Pilot #1 -- Done

Pilot #1: Done and registered. I have my very first WGA registration number. I feel so...so...registered. Probably the first time I've been happy to be just a number. Yet there's something highly symbolic about having that number. There are those who start to write, and those who finish. I'm a finisher. I got through the marathon called the second act and made it across the line to pick up my number. Lots of starters...fewer finishers. That makes me feel good.

Now onto Pilot #2, f.k.a. the Spike TV script. Going to give it a quick read then come up with a plan of attack to finish it up.

Grad school picks up again way too soon. Dreading the workload and trying to balance all the balls again. Back to insane time management if I expect to have screenwriting time. However, I can ALWAYS find time to do the things I enjoy.

Relaxation begets Stress

What a great break! There's nothing like doing nothing. But now that the break is over it's difficult not to look at the calendar and wonder where 2/3 of summer went.

Really? Only four weeks left?

In mid-August, it's back to the University for the madness that is the Fall semester. That time of welcoming a new class of first-ever college students tasting their first morsel of freedom. It's a time of drama dealing with their tragic miscalculations of time needed to get passing grades and teaching less about science and more about time management. Frankly, I have my own issue with time (and the lack thereof) yet for different reasons. How I would love the workload of an undergrad! I could get As and solve all the world's problems during my spare time.

Really!

I'm getting into the academic mindset now that I've seen the calendar. Over the next four weeks, I'll start spending increasingly more time on the comprehensive exam study and the thesis. Less time will be devoted to screenwriting. Ideally, I graduate in December. Then I can be a writer without conflict, without guilt. I'll get two or three of my pilots ready for the October scriptapalooza contest and that will be it for screenwriting until December. Pilot #1 needs some minor work, Pilot #2 is partially drafted and Pilot #3 is merely a funny idea in my head and hasn't hit paper yet. I really doubt it'll be ready to submit this go-round.

Really.

I tell my students that all of life is a balancing act, that your time will always have competing interests. It's all about choosing which balls are worth juggling and then not dropping the important ones. Right now, I'm juggling too much. The grad school time suck, however, is nearly done. I'm really close and it would be tragic to drop the ball now.

Really!

The Reluctant Grad Student

Most of the coming week will be spent working on a human subject research project in my department, not writing. My colleagues were caught in a bind: summer vacations have resulted in a low number of grad students hanging around and able to work odd hours shuffling subjects through the rigors of the labs. I don't need the money, but at least it pays well enough that there's something left over after parking. However, I can think of better things to do with my summer than taking DNA samples from people with bad breath.

It's not that I don't like people...I do. In the aggregate. In theeeeeeeory. But not all at once and certainly not in close proximity. In praxis, I want distance. I love the asocial aspect of social networks. Dealing with a strange individual's spit is taking me about 2.5 feet outside my personal space, my bubble. There aren't thick enough latex gloves for the job. This is why teaching works for me. Classrooms and lecture halls afford the perfect buffer. Class over, they leave. It's the rare student who crosses the invisible line to "chat" or beg for grace or engage in some intellectual debate to prove to me they are smarter than their last exam may have (erroneously) led me to believe.

So it is with great reluctance that I lend my latex-protected hands to my fellow grad students and faculty. I will handle the spit. I'll be courteous to the subjects and think about the Pacific Ocean to quell the dry heaves forming as I mix chemicals and label vials. This was NOT what I had in mind when I enlisted in grad school.

MARGE SIMPSON

Bart, don't  make fun of grad students! 

They  just  made  a  terrible  life choice.

Most days, I disagree with Marge. Most days, I'm grateful to get paid to go to school. Most days, I don't have to play with spit. Those are good days. They'll be back.

Editing from the Ivory Tower

My students get tired of hearing my lectures on writing/editing. Most will write, few will edit. The percentage of students who will proofread their material...even less. Most are happy to turn in an assignment on time. Most don't care what they've actually written, just that they've met the page/length requirement. They're checking off a list of minimum expectations and, in their minds, meeting each one is a success in itself. I laugh at myself when I get into this mentality with grad school...just get the papers in on time, get the reading done, keep up on the research. I know how it is. The difference in perspective is that as an undergrad, I'm only requiring them to read about 35 pages a week. Never more than 50. One grad class alone amounts to nearly 500 pages a week. At three classes it's an insane amount of material to not only read and write a coherent paper on, but then to show up for a three-hour interrogation (seminar) for an adversarial discussion and debate on the merits (if any) of the material. My kids are getting off so easy. They spend more time editing their Twitter updates than any paper.

