Week 14: Review/Preview
Reflecting on progress for the week of April 4 through April 11 , and previewing goals and tasks for the upcoming week.
Photo of Lake Pleasant, Arizona by Frank Tarczynski
It’s cliche to say, but this week was one of those weeks where I found myself by spending time in nature. I’m kinda like a poor man’s Thoreau.
Amongst the winding trails in the Sonoran Desert, I came to an acute realization that I over-complicate my stories. I make them more complex than they need to be. I add a bunch of shit that doesn’t belong. In short, I let my ego tell my stories instead of me.
I don’t remember the exact moment when I came to this realization. It was probably in the car while I was explaining to my wife a snag I hit while working on my pilot. But I distinctly remember my wife saying something that I just needed to hear in the moment: “You know what you want to write, so get out of your way and write it.”
I know what I want to write, but I’m getting in my way. That’s what I needed to tell myself if I want to finish this pilot.
That night (or was it day, I can’t remember exactly), I cracked open my notebook and did a whole bunch of crossing out of ideas. After a few months and several rounds of feedback from various groups, I finally settled on the story that I’m going to write.
And in truth, I did this to myself.
With this project I purposely slowed down my process. From concept to character to story, I did a ton of sketching and writing and drafting and re-writing and re-drafting and re-sketching. Starts and stops. Trials and a ton of errors. But it was all part of the process of getting to a place where I know what the story is, how the story works, and why the story needs to be told.
This past week I’ve spent a lot of time on trails and parks out in the Arizona desert. The simple landscape is majestic in scope. That’s the lesson. Majesty in storytelling comes from simplicity. The sublime comes from the sheer awesomeness of something so simple and strong.
Successes for the Week:
Completed a few more modules from the ISA/craft course. Focused on Sequence 4 and Sequence 5.
Finished writing descriptions for the sub-pages of Frank’s Workshop. Now I’ve got to put together an editorial calendar for uploading articles/posts.
Did a lot of work on my pilot, including sketching out the A, B, and C storylines and creating Goal-Motivation-Conflict charts for each character.
Published mid-week blog post.
Goals/Tasks for the Week:
Meet with writer’s group this Friday and get feedback on my thriller pilot, THE NOISE WITHIN.
Revise the synopsis for my pilot and update the show bible.
Finish up Week 4 of the ISA/craft course.
