for myself and giving myself a new challenge every month. I want to use that productivity and that focus to reach for the things that I want this year, such as getting a staff job on a TV show. I've said I've wanted that for years, but I've never really focused on what it would take to get there. Sure, I wrote scripts. But I didn't have a vision as I was writing of what I wanted to get out of those efforts. I wasn't setting intentions.
All of the seeds I've planted in the past two years have led me to greater productivity and a greater quality of work. Now it's time to see what these planted seeds will bring about. The good thing and bad thing about me is that I'm relentless. I'm stubborn. When used in the right way, it means that I'm like a dog with a bone and I won't let it go. But that can also backfire on me because sometimes I don't know when to quit and try a new approach.
I'm trying to live my life in a more positive way as well. I'm trying to focus on the work and not the rewards. It's hard when those rewards feel like indicators of hard work. But I'm working and have been working this hard for a long time. Sure, I've focused more in the past two years. But I've been diligently doing the work on myself that it takes to be productive in my work. I am planting seeds. Now I wish these plants would spring up and become fully grown trees in an instant, like when Jack had magic beans and a beanstalk spouted up overnight. But as we learned in that fairy tale, sometimes when things grow too quickly that can also be dangerous.
I can only hope that as I get more vulnerable and my life will open up to more possibilities.
I am grateful for all of this good thought.
I am grateful for quiet nights.
I am grateful for peace.
I am grateful to be still enjoying my work and growing from it.
I am grateful that I know who I am.
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