report from the depths of writingland
So we had our Writing Retreat. We yurted.
Did I meet my goal? Well, I wrote more than five pages of a draft. I solved several, but not all, of the major holes in my outline. So I met some of my goals. But did I meet all of them? No. In fact, not only did I fail to synopsize One Day in the Future in two double-spaced pages, but I failed so magnificently that my failure helped me realize there is simply no reason in the world I should be applying this year to the glorious and coveted Sundance Institute's Screenwriter's Lab. I would be promising something I cannot deliver. I would be setting myself up to let the Lab down, and, I mean: which is worse, failing to submit one year because my script isn't ready, or being a finalist a third time and this time not even having a rough-edges early draft to hand in?
Thing is, One Day in the Future is years away from being good, possibly five or ten years from being great. It's that kind of script. It's epic, with a tightrope between its silly parts and its serious parts. It's a bittersweet tragicomic black-comedy end of the world epic science fiction ensemble romcom. Set in the future. Involving hundred million dollar setpieces, but without a single marketable action sequence to speak of. It's really, really uncommercial -- and yet everybody I pitch it to says a) I'm mad, and b) they really like the ideas I've put into this. Either everybody is supporting me because they see I'm passionate or I've got something, even if it's not a mass-appeal film (though Sarah disagrees with me; would but she were right!). I shelved Mexico and picked up this one specifically because it means so much to me. Honestly, despite its scope and scale and tone it's my most personal work so far, and as weird as it sounds, I need this story told. (I feel similarly about The World of Missing Persons, but I feel more strongly about this.) I'm pushing myself to get a draft done so I can spend the years I'll need to spend refining it. I don't want to blow my wad early on this one. I'm trying, in other words, to be smart.
So I failed to meet my goals and I surrendered the big deadline I chase every year. Right now I'm sort of exhausted from the beach adventure and the social exposure and the forced (and welcome) ass-in-chair time. Later, there's going to be some serious postpartum depression I'll be facing. Especially when it really sinks in (I'm staving this off as long as possible) that, without a deadline, I need to start developing Dogsview Ln in a hurry, if I'm serious about shooting it next year. But I really want to get a draft of ODITF done, because it's so massive. So my long-term ambition toward magnum opus scripts and my short-term plans to advance myself as a filmmaker are going to start conflicting real soon. All while I deal with the listless sense of failure that will surely come from not being able to apply to SDI this year. So, yeah. That'll be fun.
(Side note: I looked at my transcript. Let's just say the Master's Degree plan is further off than I'd hoped and leave it at that.)
On the positive side, I'm pleased to report that Joseph met a great deal of his goals. Martha failed to meet hers but did leave with a brand new feature idea, which I know she will realize the value of (ideas are precious! cultivate every one!) as she continues pushing forward. Amy and Cassie, I'm not sure about. Jess completed a draft, which I believe was her goal for the weekend. And Jon whittled a fork, which is more than he planned to accomplish. Not to mention we all had a lot of fun together.
I think I can give myself a silver medal, runner-up for Hardest Working this weekend (Joseph wins, but it was close; he just met more goals), but in the spirit of the outing and the meeting-of-deadlines it could be argued: I came in dead last.
And so it goes.
Did I meet my goal? Well, I wrote more than five pages of a draft. I solved several, but not all, of the major holes in my outline. So I met some of my goals. But did I meet all of them? No. In fact, not only did I fail to synopsize One Day in the Future in two double-spaced pages, but I failed so magnificently that my failure helped me realize there is simply no reason in the world I should be applying this year to the glorious and coveted Sundance Institute's Screenwriter's Lab. I would be promising something I cannot deliver. I would be setting myself up to let the Lab down, and, I mean: which is worse, failing to submit one year because my script isn't ready, or being a finalist a third time and this time not even having a rough-edges early draft to hand in?
Thing is, One Day in the Future is years away from being good, possibly five or ten years from being great. It's that kind of script. It's epic, with a tightrope between its silly parts and its serious parts. It's a bittersweet tragicomic black-comedy end of the world epic science fiction ensemble romcom. Set in the future. Involving hundred million dollar setpieces, but without a single marketable action sequence to speak of. It's really, really uncommercial -- and yet everybody I pitch it to says a) I'm mad, and b) they really like the ideas I've put into this. Either everybody is supporting me because they see I'm passionate or I've got something, even if it's not a mass-appeal film (though Sarah disagrees with me; would but she were right!). I shelved Mexico and picked up this one specifically because it means so much to me. Honestly, despite its scope and scale and tone it's my most personal work so far, and as weird as it sounds, I need this story told. (I feel similarly about The World of Missing Persons, but I feel more strongly about this.) I'm pushing myself to get a draft done so I can spend the years I'll need to spend refining it. I don't want to blow my wad early on this one. I'm trying, in other words, to be smart.
So I failed to meet my goals and I surrendered the big deadline I chase every year. Right now I'm sort of exhausted from the beach adventure and the social exposure and the forced (and welcome) ass-in-chair time. Later, there's going to be some serious postpartum depression I'll be facing. Especially when it really sinks in (I'm staving this off as long as possible) that, without a deadline, I need to start developing Dogsview Ln in a hurry, if I'm serious about shooting it next year. But I really want to get a draft of ODITF done, because it's so massive. So my long-term ambition toward magnum opus scripts and my short-term plans to advance myself as a filmmaker are going to start conflicting real soon. All while I deal with the listless sense of failure that will surely come from not being able to apply to SDI this year. So, yeah. That'll be fun.
(Side note: I looked at my transcript. Let's just say the Master's Degree plan is further off than I'd hoped and leave it at that.)
On the positive side, I'm pleased to report that Joseph met a great deal of his goals. Martha failed to meet hers but did leave with a brand new feature idea, which I know she will realize the value of (ideas are precious! cultivate every one!) as she continues pushing forward. Amy and Cassie, I'm not sure about. Jess completed a draft, which I believe was her goal for the weekend. And Jon whittled a fork, which is more than he planned to accomplish. Not to mention we all had a lot of fun together.
I think I can give myself a silver medal, runner-up for Hardest Working this weekend (Joseph wins, but it was close; he just met more goals), but in the spirit of the outing and the meeting-of-deadlines it could be argued: I came in dead last.
And so it goes.