Day 1 - Still Gearing Up

I've always steered away from writing at home. I can never focus. So I tend to take off when it's time to write. I don't know if that's because if you have to get up, leave your house, travel, readjust yourself some place new, and stay there for a while to justify the trip you're more likely to work. Or if it's just a procrastination technique. Dicey.

I'm trying to get over that. Partially because I'm trying to maximize my productivity. Partially because I already spend too much on tea at coffee shops. Previous to this day, the desk in my room has primarily been storage. I really don't have any space in my room, so I tend to toss things like mail, books, and magazines onto my desk. Anything that needs to find a permanent space in my room makes a "temporary" stop at my desk. But today I decided that my desk needed to stop being storage and start being a creative space. So, at the risk of looking like a complete disaster, I'm going to show you before and after pictures.


Ok, so on my desk we had my diploma (seriously, you'd think I'd take better care of that thing. I guess at this point I was just lucky it was in a frame.), birthday gifts, apology notes my second graders wrote me after a particularly bad recess, a Script magazine, and that book about screenwriters that I'll probably never read. All things that are waiting for a permanent spot in my room. I feel like it's like my house's equivalent of the Island of Misfit Toys. Well, I cleaned house, and here's what we ended up with --


My desk still has stuff on it, but it's definitely more organized. The stack by my computer is all notebooks, screenplay pages, and legal pads. Sometimes I can be very productive. The pictures I put up are just because I think I'll be more productive if I can converse with real Hollywood types. Ok, I'm not that far gone yet. I'm trying to play on my visual side. The pictures are the actors I could see playing the characters I write (I know, there are huge debates about writing for a specific actor. I'm really going for physical similarities.). The pictures under the cork board are for my tv pilot, and the pictures beside the Empire poster are for Keys to the Garden. And look, I got my diploma up.

I worked at my refurbished desk today. I didn't do much (so creatively drained from redecorating), but I think the changes will actually encourage working at home. I read through the first half of Keys to the Garden and took some notes. Before I can really get to rewriting, I need to refamiliarize myself with this story. It's been about 9 months since I finished the first draft. There are some choices I made that I'm hazing on what my thought process was. On one hand, this makes me nervous. How out of touch with my story am I? On the other hand, if I can't remember my reasoning or motivation for a certain choice, than maybe it wasn't a strong one. Maybe my eyes will be more analytical and objective. Altogether, tackling this second draft is a daunting task. I've only done a rewrite this extensive on a full length piece once, and that was for our rewrite class at Michigan. This time, instead of having a full class of peers, an easily accesible professor, and a course syllabus, I have a handful of notes given to me about a year ago, half of which will probably become irrelevant once I complete the deep structural changes. It reminds me of this Sorkin quote --

"It says...'I'm not your agent, and I'm not your mommy. I'm a white piece of paper, you want to dance with me?' And I really, really don't."

Somehow, I think he manages to conquer his reluctance anyway.