Why I didn't post a lot this year

I guess the short answer is that I had a lot of writing to do this year. I've clocked in close to 2000 pages between new drafts, re-drafts and rewrites. So I can say that a lot of my writing happened in script form this year. Now last year, it seemed that whenever I was writing I was writing everywhere. My most productive periods of time seemed to also include lots of blogging. That wasn't the case this year. Maybe that's because I also kept journals for the four projects I worked on this year. Those journal pages total 150 pages. So with the estimated 1830 pages I've written this year in script form, plus what estimated to finish this year, which should take the tool up to 1890, I am well over 2000 pages for the year and that does not include blog posts, which I'm sure I could total up if I wanted to. And maybe I will do an accurate count by the end of the year. A large part of me wants to know exactly how many pages I've written this year. I need to know that. It's really important.

All of the writing helps all of the writing. If I'm blogging, then that sometimes warms me up to get some pages done. If I'm journaling, that helps me figure out what I'm trying to work out in my head regarding a scene. And of course, writing pages helps me get to a polished draft of a script.  That sort of continual writing makes all of the writing better. It develops a practice. I'm certain that there were years that I wrote maybe 200-300 pages a year. And that would have been fine. That could have been two or three drafts of a full length play. Or several drafts of two different half hour scripts. If I wrote a play and a spec, which most years I did, then that would be 350 pages approximately. It would be under 500 for sure. Last year, I wrote mainly early drafts of five different scripts and that totaled 979 pages. That does not include blogs, of which I had 156 blog posts. So let's say that was 1 page each (which I'm sure it was more) that would 1035 pages. Let's say half of those were two pages each and that adds 78 pages. Then that would be 1113 pages. I'm probably still at about double that this year.

I don't have to double my pages for next year to get it up to 4000. I think that next year might be different because I will be working more. I know for the first three months of the year,  I will be teaching. I hope that more work comes my way. But I know that might cut my productivity a bit. However, I've counteracted that by setting up one challenge a month for myself. However, that might also be taken up by the fact that I will be rewriting at least two full length plays next year. As of right now, the plan is to write a new full length play, two pilots scripts and a screenplay. Plus a rewrite of a pilot I wrote this year. Okay, now that 4000 page count seems like more of a possibility.

I don't have to get all of that done. Some of it will be based on what I'm getting paid to do or what I'm being asked to do for play development through certain commitments I have. There's also a short play collection that might be coming in as well for me to write for a company out here. That would mean the following:

• Rewrite of October Pilot Challenge play
• Writing New February Challenge play
• Rewriting play for reading in April
• Rewriting play I worked on this year
• Writing a new screenplay
• Writing a new pilot I just got an idea for
• Rewriting the screenplay
• Rewriting the new pilot
• Writing four or five new short plays for a project
• Writing a new pilot for the October Challenge
• Rewriting that pilot
• Rewriting February Challenge play

So that's 12 rounds of writing. That's writing that's writing 5 new projects and rewriting 3 projects I've worked on before. That's 8. Holy shit! Is that even possible? If I'm getting paid for some of them, it certainly is. But I'll be teaching. I won't probably have all of my time to write all year. There might be patches. But mostly the new challenge for next year will be that I'll be juggling all of that writing between teaching.

If I'm working towards writing every day, then whatever I get done will be a success. And I'm super cool with that. It's not about reaching a certain number of scripts or pages. It's not about besting last year. Now the challenge is to forget all of those projects and to just pay attention to the over all goal for each month. Then I need to forget that and just work on something every day. That's how I got to almost 1000 pages last year and to almost 2000 this year. That's the only way to do it.

And hopefully, in the midst of all of that I will find time to write blog posts. Maybe more than ever.

I am grateful for tracking lists.

I am grateful to know that I have been productive.

I am grateful that more reminders than ever are necessary.

I am grateful that this is my life.

I am grateful to be teaching in the Winter and Spring.

I am grateful that more challenges are coming my way.