Yes…that’s a sports reference for anyone paying attention. Al Davis, famed owner of the Raiders, said once “just win, baby.”
Today, I was all day at the Writers’ Guild Foundation event “First Draft to Feature”…a symposium, I suppose you could call it. In a room with two hundred (three hundred?) fellow aspiring writers of film and television, listening to panels of professionals talk about each step in the process of getting your film (or TV show) made.
It was perfectly timed for where I’m at right now, especially the first couple panels about the early stages of the writing process. I’ve decided that my pilot is getting written on Monday. It’s happening. I need that monkey off my back. And, I just might be the perfect mix of tired and excited to do it.
It’s going to suck. There are still so many holes in my outline that I need to fill, but what I walked away with from today, especially from those first couple panels, was how important it is to just WRITE. The first draft is painful. I got varying opinions on rewriting…but rewrites, at least when they’re your own rewrites, have been very enjoyable in my experience. I feel like once the pile of shit is out there, it’s much more fun and much less anxiety-ridden to go back and polish it.
But, as I was sitting there in the audience, listening to these pros talk about their work, I could feel my heart starting to beat faster with a nagging feeling of “you should be writing right now. what are you waiting for?!!”
Honestly, I know that I can sit and outline more. I’ve DONE more outlining before. But, at the same time, I can see this thing in my head now. I can hear it. And, I think that’s enough to get me to slog through that first draft. Force myself to just create it. Make some decisions. FINISH the story all the way through. And, then I can breathe a sigh of relief, give myself some sort of reward and a pat on the back, and feel like these past two months have actually been spent creating something tangible. Then: to start making it good.
The panels today were awesome. Like, four events packed into one. And, some of the people they got to speak was really impressive. Writers’ Guild Foundation, guys. They are awesome.
That’s all I have for tonight, except to say that I miss the Ho, and I miss the Coops. It’s so weird to have the house to myself. I suppose it’s weirdest that Cooper isn’t here, which is to say, Liz or I go out of town for short stretches all the time, leaving the other of us behind…but the Coops? He’s always home. I’m used to him being here when Liz isn’t around, and it’s genuinely depressing not to have him here 😛
I realize that sounds suuuper lame. But, it’s true. He’s your buddy. He follows you around for everything. Never intrusively, he’s not demanding. He just wants to be there with you and is interested in what you’re doing. Mostly for the occasional snuggle, and any food that may or may not appear.
So yeah…I miss those two. They’re up in the Bay attending to some family stuff. And, I’m down here, ready to try and rattle of some significant work. Editing tomorrow. Writing on Monday. Let’s do this.