Week 4: Review/Preview
Reflecting on progress for the week of January 24 through 30, and previewing goals and tasks for the upcoming week.
Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash
I’m not going to start this post off with my usual observation about writing, creativity, and life. Instead, I’m going to blurt out an interesting idea I had while my family and I were driving to Arizona.
My wife’s parents have a winter home in Arizona, so we try to make it out and visit them a few times between January and May before they head back to Illinois. It’s been about nine months since we’ve seen them (damn Covid), and my wife’s been itching to spend time with her parents. They quarantined for two weeks before we visited, and, well, we don’t go anywhere in Los Angeles. Everyone’s safe and well.
The drive from our door to my in-law’s garage is about six hours, give or take an hour because of pee breaks for the kids, food, or traffic (amazing how there’s traffic in the middle of the damn desert). Having traversed the I-10 East/West highway a billion times I can say with 100% certainty: it’s boring.
But…during this last jaunt, I had a bit of an “a-ha” moment. As I sat in the passenger’s seat (my wife drives because she says I’m too slow), I had an interesting idea pop into my head: What if I wrote a limited series about a couple driving from Los Angeles to Phoenix and they encounter a bunch of weird shit along the way - time travel, carjackers, prison break, ghost town, relationship problems, etc. And, here’s the kicker, each episode is an hour long, which represents an hour of time passed traveling. If it takes an hour to get from West Los Angeles to East Los Angeles, what happens along the way? It’s sorta like the show 24 meets the movie Road Trip but crazier.
I have no idea if the story could actually work but the idea sounds interesting and unique - two characteristics I look for in a story. I don’t have time to write it now, but I’ll add it to my growing list of story ideas and come back to it later in the year.
I guess I do have a takeaway for today: when your present circumstance sucks, just imagine something wild that could make whatever you’re experiencing in that moment not as dull and write about that.
Successes for the Week
Met with bi-weekly Writer’s Group and gave feedback to two writers on their work in progress.
Met with accountability group and discussed loglines, structure, and the state of the business. I offered THIS article for discussion about CBS planning more straight-to-series orders for 2021. In my opinion, I think this is going to be more of a norm with fewer and fewer networks clinging to traditional development methods. I could see writers selling their first show having to trek through the entire development process. But established writers? Nope. Too much demand for content.
Completed Week 1 of the free craft course I got access to through my accountability group. The topics and assignments focused on finding your writer’s voice, developing a logline, and establishing your project. Really great info that strengthens a lot of what I already know. But, it’s good to get different perspectives to enhance your craft.
Spent the bulk of my writing time developing the characters for my new pilot. Specifically I worked on writing a brief backstory for my main character and key secondary characters, including determining each character’s “wound” - a moment from their past the fundamentally shaped their worldview. I used that wound to also brainstorm and make decisions about each character’s flaw and skill. In total I created backstories for: Protagonist, Brother of Protagonist, Mentor, Love Interest, Best Friend, and Antagonist. Kinda hard to believe but I wrote 30 plus pages of character development in my dedicated notebook for this project.
Misses
I think I posted 1 blog entry? Shameful. I really need to step that practice up.
I did not rewrite the logline to my pilot. Big priority for this week, though.
I did not read any scripts this week like I wanted. Just ran out of time. I did download a few short treatments for films that I want to take a look at and think about how a treatment could help me develop the story of my pilot.
Goals/Tasks for the Week
Write a blog post everyday. Just gotta keep that practice going.
Work on Week 2 of my craft course, which focuses on story bullets and the beginning of outlining.
Revise my logline and email it to my accountability group, which meets Thursday.
Finish up the character development work for my pilot, including: crafting memorable introductions for my characters, thinking about the rules that govern my characters’ decisions, and spending a bit more time developing the antagonist of my pilot.
