Happy Birthday America. The stars and stripes turned…239 today…I think. 1776, right? That’s when we signed the Declaration of Independence? Or was it 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue? All those kid-facts, rattling around in our heads…hard to keep ’em straight, yo!
I worked my butt off today. I was a bit tired, I must admit. But, I didn’t let that slow me down. Stuck to my goals, hour by hour, just like I’d stated I wanted to. Got my writing done, too. I took the first writing hour to take a nap…so I didn’t do TWO hours like I did yesterday…but that’s okay. Right now, we’re just looking at doing the one hour a day. Whether it comes in the morning or at night doesn’t matter, as long as it happens.
It was a good writing hour, too. I’ve started to map out scenes, which feels great. It wasn’t in order, but now that I have my rough outline finished, I can go kinda hodgepodge with whatever scenes are the clearest right now. Work my way through until everything starts to focus.
The outlining is MUCH more clear on this pilot than with Icarus, thank god. Man, that was like being lost in the jungle with a butter knife instead of a machete. Not good. This time around, tho, the process is seeming way waaay more grounded. Hopefully this is just the beginning of that feeling…hopefully the whole process beginning to end keeps getting easier and easier with every new script. That’s the hope. Part of it, too, is that there’s soooo much less world-building for this pilot 😛 The benefits of writing something that’s not science fiction, I suppose. Still “genre,” and it’s a period-piece, but it isn’t nearly the effort to set up that sci-fi is.
Watched a decent chunk of Deep Space Nine today while working. Some gooood episodes in Season 4, man. The character arcs that I really, REALLY came to love are starting to all fall into place…and it’s so *cool* to see them right at the beginning. I’m definitely watching the shows this time around with a different eye. Much more of a writers’ perspective, or more specifically a showrunner’s perspective. Dissecting character decisions, and how they’re setting up arcs, and shit like that. Fascinating stuff. Plus, too, some of the small (probably) more accidental-type stuff that really played well and then they ended up running with throughout the show more often. Character things, or plot devices. Cool pinpointing the moments when those things were born.
Also, the A’s won today. We beat King Felix, handing him the loss at the Coliseum for the first time in SEVEN YEARS. It was september of 2008 the last time he received a loss in Oakland. Sure, we’ve won a few games he’s started, but those always ended up no-decisions. Today, we actually beat him and he took an L on his record. Awesome. Have to win tomorrow, though, to keep the vultures away from picking our team apart. Because they ARE out there, and they DO want pieces from our team. You better believe dat.
Tomorrow is kind of a busy day with the Ho, so the most important thing rest-wise for me will simply be to get into bed early. I was fatigued today, for sure feeling the effects of the three days in a row I worked last week…I can only imagine how I’ll be feeling on Tuesday after having only one busy day off, and then working Monday 😛 But, I can handle it. I know I can.
Things are looking up! I’m in a groove. Want to keep it that way! 🙂