How I'm Spending My Time

I often get asked what I do with my time now that I have it all to myself. The answer is blogging (okay, just kidding). Yes, I've been incredibly lazy with this blog and it was never really my intention to stop making posts, but I've been trying to get into a rhythm with screen writing. The goal is to make finding "the zone" habitual. Not everyone is Buster Posey from the outset.

The savior of my fantasy baseball team.

On an average day, the milestone I try to shoot for is 5 quality pages. There are some days where I'm barely able to get a sentence down and other rare days when I go off for 20+ quality pages. I have yet to figure out how to buck myself from this Eli Manning feast-or-famine trend. The curriculum at many graduate schools includes a healthy dose of reading, writing and watching. I conceived my schedule to accommodate for these very things. Here is a routine day of productivity.

8:00 AM - 9:30 AM: Wake up, eat breakfast, read.

Not a morning person at all. I like to read during breakfast to give my mind some push-ups. On hangover days it feels more like dead-lift squats. I've been reading two books at once. One is usually a book on writing and the other is creative fiction.

I just finished a book on writing and life titled "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. Her "unique" message stems from a story about her younger brother who struggled with a book report about birds. Overwhelmed by the task before him and on the verge of tears, her father provided the simple solution: "just take it bird by bird." Good advice. Mostly though, Anne comes off as a self-indulgent, insecure religious nutbag with sentences like

"I started telling myself that if you want to know how God feels about money, look at whom she gives it to. This cheered me up to [sic] no end, even though my closest friends have lots of money."

Look at the future I have to look forward to!! Although for me God isn't a she, he's a shemale.

9:30 AM - 11:00 AM: Work out

Hardcore XXX action

My good friend Tony Horton drops by every morning to pump up my self-esteem and massive pythons. Alright fine, garden snakes. P90X works really well. I know this because I'm no longer translucent in a mirror. Here is the first 3 weeks regimen:

Monday: Chest and Back
Tuesday: Plyometrics
Wednesday: Shoulder, Biceps, Triceps
Thursday: Yoga
Friday: Legs and Back
Saturday: Kempo
Sunday: Stretch

I do it right in the living room (with no shirt, obviously) and have my very own yoga mat. I can downward dog with the best of them, but my specialty is child's pose.

11:00 AM - 12:00 PM: Lunch and Blogs

Nothing is better than a good meal after an intense workout. The caveat is avoiding the massive food coma that hits just as exhaustion settles in. I use this time to detox and catch up on the world. Most of the blogs I read are of the Philadelphia sports variety, but I also catch up on the film industry, technology, humor and other wordly news.

12:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Writing

My current project is a feature-length romantic comedy titled "Occidentally in Love". It's an Oregon Trail story that incorporates many of the elements from that lovely childhood educational computer game. I hope to have it finished by the end of August, but more realistically I'll have a completed first draft in September.
This is my second feature-length movie and as such I've learned a lot about the process. I've approached the task of writing this story more legitimately than when I wrote "State School." Each index card on the board represents scene beats. Each beat represents progress for my characters and plot. A beat can encompass multiple scenes and is denoted by a positive or negative tone. If a beat starts positively, it must end negatively. Adjacent scenes must reflect the opposite, like a stack of alternating batteries.

I find that it's easiest to use a cork board like this so that scenes can be moved around. Occidentally is a little over 50% specced out and 30% written.

4:00 PM - 7:00 PM: Script + Movie

This is my favorite activity. I'll read the script for a movie and then watch the movie. If I like a particular scene, I'll pause and re-read to get a feel for how the writer set everything up. Besides actually writing, this gives me the most valuable reps for beefing up my ability. It's also a huge self-esteem boost.

Recently, I did a Read/Watch on "Raiders of the Lost Ark." I read a third draft of the script and realized that George Lucas is NOT a gifted screenwriter. At all. It's so interesting to see his vision versus the actual shooting script. Almost every scene in the actual movie is given a "ticking time bomb." The script is not written in that way.

Lucas is a master of structure, though, and this is probably the most important aspect of screenwriting. The story was so succinct and cohesive that the person who re-wrote it was able to go back and add dramatization and suspense without interrupting character development or plot. I've spent a ton of hours on the structure of Occidentally to make sure it can stand on its own. The major criticism I received from State School was that it had no plot or premise and wasn't an original idea.

7:00 PM - 10:00 PM: SPORTS

Okay I lied, this is my favorite part of the day. I'm a proud 4/4 fan and follow each Philadelphia team regularly and religiously. Tomorrow I will be attending the Eagles first pre-season game against the Jaguars and there will be photos and thoughts on the off-season progress forthcoming.

I will also be doing a division-by-division NFL preview with my predictions.

10:00 PM - 1:00 AM: Misc. Writing/Reading

I'll usually write for the rest of the night if I haven't put in my 5 quality pages. Otherwise, I'll work on my structure and subplots or write short comedy sketches.

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This is a fully productive day. Most days I am forced to run errands or get sidetracked by other things. Somehow, I need to make all of these activities a habit so that I can control my Avatar state and get into a euphoric writing zone.

Aang knows best