Boarding the Train
Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash
Like many people stuck indoors because of the pandemic, I’ve been quite the slug - slow, unmotivated, just letting the days go by.
It’s hard finding motivation and energy to just push through the noise, to dig deep inside and pull out whatever’s left in the tank and get it on the page.
Last night I set my alarm for 5:00 am and told myself that I will wake up early and write. I even did a dumb move and Tweeted about it because I wanted some semblance of accountability.
The alarm on my phone went off at 5:00 am, and I awoke to some stupid bird-like sounds.
I laid in bed for about 7 minutes wondering if I should get up and write or stay under the sheets and enjoy the comfort.
I then thought about Mel Robbins’ 5 second rule. If I remember correctly, her 5 second rule states that you have 5 seconds to make decision to get up early in the morning or stay in bed. Those 5 seconds are the real difference between success and stagnation.
I laid in bed and thought about those 5 seconds for about 7 minutes.
But, I bit the bullet and got up, bleary-eyed, groggy, and with a slight headache and fired up my computer to work on a scrip that needs some revision.
I’ve been working on a one hour drama that focuses on a psychiatrist who kills his clients’ abusers. It’s a healthy mix of DEXTER meets BATES MOTEL.
The story has a secondary story involving the psychiatrist’s past and how his mother mysteriously disappeared. The A story and B story explore the lasting affects childhood abuse and trauma have on a person.
I submitted the script to a few competitions and didn’t place in any of them.
I believe in the concept, and I believe what I have so far is a solid foundation - the issues that make the script clunky are fixable, and the feedback I’ve received is solid and actionable.
So, I spent 90 minutes this morning combing over the Teaser, trying to tighten the language, pick-up the pace of the story, and clarify some story issues.
My goal is to spend about 3 weeks on the revisions before I put it to the side until next year when I query managers or send it out to competitions again.
The other idea I have is to adapt the script into a 100 page novella and self-publish it on Amazon/B&N. Writing a script is like writing a hefty outline for a novel, so I’ll probably spend November adapting the script to prose.
Tomorrow’s goal is to get up at 5:00 am and write for 90-120 minutes on the script, looking over the Teaser one more time and then jumping into Act 1 (of 6).
Writing is like boarding a train: the only thing a passenger can do is step on the train and enjoy the ride.
Trains run on time - they’re built on routine. Hopefully today is the start of a solid writing routine that will get me to my destination. One stop at a time.
