Fire a gun.
Tonight’s artwork courtesy of draw1985.
It’s a song that’s been stuck in my head ALL DAY. You’d have a glimmer on that if you’d checked the home page of the blog today with the “Today’s Track” I posted. I always love when I find a new musical obsession. Makes my day move by much faster, puts a spring in my step…you know. Music just makes my life better.
Work day today went well. I churned out a couple lessons on ancient Egypt, including a fun little segment with a cartoon mummy. That was how I started my work day, actually, and I splurged on getting some fresh images from our collective account instead of plunging into the archives and doing something less…creative. Have to do that every so often, you know.
I *also* spent my writing hour today re-mapping out my writing goals. I’ve finally found a rhythm with work, and it’s stuck now for over a month, I feel like I can recommit to my deadlines. I lost three weeks. It pains me to say that, but it’s true. No matter, such is life. It will happen again this year, probably more than once. But, I mapped out basically the entire rest of my year. It’s two more original pilots and getting those polished into shiny gems, then I get to move on and write my second novel. I know what it’s going to be, too. It’s not the second Starstuff novel…no, I think that will wait until my third or even fourth novel-endeavor.
I’ve pretty much decided that since I want to get myself into a TV writers’ room, right now, I have to work on my TV script skills and flesh those ideas out so I have work samples to GET me in that room. The novel-writing…well, that’s a labor of love, folks. It’s something I will do on the side as time allows. See, TV shows go on hiatus…in fact, those hiatuses (spelling?) are getting longer now that TV seasons are getting shorter…but I fully would intend to be writing an hour a day during my hiatuses and crank a novel out once or twice a year. I have so much confidence in this “3 pages a day” system, I know I could do it, AND still be “decompressing” and “recharging my batteries” as I’ve heard from the professionals I’ve listened to.
That, guys, is the dream. The three/five-year-plan dream. To be working on a show, and writing novels during my time “off.” If I keep at it and don’t let failure and obscurity get me down too much…I’ll get there. Eventually. But, right now, it’s the balancing act on my own schedule, editing and writing. The balance is swigning back into alignment, and I’m excited about that.
So, yeah! Two more original pilots, I know what those are going to be, then onto another novel, and I think I want to finish the year on a spec script of an existing show. Probably two of those back-to-back, in fact. Everyone says they need original pilots to hire writers, but more and more I hear showrunners ALSO saying they want to see a spec or two from somebody as well. It’s not your calling card as a young writer anymore, not your first step forward, but it seems to still be a valuable selling point for yourself.
I started watching Rocky tonight while I was eating dinner, and I’ll finish it tomorrow. I’ve never seen it. I know! It’s an iconic movie. It’s just one of those movies that I’ve never actually seen. We all have them. Sly really is fantastic in it, I have to say. Especially in that first date sequence with Adrian, where she’s too nervous to talk, and he’s too nervous to stop talking. Like a big kid. He did an amazing job making Rocky very sweet, Stallone did. It can be way too over the top many times, when you’re making a character like that, but Stallone made it work. You really love Rocky. Anyway…I’m definitely looking forward to finishing it, though I *think* I know what the ending is with the fight just from hearing and reading about the movie so many times. Did you know that movie made $225 million worldwide? That’s fucking INSANE. On a drama flick about a boxer. It’s sad to me that would NEVER happen today. 225 mil back in ’75 would have to be, like, $600 mil today. Would never happen.
Anyway, that’s all for tonight. Tomorrow, I gets to play the golfs with my good friend Nikolai. Looking forward to it!