Week 10: Review/Preview (Ridiculously Late Edition)
Reflecting on progress for the week of March 7 through March 14 , and previewing goals and tasks for the upcoming week.
Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash
Yeah, I know. It’s weird to write a weekly review blog post almost two weeks late. But, dammit, I’m going to do it anyways.
Truthfully, I had the blog post sketched in my notebooks since Sunday afternoon, but life quickly got in the way.
Like most people, the pandemic affects me in different ways and at different times. I can go long stretches of efficiency and consistency with my writing and work. And then I can go equally long stretches of procrastination and a lack of motivation. The latter is what I had a bout of the last two weeks.
Lots going on around my apartment. Wife quit her job, found a new one in Arizona. I got a job interview in Los Angeles, that if I get it, means we stay in Los Angeles. But, my wife would be without a job, and she’d have to look for a new one during the pandemic.
Oh, and if we move to Arizona, we don’t know where we’d live.
Life’s been a bit cray cray.
But here’s the good news: I’ve been making some real progress on my pilot, specifically with the bible for the show. I know there’s a lot of chatter from veteran writers on Twitter about newer screenwriters shouldn’t write bibles for their shows. To an extent, I agree. A full-on bible is a shit-ton of work. And it’s needless to do if you’re not going out to pitch your projects or if you don’t have a spec to sell (I do have specs to sell!). But, I think the practice of writing at least a few elements of a bible is worth the work.
I think the main purpose for writing a show bible, even if you’re just starting out, is that it helps you really think through what the show is about, why you’re writing it, and how the pilot actually sets up the series - world, characters, etc. Personally, I’ve written pilots that feel light and a bit surface-level when it comes to character and plot. Bad writing? Sure. Poor planning? Absolutely! And I think a bible will help codify all that planning into a nice, easy to reference document that serves as your guide when writing the pilot.
Here’s what’s included in my bible:
Title page (duh)
Quote that alludes to the themes/tone of the show.
Logline page, including: 6-word summary, series logline, season 1 logline, and pilot logline. (Some of these ideas I picked up from reading Scott Myers’ blog Go Into the Story and from ISA’s craft course.)
Inspiration for the story - Why am I writing this? How did I come up with the idea?
Themes - What’s this series REALLY about?
Genre/Tone/Style - What kind of show is this? What are the comparisons? What are some “rules” of style you want to adhere to?
Pilot Synopsis - For this I write a brief paragraph for each act in the pilot. I also title my acts according to the theme that reflects the story.
Characters - Brief paragraph of each of the main characters.
Backstory - There’s some mythology that influences the engine of my series. Here is where I write a one, maybe two, page explanation of what happened before the start of the pilot.
A lot? Yes, it’s a lot. Right now I’m at 10 pages. But, it’s just for me and it serves as my reference for when I’m actually creating my outline, writing my script, or revising it.
In the end it’s about writing the best possible script you can. However you go about doing that is all you.
In the end, it’s your story.
Successes for the Week
Met with my new writer’s group. Fantastic peeps. Really excited to get to know these people more over the coming two months.
Attended a Women in Film event through International Screenwriter’s Association. Very powerful and inspiration talk about women writers, directors, producers, actors.
Received some great feedback on my synopsis of my new pilot. I’m still trying to find my way through this story.
Worked through more of the craft course I’m enrolled in through ISA. I’m working through the sequence section of the course, which is really new to me. At UCLA we learned about specific, individual beats but never entire sequences of scenes.
Attended a TV Writing Business workshop with Script Anatomy. This is the second course/workshop I’ve taken with SA and have loved each one. Two key takeaways: write your ass off and hustle your ass off.
Misses
I didn’t apply to the HBO Access fellowship. In fact, I’m sure I’m going to apply to any fellowships this year. I have nothing against them, but my focus is on really building up this website and getting my scripts in shape.
CASUAL analysis. I still have work on writing up my analysis and posting it on this website when I finish building a few pages. I’ve bitten off a lot more than I can chew the last month, but this needs to be a priority. Stat.
Goals/Tasks for the Week
Work on show bible for my new pilot. I have tons of notes and ideas worked up. Now I gotta put them in a format that’s usable when I begin outlining my pilot.
Continue working through the ISA craft course. I’m about halfway through it and there’s some great stuff on sequences that I’ve never learned before.
