Goals and Such

It's nearing the end of January, which means I get to check some things off of my 2020 list. I've been working to get a better draft of my TV pilot, but most of that time has been spent working up the show bible, not writing those extra scenes that I need. For coverage, I don't need the show bible, but it does help me see where it could go if the project had a future.

I can also check off the first contest entry of the year. I took a chance on a story I've never sent out before, so I hope I didn't waste the entry fee. Now I'm prepping an application for a residency. The work I'm sending is poetry, but for this particular contest, I have to have a good cover letter to go along with it. Although I think I write a good cover letter, I know how rarely they are read, so I find going through the motions a bit pointless. Maybe that's why all my job applications go unnoticed...

Coming Up in February

I'm dedicated the shortest month of the year for the most frustrating part of my professional life--meeting goals that depend on the actions of others. What does that include? Getting more book sales, acquiring more patrons on Patreon, getting more paid views on Medium, having more reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. I know I haven't tried every possible way to boost these numbers yet, but I do think I'm running out of the most cost-effective (=free) options.

The only other goal for February is to get my Book Spotlight gig back up on Fiverr. Since the posts will now appear here, I need to craft two or three samples before I relaunch. I've been putting it off because I thought I would have moved this blog to its own domain by now, but that's not the case. I'll revisit the idea of moving to a new domain in June. For now, I'm staying put on Blogger.

News and Notes from the Writing Desk: January Edition

January tends to be the time when everyone has that push to do more and find a new rhythm. I'm no different, so there are a lot of plans that have been put into place.

The Cost of Publication

As I've talked about before, I don't really like paying people to read my work. But there are occasions where contest fees and application fees are necessary. I try to keep these costs low. Because there are some great opportunities right now, I'm going to be spending my entry fee budget for the next three months split over three opportunities: two short story contests and one residency application. I carefully considered the fees against the opportunity, the top prize, and confidence in my work. I'm happy with my decisions and can't wait to get these entries turned in. The only hiccup? One of the short stories I want to enter is still technically being considered by another publication. But they've had it since September, so I don't know whether I'm going to get a rejection/acceptance in time, or whether I'm going to have to finally finish one of my other stories that I have been neglecting.

Recent Publications

As promised, I'm starting to write reviews for movies that I watch when I know I should be spending that time doing more productive things. I plan on continuing to review at least two movies a week, so I should be generating plenty of content for Medium this year. So far, I've published "From Cornfields to the Edge of Cool", a review of a 1957 James Dean documentary. I'm still in the process of writing the review for Jenny, a TV movie starring Marlo Thomas and Alan Alda. I will continue to stick to those odd, rare, and vintage titles because I don't watch a lot of modern movies, and those titles have plenty of people out there to review them anyway. I'm using Pluto TV, Tubi, and YouTube to find them, and there are plenty I can't wait to get to, including some light horror. But I'm not taking any chances--I will be watching those titles during the day, even if they are super cheesy when it comes to the scare factor.

In Process

I'm still working on my pilot script. It's going... okay. I'm having a hard time coming up with new scenes to meet my page count, so I may work on the show bible this weekend instead of those scenes. Also, I should finish a new short story to have it on deck, ready to go. I have at least six half-finished, so I have plenty to choose from. Aside from the residency application, poetry is taking a backseat for the rest of the month. I feel creative and energized, so the rest of January should go smoothly.

The Past, The Future, and Don Hollinger's Typewriter

It's 2020, so that means I'm compelled to examine the progress I have made in 2019 and use that to determine what's going to take the highest priorities this year.

2019 -- The Year of the Almosts

There was a lot of things I almost accomplished in 2019. I almost hit my goal of publishing four new pieces. I published three, but that was only because much of my time was getting existing projects into better shape, including 53 total poems in Pieces on Wattpad. I almost hit my Goodreads reading goal of 100 books, but I was four short, even with all of the children's books I read. I almost took a vacation. I almost stuck to a strict budget--until the holidays came around. I almost received one last payout from Textbroker before I said goodbye for good, but couldn't quite hit the minimum payout before the requirement to switch to Payoneer. So now $8.16 is in limbo, and it will stay there until Textbroker realizes what a mistake they have made and returns to providing a PayPal option. I'm not holding my breath for that one, but I just can't click the Close Account button with money on the table, as insignificant as it is.

The Inspiration to Keep Going

I would love to say that the past two weeks have been filled with writing, planning about my writing, and more writing, but it wasn't. I was binge-watching That Girl as it expired from Hulu. It's been three days since I finished it and like all good shows, it has left me with a bit of an emotional hangover from not being able to immediately rewatch it, though it is back on television as of today if I need to get back to it. I haven't felt like that since I watched all six seasons of Community three times in a single year.

What surprised me about watching the show was what my brain chose to focus on. There are so many things it could have been: Ann's super-mod wardrobe, her ability to assert independence when the times didn't call for it, the fact that she could afford a super-cute East Side apartment on haphazard pay (similar to a freelancer's life), or that this show has many similarities to Get Smart, aside from both shows sharing Bernie Kopell. No, what my brain decided needed a laser-like focus was Don Hollinger's career. It makes sense. He was a writer.