After three drafts of the TV pilot, I'm now looking at the fourth run-through. I love it. I love my characters and how they've developed in this pilot and how they can further develop over the course of a season. I love the scenes and the other characters encountered during the 30-min. time-span. I love how the funny stuff creeps in and leaves me laughing. But now it's time to be brutal. This edit is about getting things so tight, so on-the-money and making sure every word is necessary, every scene is the right scene in the right place and time, and that even though I may love something, there will be some things that will have to go.

Many writers hate to edit. Hell, many writers hate to write, it's just something they feel they need to do. Writing for me is exercise...I'm more apt to write than go work out in a gym. The editing is part of the process. I am always aiming to be precise and concise. Editing is where those two qualities are achieved.

I'll be back after the fourth draft. The bloodletting begins!

The writing schedule

I have to look at my summer as a full-time job: particular tasks to be done at particular times. Without some structure to the days, I may wake up and find that it's August and what will I have to show for the 12 weeks? A thesis draft? NO. A feature film script? NO.

I will have nothing else to fill my weekdays and a few weeknights so to make the most of the time, I'm working on a schedule. Not a schedule that leaves me working 16-hour days, but one that allows for play and relaxation but also squeezes in a lot of productivity that I cannot do during the school semester. Grad school is difficult enough without the pressure of accomplishing much more than the class/teaching requirements. With the fall semester being my last, a few added requirements are tossed in such as a thesis and comprehensive exams (yeah, the easy requirements).

My movie needs to be written. I have to get it OUT of my head and plugged into Final Draft. Summer is my time. I'll wrap some travel into that, watch some movies and play with my kiddo...but I'll figure it out to get done what I want to get done. The easy part is that the script is something I want to do, as well as something I feel I have to do. I won't feel "right" until I have it completed. It's a story I need to tell and one that I believe people want to see.

Thanks for your support, thanks for reading and keep in touch.

Writing as process

I've done more writing today than in any one day that I can recall. Three mammoth papers coming due either this week or next week and wrapping up the research and writing has been done in marathon writing sessions. Next week will be such a relief. I love the feeling of completion. I get a lot of satisfaction from finishing what seemed like an impossible task just 17 weeks ago.

I enjoy the early parts of the process, when time seems plentiful and the research is exciting and entertaining. When deadlines approach, some of the fun is zapped from the process. For my screenplay, I have established some deadlines. My first deadline is to have a treatment done before the Fall semester starts in late August/early September 2010. Maybe it'll get done sooner, but I'm not going to force that deadline. The summer is already going to be packed. Instead of working, I'll be researching and writing my thesis and studying for comprehensive exams. I expect to graduate in December. Can I get the entire script drafted before school starts up in Fall? That's doubtful. If I put out that expectation, I'll stop enjoying the writing, the story development and the characters. I'm not doing that.

Years ago, I wrote a screenplay to enter in a contest. I had plenty of time, but the looming deadline toward the end did two things: it ensured I'd be "done" by a date certain but it also created a frenzy of writing, editing and revising that about drove me nuts. I was making copies at Kinko's and shopping for brads on the last day possible to get it mailed in time for the deadline. While the deadline got the project done, the joy in the process was lost.

This time around, I'm taking time to enjoy the process but I'm not going to be afraid to declare that process "done" when it is truly done.

New day, better attitude

Today's attempt at being a grad student has been far better than yesterdays' and the "I quit!" drama and ensuing meltdown (file this under "future characters"). In fact, the day has gone well enough that I'm stopping 30 minutes early to treat myself (?) to a walk around the block.

[Note to self: Metaphysics of Screenwriting]

I'm not big on exercise. A five minute walk is about all I'll tolerate. But right now, I want to flee from the computer and breathe some fresh air. The wind has picked up, if I time this right I may not have to exert much effort.

Two weeks to go.

One of those days...

