The Writing Week (Vol. 4) part 204 - A Resolution

As we come into the final month of the year, already at full-steam, I can't help but to look backward - and forward. Even though it is only December 5th, and the time for New Years plans is almost a full month away, I make myself a resolution.


2012 will be my year.

• In 2012, I will push myself to write more than I did in 2011.
• I will break the streak of little to no productivity that began in August, or earlier.
• I will not only generate scripts, but I will generate market-ready scripts. 
• I will broaden my horizons to include more creative outlets: painting, learning the harmonica, whittling, whatever else might come up; I will pursue it. 
• The moment I begin to feel that I'm stagnating, I will change things up, shake up my surroundings.
• This includes my job.
• I will travel even more than I did in 2011. 
• I will see the world, for how else can I write about it?
• I will attempt a play for the first time in a few years. 
• I might get on stage and act again, if the opportunity presents itself. 
• While my post-Apocalyptic spec is still circulating around Hollywood - albeit more for consideration for television than for film now - I will not sit on my hands idly.
• I will seek out resources.
• I will seek out resources for others, as well.
• I will read more scripts.
• I will watch more movies than I did in 2011, which has been a particularly slow year.
• If I decide to stay in New York for the entirety of 2012, I will make it a year to remember, filled with glamorous views of the city, nights spent at museums, restaurants, and galleries. I will fully embrace this city for a year, before I leave it perhaps forever.
• If I do leave, I will leave and not look back.
• I will not permit myself to dwell too much on what if - what if I moved to LA a couple years ago? What if I move there now? What if I had pursued a different career all along?
• I will temper myself and my emotions, and when I feel myself starting to sag, I will do an about-face and imbue my life with something or someone new. 
• I will seriously pursue a relationship (the absence of which, at times, consumes as much of my mental power as y creative output does). 
• I will not be immobile, nor will I permit myself to backtrack. 
• I will give 2012 my all and see what comes of it.

And if nothing does?


Ask me in a year. 

The Writing Week (Vol. 3) part 152 - No More Idleness, A Writing Resolution

Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas and New Years are right around the corner. For writers not getting paid to work, this can either be a great time to work (what with all the free time) or, more often the case, an extremely detrimental period to one's work ethic. As far as I go, I know two things to be very true for myself - 1) while my team tries to sell my post-Apocalyptic spec, I can no longer afford to miss out on any potential writing time and 2) the temptation to scale back my efforts over the holiday month is great. To avoid stagnating, I have decided that I will not succumb to the holiday slump, no matter the hours that means I will keep.

In truth, I've done little writing in November, costing myself a great deal of time. Granted, I was out of the country and not on a trip conducive to writing for two weeks. And then, promptly after my return, I left the City again for the long Thanksgiving weekend. The result is a month with little more than about a half dozen loglines to show for it. At this stage in my (hopefully) emerging career, I have to consider that entirely unacceptable. 

Part of the reason for the lack of actual writing is that I have yet to settle on a next project. My manager and I go back and forth over my ideas, many of them proving unsuited to the current market for one reason or another. I've allowed myself this difficulty in settling on a project an excuse for little momentum, and over the holiday - which proved more revelatory than I anticipated - determined that was no longer justifiable. My return to New York prompted something in me, which wants to cast off any sense of idleness. I think, actually, something I experienced overseas did that, though I can't say what it was. 

I do know, though, that the position I'm in necessitates writing. To that end, I've decided to begin outlining a project I want to work on, even before receiving my manager's blessing on it. For starters, being able to speak about it at greater length should make my pitch stronger. If nothing else, though, it will get my mind working again after a vital month which, if I am to be completely honest with myself, feels like more of a loss than a gain in terms of progress that is in my hands. I can't control what's happening with the post-Apocalyptic spec at this point, so I feel as though I can't claim any real progress it makes as my own now - not, at least, until I have something solid to follow it up with. 

Writing Resolutions for 2009

Because it's better late than never - I've decided to share my writing resolutions for 2009.

I can't make any resolutions along the lines of "I will write this many scripts this year..." or "Sell a script for this much money" because those can vary so much. So, I've decided to focus on improvements to my writing practices. I've got nasty habits that can be improved, so I'll start there.

- No more internet after 10 PM. This means e-mail, Google reader, checking our facebook fan page, or, ahem, blogging here. New /Film posts will still be there in the morning when I have my coffee. If Ken Levine had something funny to blog about, it'll still be funny tomorrow. "Checking my e-mail" usually turns into hours of useless Wikipedia/AllMusic scouring. From now on, I'll be reading or watching movies in bed and hopefully sleeping earlier.

My writing is least productive during the evening hours, which leads me to...

- Wake up earlier to write. Typically, I do my best writing in the 6:00 AM - 8:00 AM hours before I head to my day job. I'll usually write for a while in the evenings, but my word counts are never remotely close. I've always been a morning guy. This year I'll make sure to take better advantage of my mornings: wake up, have my coffee, and then it's writing time. Every morning.

With those morning hours used more productively, it should free up a bit of time in the evenings to...

- See more movies. I watch a good number of films already, but it's still probably not enough for an aspiring screenwriter. I double-majored in cinema studies in college while working as a projectionist in the department... during those three years I was watching seven to ten movies a week. It helped that my job and classes were centered around that, but the number I see now has tragically dwindled to two, maybe three, movies a week, on average. Now that Cake Man and I both have Netflix subscriptions, and I have access to hundreds of movies through their Instawatch program, there's really no excuse not to be seeing more.

Along those lines, I should also...

- Read more books. And no, musicians' biographies don't count. (Resolution: First mention of Gram Parsons, put the book down!) I would guess I read about 30 books last year (King Suckerman is ashamed of me now, I can tell) but the number of fiction books in there was less than five. I like fiction. Why haven't I been reading more of it?

Speaking of fiction...

- Try branching out into a new writing format. Because why not? I haven't really written prose in a few years. Maybe it won't show my strengths? But I don't know that yet. It's worth trying, for sure.

And there we go; I'm interested in seeing how these stick through the year. Bring it, 2009!

On a related note, FilmInFocus asked 22 filmmakers about their resolutions for 2009. Fun read, especially if you recognize a few of the interviewees.

What are your writing resolutions for 2009?