Week 1 of the Next Level
I have two writing slots per day: morning, and late afternoon. The morning slot should produce 5 pages of rough text. The afternoon slot is relaxed polishing or lazily focused brainstorming.
The morning is the "done by One" stuff. Probably script pages (I write books first in script form. Better software, and produces an excellent expanded outline that tests all basic aspects of story, characterization, dialogue, and story. All I have to do is transfer from WRITER DUET to GOOGLE DOC, and change the tenses, and flesh out the prose. Easy to do in the afternoon slot.
But I DON'T EVER polish text "A" if I just wrote it that morning. I like to let it sit for at least a week.
So Morning is "project A" and afternoon is "project B". That is like working two entirely different parts of your body, which means one part rests while the other works. On alternate days, I might work a second project. Actually I could go AB, CD if I wanted, and feel pretty comfortable juggling 4 projects. MORE comfortable juggling just two, but It can be done. What happens if I have more projects than that? I might split them by the week…but that's stretching a little thin.
In that case, I would prioritize. The most important projects are "AB" and the least important "CD". "important" might be the most interesting or profitable or pressing project, the least important ones the optional projects that will wait if necessary.
So There are also business needs connected with contracts, correspondence, and so on. All of this needs to be organized, and in general I like to organize on Sunday. Monday-Friday work. Saturday off with maybe a little clean-up and fun work. Sunday off with a look back on the previous week (Am I on track? Happy with work, exercise, family? Good. If so, just carry on. If not, where did I go wrong?)
The idea is to be able to just do "today's work today" without worrying about tomorrow because the systems handle that. Tomorrow I'll do tomorrow. Today, just do today.
Rough schedule:
Wake up by 7:30.
Meditate and out of bed by 8:30
Joint mobility
Ablutions (brushing teeth, contact lens, etc.)
Five Tibetans
Tai Chi
Make tea with yummy nootropics ("Bulletproof Coffee" on steroids)
Check email, FB, while listening to positive input or educational.
Journal
FIVE PAGES of major project
Meeting with T at 10:30
Yoga or serious exercise
Business, planning
Jason Meeting 2:00 pm
Business
Afternoon "easy" writing (hopefully while watching TV)
About 5pm off for the day.
Tananarive joins me at about 7pm
Move to Bedroom at 10:30. Evening rituals (Columbo, Dick Van Dyke, Saturday Night Live, Robot Chicken, Mystery Science Theater, etc.)
Sleep at 11:30
Today is Sunday, an "off, planning" day. T and I will take a long drive, which I dearly love. While doing it we will discuss the structure of the next week, what needs to be done. And especially JASON, who is blessedly on track. But we also need to get nitty-gritty about the outline of a certain pilot script we're about to start, with a careful eye on the upcoming strike.
So today, we'll go act by act through the story, be sure that we are:
Setting up all characters
Setting up the basic story
That the story of the pilot anchors the season
That the season anchors a five-season arc.
That the acts are propulsive, the act breaks mild or acute cliff-hangers.
That the climax of the episode will knock their head's off, so that the audience HAS to know what happens next.
The story relates to a published work. The fans of that work need to feel honored, but the average viewer will NOT have read the root work (yes, I'm being deliberately vague). Because of that we can play games:
It has to work on two levels: for the initiated, and the uninitiated. False trails, red herrings. Deception about what is really going on, pulling the rug out from under the newbie, while sharing a delicious secret with the fans (or people who have heard spoilers)
There is more, but those are the basic strokes. All of this is done in outline. Then this outline will birth scenes. Each scene is given a positive and/or negative charge. EVERY SCENE HAS TO CHANGE THE CHARGE. Either from negative to positive, positiive to negative, negative to MORE negative, positive to MORE positive.
If you are going negative to MORE negative, give the characters/audience hope, then yank the rug out. If it goes from positive to MORE positive, add a moment of risk or danger, an obstacle, an "uh-oh!" moment, so that the victory is sweet.
For instance: put each scene on a separate 3x5 card. Add the positive or negative charges. Post them on a large board (or lay them in order on the floor)
Then…step back and take in the entire episode at one time. Can you hear the "music"? Feel the flow of emotions? Do you have the set-ups for the audience to feel the pay-off at the end?
Now…if you've ROUGHLY planned out the whole season…write this episode's chargest on a card, and estimate the thumbnail events and charges for each of the other episodes, through the end of the season. Does THAT roughly flow? Can you feel it? Does the season climax pay off the emotions? Do the previous episodes support that climax?
All right. Now take what you know about the other four seasons. VERY roughly of course. Does the flow of this season fit into an overall arc leading to a mind-blowing completion?
If so, you've finished "zooming out." Zoom back in on this season, this episode. Break it up into acts and scenes.
Start writing. Eveyr day, just do THAT day's work: you've done the long-range work, right?
Now. If you use the Hero's Journey to look at your plot, you can also use it to describe the path of writing the damned thing. And the process of your life as a whole. Do THIS, and you are working on a perspective on life that takes everything you learn about life and put it into your work, and every cleverness you use in your writing…and apply it to life.
That's "Lifewriting" and it really, really works. This week, we are playing for all the marbles. Have to balance a dozen different projecss and processes. Each is its own "story thread" in the overall braid of our lives. If everything is going great, just do today's work: chop wood, carry water. But if there is a problem, zoom in on it and see what resources you'll need to solve that problem the next time.
Whew. Yeah, it’s a lot, and stressful, but stress doesn't have to hurt you--if it doesn't become strain.
Breathe, Steve. Breathe.
And be grateful for this moment of life. These are the good old days.
Namaste
Steve
