I almost titled today’s post as “Focused,” because that’s very much what today was about, and mostly what I felt today. A stark contrast to yesterday.
I got REAL writing done today. Like, 30 pages. Of *mostly* all-new material. Even the stuff I kept got fussed over and editing down, so it took just as much time as it would to just write it all out.
Writing a pilot is no freaking joke, guys. I have absolutely noooooo idea if I’m actually executing all the advice that I’ve read and heard, about all the “traps” one can fall into, things to do, things not to do…all that advice kind of fades away once it just you and the keyboard. Mano a man-o. My own “process” just kind of kicks in, and I go.
What I’m feeling right now is that I just need to embrace that. I can go back and pick up the pieces afterwards. And, if what I read *is* actually what I want, I can start doing the passes for pace, cutting for time, condensing…holy god I hope I get there sooner rather than later.
Which brings me back to why pilots are such freaking monsters: nothing is set in stone. There are NO RULES. It’s whatever I decide…which is so wide open it can make it really freaking hard to pin decisions down.
This is what I’m faced with, at the moment: my pilot is too long. Too much is happening. At least, that’s my fear right now. It is *entirely* conceivable that I have just the right amount of plot and character exploration, I just have to condense it down into non-boring bits. The more than I write this second draft, however, the more I’m thinking I actually DO have too much happening and there’s really no freaking way it’s ever going to fit into a 1-hour format. That reality would bring me to a whole new cross-roads of “how to fix it.”
I’m actually doing my best not to think about that, though (currently failing miserably). The reality is that right now, I have a draft that needs to be finished. And EVEN IF I end up deciding to change things dramatically to fit this into that 1-hour spec pilot box that I need to fit it into, having THIS draft is important to me. This is my fully-fledged what I *really* pictured in my head and got me excited in the first place draft. The first one was still exploration. This one is the plan. Obviously, not perfect. It’s not even close yet to the perfect version of that story, but it is the original story. And, even if it doesn’t work for what I need it do, I need to follow through on that, so I *have* it. Maybe my ideal version of this project is a 2-hour pilot, or a feature. If so, I have this fully fledged way-too-long version of it to modify and fit into whatever box I need it to.
So yeah. That’s where I’m at tonight. And, tomorrow will be more of the same. I had the focus today. It wasn’t a perfect day, lots of interruptions, but I legitimately got a ton of shit done. I’m very happy with today, and it really just reinforced how much work this whole writing thing actually is. It takes TIME.
So, I’m off to bed on time, gonna schedule out my day again tomorrow and start early, and hopefully be done tomorrow. If not, at least significantly closer, right?
Right.