But that's still not what really inspired a renewal of effort to get back to my writing. It was the dude's super-cute portable typewriter.

This typewriter only appears in like three episodes--and I should know. I watched 138 episodes in fourteen days. I can't get enough of how adorable it is. I'll certainly be on the lookout to buy one someday, but what the typewriter did was get me to think about how much time I spend not writing, and why I can't fill in some of those gaps. Also, it made me think about all the female writer characters on TV, and I had a hard time quickly coming up with a list. It took me ten minutes to remember Carrie Bradshaw was a writer because her lifestyle--considering her employment--was ridiculously fictional. And all of that leads me into 2020...

2020--The Year of New and Exciting Adventures (Fingers Crossed!)

The first project on deck for the year is one of my pilot scripts. Both of the pilots that I wrote first drafts of have a female lead who is or wants to be a writer. I think that it's important to tell these stories, so I'm going to do everything I can to get at least one script to the point where I can receive script coverage. I want to see where I really stand. Hopefully, I can get a recommend rating that takes the project outside of my hands and on to the next phase.

I'm also looking to not sit on content. I do write a lot of content, and often it goes unseen. There are a lot of factors that go into that, but sitting on a short story for a year before submitting (which I tend to do) is not productive. That's not going to happen anymore. I'm going to keep my goal of published pieces at four for the year, but I intend to post a lot more content on Medium this year. I'm going to merge my love for sitting in front of the TV for a little too long with my ability to write reviews.

2020 will also be the year I get more rejection letters. I don't mean that I'm looking for them, but there is no reason I need all of these unpublished pieces sitting around, not being considered.

In terms of adventure, I'm putting myself on the strictest budget my little life will allow so that I can finally do something big--a vacation, a relocation, attending a conference, participate in a residency program. I don't know what it will be yet, but I know that this is the year I have to do something, otherwise I don't know if I ever will. I'm inspired to do great things and I don't want this feeling to subside, so I'm grabbing it and holding it close. Let's hope I don't end up smothering it.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone out there has big dreams of their own and we can all accomplish them together.

Deep in Camp NaNo Territory

It's Day 11. Normally when writing a novel, this would be the time where I'm either playing catch up to meet a word count or already throwing in the towel because I'm stuck. But this is a script project counted in minutes rather than words. So far there are 27 pages of a first draft, and thankfully I'm right at the start of a natural ending that both satisfies the specific script and easily leads into an episode two.

Two days ago I thought it was the end of the project. I got stuck trying to think of what act three would look like, and I didn't have a clue. So I moved from working on the script itself to working on the show bible, which I want to have ready even before I send this in for script coverage. It's fascinating to me how easy it was to get into creating the show bible, even though I don't really know what I'm doing. Before starting, I tried to get advice about it from articles and examples, but I quickly found out that the one example I looked at (Freaks and Geeks) was actually not the norm. So I'm winging it and making it short and sweet. I thought it would be hard to not only write synopses for the rest of the first season, but also a quick overview of potential seasons 2-5, but it was easy. Which leads me to being really attached to my characters and this story line.

Since I'm so attached right now, I didn't think I could see the obvious fatal flaws in the script. Nope. They are there and they are glaring. First, my writer character loves to over-explain the writing industry to the non-writer character. This kind of has to be done in a way, but it needs to be done in a more humorous way. That leads to the second fatal flaw--the script is not immediately funny. Reading through it, it doesn't lend itself to laughter. Of course if you picture an actor delivering the lines in a specific way, it is funny. However, no one is in my brain (thank goodness) and can't see it the way I do. I have to make the page lend itself to my vision. That's a headscratcher right now.

The last element I'm struggling with is the balance of swearing and adult content. Right now I'm on the fence with it, making it easy to sell to either network or streaming. Personally I would prefer it to be on a streaming service so the characters can get as wild and carefree as they want. But am I supposed to be thinking about this? I don't know what kind of influence or involvement a writer has beyond getting someone to take a chance and optioning the finished script. If I cater the writing to one type or another, am I setting myself up for failure? I don't know, and I can work this out during revisions, but I just want to get this one right.

So that's where I am at the moment. We shall see what the next few weeks brings. 

What's Left of June's Odds and Ends

This weekend I was getting ready for Camp NaNoWriMo when I realized that, although the outline I picked as my project is sturdy and a story that I want to explore, there was another outline that I thought should be written first. So instead of a literary ghost story, I'm switching to a near-future political thriller. Yeah. I'm branching out a bit when it comes to genre.

I've also completed something for this blog that was always at the end of the to-do list, so it's been passed over day after day. But today, it's here. Check out my BOOKS section on the top navigation bar to see what I published, including contributions to collections and shorter works. I've had a version of this page before, but this one is organized.

To keep my busy this week (and when am I not busy?!) I'm working on a pilot script and the novella Haunting Melody. When it comes to scripts, I always thought I would see a feature script all the way through first, but the idea I have for a pilot just keeps nagging me, so I'm focusing on that first. Plus, even if no one bites for the pilot, I have something to show until I build up a few spec scripts. Anyway...

I can't wait to get to camp and see what damage I can do to that outline. Happy writing everyone!