Just before the end of the year, I finished another draft of the screenplay I blogged about here back in '08, only to learn that it needs yet another pass. It has gotten better with each draft but I'm tired of the script and taking some time away from it right now.
The other project I was working on, a spec pilot with a production company attached, is out of my hands and has been since August.
Currently, I'm working on a spec for a show on the air (to have as a sample), and I'm in the early stages of 3(!!!) screenplays. By early stages, I mean VERY early. No scenes have been written.
There's also a one hour pilot I want to write and two plays.... Never mind the book.
Okay. Clearly this is too much.
I'm pairing it down myself but I am going to attempt to write a lot of them this year. It's not impossible, it's about discipline and time management. Two of the screenplays are collaborations so I can share the workload, and have a built in excuse if they don't get done (he said, half joking).
I think all writers have a list, imaginary or otherwise, of the next things they're going to write. I was told by an industry type that it was important to have more than one thing going on at once. That's exactly what he said, very vague, the kind of talk they specialize in. And I wonder what he meant? If he meant that one should be writing more than one thing at time, I wonder: is it the worst advice I've ever been given?
Back when I was only writing plays, I never would have imagined seriously writing two of them at the same time. A couple times when I got stuck near the end of one play, I'd write the opening scene of my next play. That's only because the Scene One of a play has always been my favorite thing to write. It's so new. You can do anything. It can go anywhere. You haven't trapped yourself yet. I digress.
But, in the business (according to this guy) in order to seem busy (I'll save my opinion on the importance of SEEMING busy for another post), one must be working on several things. So. It's a new year and I'm going to try it. Who knows? Maybe it will open some things up for me.
Here's how. Let's start with the TV Spec and two of the screenplays. They'll be my focus for the first quarter. I'll simply divide my writing time by days. I will only work on one project per day, alternating days. I'll report back here on how it's going. Let's see what happens.
Where do people come down on the multiple project issue?
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