Those darn doldrums

I need to blog, but frankly, all I want to do is sleep.

And it makes sense that I do, because I do not get enough sleep during the week. I often only get 5 hours of sleep at best overnight. And I know it’s a problem, and on some level I tell myself that I will catch up over the weekend, but that never seems to happen.

Lately, that’s been because on Saturdays, I catch up on my movie writing. That won’t be a problem for a while, though, because I have finished the first draft of my screenplay (yay me) and so, if I am lucky, I will be able to have a couple of weekends where I don’t have to spend most of it writing.

Also luckily, this term they are going easy on the homework. TV History class has had none so far, and the homework for Pitch 2 and The Second Act is pretty light. Script Genre : Comedy just requires the usual “read the screenplay and then write me something that proves you read it” type thing. That leaves TV Script and Feature Script, and Feature Script I have in the can right now.

So the next big thing will be to finish my Bob’s Burgers script, which should not take long. Especially not after writing seventy three pages of movie script. After that, coming up with the final 13 or so pages (AKA the other half of the episode) of my Bob’s Burgers script will seem like child’s play.

And I still have more than a week to do it. How utterly laughable.

So I am on track academically, as far as I know. Which is nice. Hopefully I will be able to keep the dumb mistakes to a minimum.

Last night was one intense night of writing, because not only did I finish the damned thing, the last part is SUPER intense, with my poor Babs having to fend off a raving lunatic until her Dad can show up to kick the bad guy’s ass and save the day. So it was both intellectually challenging and emotionally draining. When I finally finished, I was both exultant and incoherent. It’s a heady mix.

Like I said before, I have enjoyed writing a movie. It was a good challenge and the sort of thing that can absorb me and fascinate me so that the whole process is quite pleasant, even if it is a lot of work. Work and fun are not as exclusive as some (very immature) people might think.

And it’s made me rethink my positions on screenwriting versus TV writing. Don’t get me wrong, I am still aiming directly at being a TV writer. But it’s made me realize that the actual writing involved is actually only a small part of that. I could write movies or television and be more or less just as happy with it, from the point of view of my own enjoyment.

But I don’t actually want to make movies. I want to make TV. Also, I want to have a job, rather than be yet another schmuck with a screenplay to flog desperately trying to get it read by the right people in hopes it might, someday, get read by other people who will hand it to other people who will have it read for them so all they have to do is read that person’s summary of… you get the idea.

TV writers don’t have to put up with that bullshit. They get hired by shows or networks, and get a salary and perks and such. That is what I am looking for. Sure, they have to deal with bullshit “notes” from people desperately trying to justify their position in the food chain, and there’s a lot of pressure and a high degree of output is required, but none of that bothers me as long as I get a paycheck that pays the bills with enough left over for some fun when I have the time.

I have no problem with pressure, I enjoy a challenge. And high output doesn’t bother me either seeing as I have spent all these years building strength and endurance in my writing muscles. I could probably write a half hour episode, from outline to final draft, all by myself every week and it wouldn’t bother me much.

If it was an hour long ensemble drama, I might need help.

So I am not about to turn screenwriter any time soon. But I will definitely ponder doing the minimum to shop my finished screenplay around. I mean, what the hell, I wrote the damned thing, the least I can do is give it some sort of shot at getting made.

Who knows, maybe I would end up getting drawn into the sordid world of film making against my will.

Oh, you want to pay me a million dollars for my script? Um, okay. What’s my next project? Give me a minute.

Next term I am going to have to write a pilot for an original series. The hard part will be coming up with the basic premise and characters of the show. actually writing the thing will be fun. But figuring out what kind of show I want to do and what show I want to do in that genre is going to be tough.

Odds are that I will end up creating a sitcom. Something with likable characters who have distinct roles both as characters and as vehicles for certain sorts of jokes, with an open-ended premise that allows for a lot of one-short characters and short character bits, like with Cheers or Night Court.

But there’s so many possible premises and core locations and such to choose from. It will take me a while to find the right one, the one I can work with, the one I want to stick with.

I know I want it to have a premise, but a minimal one. Something that establishes some parameters but that doesn’t force the show to repeat itself.

Anyhow, that’s my words and I gun’ go sleepnow.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.