Downsizing

A month ago I had my first script I was writing for the show I'm writing on, a ten-minute play festival I was producing for my students, scripts to grade, more time in the writer's room to come, I was working on a freelance non-writing project, and a play to rewrite for an upcoming reading. I was happy to be busy, but I had a lot on my plate.

I turned in the freelance project about two weeks ago...

I finished my teaching responsibilities about two weeks ago…

We broke the writer's room today…

And now I have this play I have left to write for a reading that's happening in less than four weeks. And for some reason, I feel totally relaxed. I'm tired from working on this outline for the past four days straight and for being in the writer's room for the past two and a half weeks breaking four episodes of TV.  I shouldn't feel relaxed…maybe I'm delusional.

I'm thinking of getting out of town for four or five days, maybe going to Vegas to go see my godmother, who just had surgery. But I need to get out of dodge to have some quiet time to finish this play. Writers do this all of the time, right? They have impossible deadlines and get a bunch of shit done. I have a reading at a lovely theatre in LA and I'm going to have a staged reading of this play. I'm so happy for that. I'm excited to work on a new draft of this play.

I'm having coffee with my friend Brian, who runs the writers' group I'm a part of in LA, on Friday to discuss another play of mine that I just finished and that we want to try and do a workshop of soon. I'm very excited about that. It feels like the first half of this year will be about plays and working in TV. I'd like the second half of the year to be about that as well. I have a pilot I want to finish a rewrite of this year. Maybe the summer. It keeps getting pushed. The good thing is that I have a strong outline. I have the feeling I'm going to spend time making it stronger.

And then I'm teaching in the Fall, which is great. I need to beef up my resume. But I'd much rather be working my ass off on a TV staff job. The weird thing is that I'm wanting my life to get busier. I would rather that than have free time right now. I'm not so sure how I feel about that. I was on a show that had a very short writer's room and that was exhausting because I was trying to get other stuff done. And our hours were totally fair - if not amazing. How am I going to survive a TV staff job? I don't know. But I'm going to find out. Because teaching is just as exhausting and it's so little money. It's ridiculously little money. I don't want to make that little. Not for the amount of work I'm doing. But it's good to keep the resume pumped with jobs. I completely agree with that.

The point of this blog is downsizing - not anticipating how much more work I'm going to have to do soon. I'm happy to have some down time that's going to generate more work. Yikes! I have this play to finish. Then I have this pilot to work on before I have the episode I'm supposed to be working on. I'm writing a lot which is making me more of a churner, a generator, a machine. That's fine with me. Now I get to do some of the purely creative stuff. That's where I am right now. I need to appreciate it.

When I had time but no money, I was appreciative for the time.
When I had money, but no time, I was appreciative for the work.
Now that I don't have the gigs, I need to be appreciate for the time again to get these four scripts done. That's all I'm doing this year so far. I have this pilot, another pilot rewrite, a rewritten play, a play for a workshop and another episode of the show - okay, that's five scripts. That would easily take me into the new year. I'd like to do more than that, but right now, that seems like plenty. Downsize. :)

I am grateful for all of the work I'm doing.
I am grateful for the person that work is shaping me to be.
I am grateful for the time I have to get my own work done.
I am grateful for the community of other writers I have.
I am grateful for the writer I have become through the experience of working on the show.
I am grateful for the excitement I feel because I'm working.