I’ll be back!

Just a quick post to let you guys know that I’ll be on vacation till the second week in August. I would love to say that I’m going off to recharge my batteries, but I will no doubt be working in my head 24/7.

I’m off to the Florida Keys, perfect for relaxing. But…I’ve got a TV pitch that I’m putting together that needs to go out asap. I’ve also got a bunch of spec ideas I’m trying to work – trying to figure out which to write next.
So, while my body will be horizontal by the pool, my brain will be going full blast. One of the hazards of writing – you can do it any time, anywhere.

But hopefully I will come back a little tanner and a little more recharged.
Until then!

I need to refill my well!

Your boy’s worn out. Numb. I just pitched for 3 assignments in a row – two of which came down to me and one other writer. And I didn’t get either. My agent reassures me by telling me that I didn’t get the jobs for extraneous reasons. For instance, I was up for an animated job – it came down to me and the guys that wrote “Toy Story”. You can imagine which way they went on that one.

Sooo…I think I need to cleanse my pallet. Because, while chasing assignments can be fun, there are also three negatives:

1) It’s someone else’s idea. You are basically writing for someone else right off the bat. Getting notes right off the bat. Being steered right off the bat.
2) You get none of fun part. The fun part of writing (to me) is, well, writing. When you are chasing assignments – all you’re doing is the hard part – the planning, the outlining the strategizing, etc, etc. Unless you get the assignment, you don’t even get to write the script you’ve just killed yourself to conceive. Try tossing 3-5 weeks down the toilet a bunch of times in a row! Talk about soul sucking.
3) The odds are rarely great. You are always up against a handful or in some cases – a HUGE amount of writers. I ran into this issue on the third assignment I mentioned above. I gave a pitch on this assignment and as I was walking out of the room – I spotted a buddy of mine in the next room over. I told him what I was pitching for and he said (loud enough for the people I just pitched to hear), “Ahhhh Christ, you can forget about that one. Those guys don’t know what they want. They’ve had 30 writers in here already – changing their minds every day.”

All I could think of was — this was something I just worked 4 weeks to conceive.

The whole process of “writing assignments” just seems so flawed. The only thing the exec or producer is looking for is a “Take” they like. In fact, one of my good friends said to me, “I don’t care if I have to go through 100 writers. I’ll do what I gotta do to get the right take.” Well, here’s the problem with that – 90 of those writers either aren’t going to be very good, will have no idea how to execute that take, or simply aren’t right for the project. So you’ve got a neat take – BUT THE WRONG WRITER!!!

I’m baffled at the idea of choosing a writer based on a 10 minute take. That’s like picking a basketball player for your pick-up team that brought the nicest ball.

If I were an exec or producer – I would pick the WRITER I want. A guy that’s delivered similar material more than once. Then, instead of spending 3 months going through a 100 takes – I’d spend one month with one writer — working out a take I like.

THEN – I’d have a take I like AND a writer I had confidence in. ‘Course, I tried to explain this to my friend and smoke came out of his ears.

So, I think I’m going to use this industry lull (with the SAG stuff bringing most projects to a creep) to think up a spec idea. That way I have something that’s 100% mine and more importantly – I’ll have something that I can actually WRITE! Imagine that.

Sure, I’ll still chase assignments as they come. But at least I’ll always have something of my own, waiting for me at home. Waiting to be written.