Today was one of those days. Discouraging. I think it is something that comes with grad school, some essential quality about it that makes you feel at a certain point each semester several things: grad school can really suck at times and grad school is a lot of work that sometimes doesn't seem worth it. Today, it doesn't seem worth it. I'm ready to quit.

The feeling will pass. Or at least I'll get past it and continue on. December will come soon enough.

Useless Information

During this nearly a year of conceptualizing my movie, I've thought quite a bit about what appears to be useless information. I hear from lots of undergrads the aggrevation of having to take courses outside their interest or major area. Our typical response is that a University's goal is to give students a broad range of general information and knowledge along with more specific knowledge in a single subject area. As we progress further in academia, to a master's and then the PhD., we are increasingly specializing by continuing to narrow the subject area.

I was there, too. When I had to take a lab science before I got my B.A., I chose geology. It seemed so outside my interests, but at least I could rationalize the choice by a) having a son, I thought that by knowing rocks I'd be the cool mom, and b) political science and geology are forever united in issues such as water, climate change and other policy issues. I was more interested however in attaining the cool mom status. A turning point with my son was picking up a chunk of gypsum and, knowing it only ranks a 2 on the Mohs hardness scale, I easily broke it into two pieces. He thought I was a super human. He knows better now.

Anyway, in spite of the poli sci/geology connection, I did pick up a lot of (seemingly) useless information along the semester. And not only geology...so many classes which at the time felt needless and dull and insignificant are today finding their way into my movie. Crazy how that works. One grad class that has caused so much brain damage has been philosophy of science. I won't go into why it frustrates me to no end, but it was during this class that I found the key to making my movie concept plausible. I still have the reading that triggered the inspiration and someday I will frame it. So much for useless classes. From now on, I'll just take whatever classes I'm told to take and then say thank you.

Stepping down from soapbox.

Letting go...

At some point in every paper, it's time to say, yeah, it's done. I want to be at that point right now. I think it's done. It feels done. It is concise and has all its parts. It's not my best work -- nothing is these days, grad school doesn't allow for that. Not with parenting tossed into the mix.

I'm going to consider this paper done, but since there's another six days before its due. I'll let it percolate. Moving on to the last research project. Time to build a dataset and see what's missing before running the regression. Yeesh. Due Wednesday. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to see if things blow up in my face.

Back to work.

Work day

Today I'm being a grad student. After coffee, that is. Two weeks left of the Spring semester, then I can split my time between screenwriting and academia.

Adding links as I go. I am going to read "A Clockwork Orange" next. Chose it because I have the movie saved on my DVR. Read it first, then watch the movie.

OK...get to work.

Day 1 -- Procrastination

Last summer I came up with an idea for a movie. No, I'm not going into details. I don't trust you. Not "you" a specific you, but "you" the aggregate of anyone and everyone who might come across this blog, or overhear a conversation I may have with someone about my idea...ok...forget that...I don't talk about it with just anyone because it's back to the point that I don't trust you or anyone else not to steal my idea and run off and make $25 million from it.

It's that good.

But that's not the point. The point I'm trying to make is that right now what I should be doing is writing. Not the script, but a paper for school and I'm really good at procrastinating, which is why I'm building a blog -- ok, it only took 10 minutes -- but you get the picture. The point is, I'm blogging instead of finishing up a research paper that's due in a week. Oh, yeah, lots of time. But that's only one of three projects coming due in a week, followed by a final exam the week after.

Grad school. Seemed like a good idea two years ago. But it's coming to an end soon enough. In the meantime, in that spare time between papers, reading, research, a thesis and comprehensive exams, I have this screenplay to churn out. Research has gone well. Character development has been slow. Plot points are coming along. A few scenes sketched out...so-so progress there. I had a huge conceptual problem that was resolved with a scientific (re)discovery earlier this year, so I should be able now to progress without anything more than the usual bumps in the road.

Final Draft 8 has been ordered and it should be here by the time I finish the last paper and take the last exam for this semester. I'm tired of freeware. I had a free template for the last script I wrote (2000) that worked in Word, but it's no longer available. I'm ready for something more robust, more serious. Yeah, I know, it has its problems...

This is a start. I'll keep filling in the blanks as I go.