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What is your morning process as a writer?  What steps do you take upon waking to get started?  I’m always curious how writers do what they do to get on the horse that day.  It can various day to day, but my process is pretty solid from day to day. I’m not sure if it speaks to me more as a person than a writer, but here it goes:

1) Wake up. Simple right?  If I want to sleep in, it is imperative that I do not touch my glasses.  Even if I want to get up and use the facilities, my dog will think it’s time to start the day if I put on my glasses. Weird. I’m not sure who owns who at this point.  I’m a night owl, so on an average day is waking up at 10 am but I’m usually up until 2 am.

2) Dress (in my finest sweats) and walk the dog. Nothing will happen until the dog gets walked. Again, who owns who?

3) Put away the bed. I’m in a studio and if I want to walk without tripping, the sofa bed has to be reset.  I’ve got it down to a system so it’s not so much of a delay to my day but more of a meditation exercise of squeezing bedding, pillows and sheets in to their respective places.

4) Email. Looking for fires, I screen my emails to see if I need to answer any right away.

5) Coffee.

6) Surf news before work, which includes answering miscellaneous emails.

• cnn.com, consumerist.com, variety headlines, la craigslist writer’s categories, digg.com, twitter, then facebook.

7) Work begins. This is about an hour after I wake up. Whether I’m writing, researching or web design, I still take less time to get “ready” for work than your typical nine to fiver.  I usually stop two hours in from work to eat. I’m rarely hungry upon waking and this is one reason I’m happy to work at home. The flexibility is there to do what you want, when you want to do it.

I naturally end work about 8 or 10 hours later depending on any side trips I make to my business mailbox or to grab lunch.

What sites do you visit on a daily basis as a writer? Not the occasional sites, I have a million of those, but every day?

There comes a time in every screenwriter’s inner thought process when the cycle hits upon where to reside. Should I remain where I am or swim upstream to the land of spec sales?  One could say arriving in the land of milk and honey to concentrate on your writing could be the death of you, just as the mighty fish procreates and finds his or her end.  In one way it’s true. Los Angeles, if you’re not careful will eat away at you and kill away your human parts, but that’s why they make bullet proof vests, right?

I took off my blinders a long time ago. Los Angeles may sell milk and honey on the corner, but you’ll have to walk through dog shit to get to it.  Unless you come out here ready to pay 1500 dollars per month for the bare minimum of decent apartments and the fees that go with that luxury, you’re going to be roughing it.

I’m talking about the worst of the worst and you can prepare for your arrival if you make the following assumptions:

• I will be paying over 600 dollars for the privilege of living in a 10′ by 10′ room with a sink that’s suppose to be my kitchen.
• I will be paying extra for the  privilege of not parking on the street (if I’m lucky)
• I will see trash and piss, and dog shit on the sidewalk because the people around me do not care.
• My neighbors will make excessive hammer like noises at night even though I go out of my way to be quiet for them.
• Repeatedly through the day, I will hear grocery trucks honking for my attention as they sell their stale produce
• I will hear the snow cone vendor squeeze an ear bleeding clown horn three times a day and wonder why I moved here. Oh yeah, because I wanted to save a little money on rent.

I sound bitter for moving.  It comes in waves because coupled with the bitterness is the sadness from missing my friends in Texas.  But I know with absolute certainty I made the right choice. The networking choices out here are in the thousands, and I’m not exaggerating. There are a million ways to make yourself known out here.  Just a day or so ago some fellow writers walked right up to Matthew McConaughey on set, said they had something they wanted to send and he handed them a business card. That doesn’t happen in Kansas folks.

I guess the main point I’m trying to make (ah, the banging has started up again next door), be PREPARED to be underwelmed by humanity here. Everyone is in their own world and it’s easy to become a pod person. Hang on to what matters, save up a GOB of money and make the move because you can’t network face to face in the styx.*

*I’m not comparing my former hood of Dallas to a small town where networking doesn’t occur. It does, just on a smaller scale.  God, I miss the down home welcoming feel of Dallas, and peace and quiet of the burbs.  I have to use earplugs to get that silence here.

