What're they up to this week?

I've decided to spec Two and a Half Men. Not because I think I'll do it justice, but simply because I want to. At least I'll have fun shoveling shit--assuming that's all that comes out of the exercise. Obviously I'm not setting out to create crap, but, at this point, I have no illusions about being any kind of adult prodigy (if there is such a thing).


As I'm thinking about what I want my spec to be about, it occurs to me that it's a lot harder to write in the framework of characters lives but still be fresh, funny, and interesting week to week. Most shows on TV, especially sitcoms, feature characters that never really do anything major, and whom always end up exactly the same at the end of each episode.

There are books which will tell you all about this. I'll boil it down for you: people like to see the same thing week to week because it's like comfort food. Most people like to eat one or two different kinds of ice cream or junk food whenever they're in the mood for it; it's the same way with anything/everything else--TV, movies, books, whatever. People like the same ole. Oh, we all play lip service to the pleasures of "variety" but ultimately it isn't variety (for the most part) that makes us happy.

There's an additional component that makes sitcom rely heavily on characters rarely, if at all, changing. In life we're all basically the same year to year, day by day. It's frustrating to always forget where the hell you put your keys, but no matter how hard you try, most of the ways you are become set in concrete after a certain time. If you ever do change it is very slowly, and only by working very hard at it. TV, more than most story mediums reflects this aspect of reality. Think about it: did Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey, or Pheobe really change that much over many years that Friends was on the air? Not really. Not at all. They were essentially the same people at the end as they were in the beginning. Yet we stayed with them for ten years, breathlessly anticipating each weeks adventures in the land of Friends.

Two and a Half Men is no exception--or at least it shouldn't be. Alan, Jake, and Charlie really haven't changed much if any. Jake is only growing up physically, not really internally.

Keeping all this in mind, it becomes apparent why so many of the Friends episodes were entitled simply "The One Where Ross Likes Bananas" (or whatever). Since your characters cannot change that much, or effectively at all, in the course of an episode, your story must really be about nothing major. Or, if it's a major subject, it must be handled in a minor way. If someone's died, you have to make it no more important than Alan taking up bowling to meet chicks. You can't have anyone (at least in the core cast) coming to any really big life realizations. The fact that Two and a Half Men is already starting to head this direction (in the finale of the 4th season) gives me the impression that the show may be near the end of it's lifespan. Perhaps the showrunners are tired of the show, running out of steam, or some such.

Regardless, for the purposes of my spec, I have to come up with something minor which I can make a big deal about but which won't change any character's life, or something major which I can make light up and avoid changing a character's life.

I have to put myself in my characters POV, drop into their lives, and voyeuristically get a peak at what they're up to this week; something trite, meaningless, irrelevant overall...like a new pet or a hygiene problem.

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Me

Me.

I, too, don't want to write today

For the inspiration behind my post, look over here.



I, too, often don't feel like writing; it's not--as the author of that other blog post mentions--something that I can't live without. I'm another person who wants to write, who adores having written, who thinks about writing and ideas and character more than I think of anything else, and I've even written some significant things (five feature screenplays, three shorts, 10k words of a novel...); but I am still not a person who can't imagine a day without writing. Like the guy at Indecorous, I struggle, daily, with writing. For me it's hard. I believe I'm talented, and I believe I can write some pretty entertaining stuff, but that doesn't make it any easier for me.



Writing is what I want to do though. For no apparent reason it's the only thing that really appeals to me. Is this because I'm masochistic--maybe just a little bit? Is this because it is my "calling" which I'm expected to excavate and develop one tedious step at a time? I don't know. All I know is that of all my talents and skills (I programmed for a while and was considered "brilliant" at it, I can sing, I can play the violin and guitar, and so on) writing is the one that has never gone away. I'm 29 now, so it's had more than enough opportunities.



I'm also at the point in life where I feel like I should be doing something "real." I feel like I should be buckling down and maybe getting a college degree. It's a thought. But then I remember that I've tried college once...no, twice. Or was it three times? Yeaaaah, I think it was. Scratch that idea. Whenever I try to bring myself to do anything else, I feel a sense of nausea. In addition to the overwhelming urge to hurl, I also procrastinate the other things I try to bring myself to do. Procrastination by itself isn't a sign I shouldn't be doing X, I suppose, since I also procrastinate writing, but with everything else when I honestly think about how I feel about it, I feel bored. Lifeless. Dead. The prospective of doing anything else bores me to tears and makes me feel sick.



Life, for me, most involve writing in some capacity. That much is obvious. Am I abnormal in that writing is hard for me, but it's what I want to do? Or is that far more normal than those who claim to enjoy every moment writing?



I've decided that my "problem" is one of lack of focus. While it runs counter to my nature to focus on one thing entirely, I think it just might be what I need to begin realizing my potential. Oh, there are books which suggest that YOU CAN DO EVERYTHING (!) you want to do (e.g., Refuse to Choose). I think such books are bullshit. Why? Because one looks at what we know about those who achieve, one finds that they did it by focusing almost exclusively on ONE area of interest.



More relevantly, I've tried balancing all my plethora of interests. I've tried cultivating my drawing skills, tried studying Spanish, tried practicing music every day, tried learning to program in other languages, tried learning to be a medical transcriptionist; none of my trying did me an ounce of good.



