The Home Run

There are few phrases I loathe more than "the home run script." It's a phrase that managers and agents use to describe a script that is a sure thing. My old managers were big fans of baseball metaphors. You have to "knock this one out of the park." What a set up that was. And I realized what was a home run to me was different than what was a home run to them. They really tried to fit me in a box. Maybe that's because I didn't know who I was back then.

It took some time to figure out the writer I wanted to be. I was so concerned with producing something that they would like or that the industry would be into. It sounds silly to me now. But to then, I was trying to please everybody. There's nothing I wanted more than to make people happy.

Then a lot of personal stuff happened - Dad's death, break up, etc. And I got on the road of giving zero fucks. I ended my relationship with that group of people and I moved on. I took some time off without a rep. Then I got my show and then I got a manager. It frankly has been pretty dry since I signed with him. But I've been working on the show for two seasons. And I didn't have a sample that he felt was a home run.

I had the play that got him to sign me. It was also the play that got me the gig on the show as well. I thought that was enough. Apparently not. Then I showed him two pilots. He hated one. Then he asked me to rewrite the other. He liked the rewrite, but apparently, it wasn't enough for other people to be into. I knew I had this pilot I was working on when I could while I was working on the show and teaching. In the meantime, I wrote a play that got a workshop and got me asked to join a theatre company I love. The workshop went off like gangbusters. And we're going to produce it in 2018.

My friend Jami has another term she likes to use, the "silver bullet play." Again, it's a cousin of the "home run pilot." I thought my earlier play was the "silver bullet." But it got no love from the summer play development programs I applied to. Then everyone saw the newer play and said that was my "silver bullet." It's my favorite play I've written. I sent it out to all of those development opps. So far it has been a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and a semifinalist for the Gulfshore Playhouse New Play Festival in September. That's exciting. I'll find out about the Gulfshore Playhouse in a week or so.

But here's what I'm learning. No one knows anything for sure. I have to be happy with what I'm doing. And I'm thrilled with both plays. I realize now that the pilots had their issues. And there's the possibility of me revisiting one of them. But I turned in the pilot that I had been working on and finally finished it a couple of weeks ago. I had a showrunner who wanted to read it. So that lit a fire. Then I had a couple of mini-meetings with some execs that went well. They wanted to set some longer meetings up and that helped move things along. We're sending them that pilot. And my manager really does like it.

Nothing's really a home run. But I'm learning how to be better skilled at writing pilots. Part of that is being on a show and learning how something goes from story idea to outline to script to production. I really think that's the best lesson. And hopefully you get hired off of a play, short story, screenplay or very forward-thinking showrunner. Then you can get in a room and learn. If you're a smart, social person it shouldn't take long to get it. Or maybe you get in a room as an assistant. That works too. But it's that professional polish that gets you that experience. Or it's writing 20 pilots.

See? There is no home run. As there's no overnight success or sure thing. You've got to just write the thing you love and have some skill and put it out there. I've been asked a lot of advice about how to "make it." There is no making it either. But you just have to work hard and keep going and not give up.

I always thought that sounded so corny. I guess it still does. But it's the truth.

My intention is to keep going.
My intention is to work hard.
My intention is expansion.
My intention is to keep the runway clear.

I am grateful for great colleagues.
I am grateful for my writers groups.
I am grateful for The Clubhouse.
I am grateful for all good things.
I am grateful for ideas.
I am grateful for my stamina.