First a sale, now an impending  interview for a feature ghost writing position.   So this amazing feeling I read about from others is due to five long ass years of hard work?  I’m taking it all in quite well. As a skeptic however, I never truly let go and celebrate. The universe can take anything back whenever it feels like it. So be proud of your successes, but don’t let them go to your head. The rug is always there to trip you up.

You are reading the words of a screenwriter who has just sold their first feature.  The story is great, the production company is shaping up to be fabulous, and we’re all putting in 110% to make it happen. I can’t wait to get to work on it.

More Details Soon.

This week I participated in request for films to be included for Film Courage Interactive in Los Angeles and pushed with all my heart for the inclusion of an independent film currently without distribution.  Film Courage Interactive chose the film and it made me feel awesome to know I helped make that connection happen. I wish the filmmakers, Joseph and Andrew of  The Mother of Invention great success, because your film deserves it.

All of this was made possible by the Filmakers, Film Courage Interactive (Karen Worden and David Branin), Facebook and Youtube…oh and my meddling keyboard.  Without these social media constructs bridging the gap, the two might never have connected.

The internet brings filmmakers together like no other previous system could.

Giant studios are no longer the only road to success for filmmakers.

Filmmakers simply let the material stand up on its own in an arena judged by the user of the content…you.

Here’s a link to the EVENT itself, which includes interviews with the filmmakers after the screening!

Faith.

You need it but where do you find it?

Every screenwriter needs faith, whether it’s in themselves or in their deity to get them through rough patches. Solid ground isn’t always available and I find myself hopping from one sand dune to the next, hoping it won’t swallow me up for the rest of history to come.

I find my faith in personal experience and a higher being. Experience is my tangible concept that allows me to trust my instincts and continue forward or step back, and the higher being…well let’s just say I know they’re there, but I’m not sure I’d fall backwards to find out. They’re like a net holding my faith around me like a force field making sure it doesn’t escape.

What does all this refer to? I have several irons in the fire, and my coals feel like their getting cold. It’s time to stoke or get the pail of water.

I could use faith and continue on, or I could read the warning signs and just let the fire go out.

In 1994, I took a leap of faith in myself and moved to the soul crushing state of California. The promise I made to myself post graduation is that I would not waste my theatre degrees on any fast food restaurant employment. That promise paid off after a summer of unemployment and I found myself quickly on my way to becoming a family member of South Coast Repertory for the next five years.

Secretly I have always wanted to make films, but you do what you have to do to get to do what you want to do.  My university didn’t have a film “making” degree, only a film history, so I stuck with theatre for the experience that would set up the rest of my life. It was probably a good choice because theatre is so much more visceral than film making. You’re IN it, live and uncensored. Don’t get me wrong, I prefer the film media when it comes to creation, but nothing beats seeing the real tears of an actor fall on to a black floor in that final monologue that will cinch together the last two hours of story telling.

I’m not sure I have a point with this post, other than to say that while I felt kicked out by Los Angeles in 2003, I am giving it the finger and coming back.  That city is the hub of my chosen career, and like it or not, LA has to take me back.  Screw all of your chintzy little crime makers that break into poor filmmaker’s cars to steal fifty cents. And screw the lying producers of a film that said we’d rather stop filming than go union and give the crew health care. And finally,  screw you Hollywood sign that no one but those who do not fear being arrested can visit.  I’m coming back with a vengeance.

I will miss my family and my friends here in Dallas, but the nose must follow the work. I have had some good responses from a big agency and my scripts are being thrown about by  my hard working manager. LA is where it all condenses into one gigantic melting pot of creation, so that’s where I will go.  Also, possible work lies ahead with a company I won’t mention because I don’t think they’re ready to go public, but if they do, BAM! watch out…because they’re going to steamroll a few media companies down with their concept.

So Los Angeles, I bid you hello and… Suck it, I’m on my way back.

My producer is researching distribution companies right now. I’m adding the press kit for the screenplay/project here to make it available online.  If you want the version with 10 pages from the script included, please contact me.  [Press Kit – Dear Diary]