Write Well Everywhere You Go.

I had really productive plans for this morning. I was going to mount some shelves with E. my flatmate, do laundry, and make awesome delicious pancakes with butterscotch chips and walnuts and bananas! Well, now it's 1:00, and I'm just finishing my pancakes. I did do everything I wanted, I was just sidetracked by my computer going on strike. See, I hate deleting files off my computer. And, well, it's sort of cluttered in here. And I ran out of space. I couldn't even save files anymore. I have an external hard drive that has a complete back up copy of my computer. Still, I don't like deleting anything. But I spent some time combing through my folders, carefully deleting things I knew I'd never need again, just so I could have a little space to save the current draft of The Garden.

Scott Smith from Screenwriting from Iowa gave me a shout out on his blog, which was very nice. I like the screenwriting community outside of LA, and Scott is very encouraging to the writers who write outside of Hollywood. He referenced my "Spec Scripts and Powerball," giving his own input on the spec script market. I've been thinking more about this fairly well propagated theory that the spec market is dead, that hoping to sell a spec is a more vain wish than hoping to win the lottery. But really, I've decided, it's not analogous. Winning the lottery depends solely on luck, whereas there are numerous factors involved in selling a spec script, chiefly of those, how good your script is. It doesn't matter how brilliant your lottery ticket is--you have the same chance as anyone else of winning. But if you have a terrific script, your odds are terrifically better than everyone else's.

And so it all comes back to the same thing--write a great script.

I've been watching Detroit 187 while writing this post. And it's been hard to multitask. If you haven't seen this show, you need to start. Not only is it a great procedural, but the characters are wonderful. Here's the thing--The Event's been taking the criticism of being a weird hybrid of Lost and 24 and turning it into a promotional tactic. You think a show that's a cross between Lost and 24 would be great, right? I DVRed The Event. I meant to watch the second episode. But I haven't. Because quite frankly, there's not much character there. But on Detroit 187--a procedural show--there's a moment from last night's show with Fitch and Sanchez that'll make your heart bleed. That's good writing.