Next I'm going to try focusing. I'm going to be hardcore about it, too. I'm going to restrict 95% of my online blog reading to those blogs which focus on writing--and, more particularly, TV writing since that's what I want to do. I'm going to forgive myself for not tapping my potential in other areas. This will be harder than it sounds. My parents have always given me a very hard time (withholding financial assistance in times of need) for not "finishing anything." This approach will give them more ammunition for the next time I need their help. Hopefully I'll never need their help again. When I was down and out after my divorce, broke, and in shock after being "diagnosed" with Bipolar II (even though that diagnosis later proved to be completely bogus), they took me in and paid for me to take an online course in medical transcription. Medical transcription pays decent, and it was a nice thing of them to do, but I hated the course. It was 100% memorization. Then, once you finish the memorization part, you get into the transcription part which suddenly expects you to have a working knowledge of terms and be able to distinguish one from another in a string of gobbledygook spoken by a doctor with an impenetrable Indian accent.



They probably won't see it this way, but paying for that course was worthwhile. Yes, it didn't give me the "skill" they were hoping it would, but it helped me to regain my footing. It's nice knowing others believe in you, support you, and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.



I'm gonna forgive myself for wasting their gift; and I'm gonna forgive myself for not learning and doing everything else I wanted to. I'm going to wrap up the few projects I agreed to do which are in other categories of interest (like the one for my sister programming a website for her). Once those projects are wrapped up, I'm simply not going to accept any more projects like them. It's not fair to myself to burden myself with all kinds of other crap which I don't, really, ultimately, want to do. If it doesn't fit with my core driving motativation (writing) then I won't do it.



Becoming a professional writer is difficult enough without diluting my time, energy, and focus on other things which are demanding all by themselves.



Maybe if I am successful in focusing my life--in making my life all about writing--then maybe I'll discover one morning that I actually can't wait to write, and can't imagine a day without writing.



Or I won't; either way I'll still end up one hell of a writer.

Perhaps the best fit is TV

I can write "long form"--though putting fiction or non-fiction in such a context bores me to death--I just don't like to.



I don't enjoy just how steeped in all the details a writer has to be when crafting novels or anything over 60 pages single spaced. When I realized that, and added into the equation my love of movies, it was obvious that screenwriting was a far better fit for me.



However, as I've written screenplays, I've found myself unhappy with some of the specifics of feature screenwriting. While it demands a much greater brevity--which I like--and is far more visual--yet another good thing--it tends to be a lot of work for a two hour shot of characters I love, in a world I've worked hard to create.



Enter screen left: TV writing. Writing for TV requires the brevity of feature screenwriting, but it allows a writer to spend a LOT more time with the characters he loves, in the world he's worked so hard to create.



The odds of success are no better than they are for any other kind of writing, but odds rarely expose why they are what they are. Like the saying goes, "in Hollywood no one ever fails, they just give up." To me I read that as meaning that if you refuse to accept defeat, you'll eventually succeed. Granted, while I think that you need unrelenting determination to succeed, I also think you need at least one of the following: passion, talent, or skill. Skill is not to be confused with talent. Skill is the ability that some have to create by the book. Those who have skill but no talent lack the nuance and finesse that those with talent supply, but they can get the job done.



So the question now is, what do I have? Do I have passion, unrelenting determination, skill, and/or talent? I don't know right now. I guess we'll discover what I have as the future unfolds.



I remember reading, somewhere, that the whole "life must be balanced" idea is a myth; that everyone who ever accomplished much of anything only did so by NOT being balanced at all. In every case of accomplishment and success, those who have achieved have done so by focusing almost to a fanatical level on their area of interest or expertise. Einstein didn't become Einstein by trying to be a balanced person: learning equal amounts of various subjects and trying to juggle multiple passions and interests. As far as I know, Einstein became Einstein by focusing on his area of interest in science 100%. His focus was all-consuming.



What I've read about those who are successful artistically suggests the same thing. Those who are successful in TV or film don't spend much time playing XBox, or traveling (strictly for fun), or watching tons of TV (unless it's essentially for "work"), or playing sports, or being very well-rounded. Sure, they might play lip-service to the concept, but most of them have become so successful because they fought for their dream with such passion that it excluded the possibility of having the normal American lifestyle (watch TV 8 hours a day, work 8 hours a day, sleep 8 hours a day). They might struggle to have a relatively healthy family life in addition to their work in TV or film. But, somehow, most of them are satisfied. Most seem to feel that what they do is meaningful; that deep down part of themselves that yearns to live a purposeful life is at peace doing what they do.



What that in mind I've tried to become more focused. I've started caring less about being a "balanced" person, and started caring more about being a person completely focused on writing--and, more specifically, TV writing. I'm trying to get to the point where 95% of everything I do online is directly related to writing. Allowable activities are reading other writers on-topic blogs, research, and the like. I'm rereading those screenwriting books I've already read, and reading new ones. I've bought books on the art and craft of TV writing, and am studying them intently. I'm watching TV shows that I really enjoy--because those are the shows that I'll be specing.



I'm trying to cut the fat out of my life and get toned in my approach to doing this: to making a career as a TV writer a reality.



Yesterday I watched and broke down the pilot for Two and a Half Men.



Today I watched the second episode, and then the last episode of the most recent season (the 3rd, which just wrapped up). Today I was looking to see how the tone, characters, and scope of the show had evolved.



Tomorrow I'll look for more clues as to where the show is now, and where it might be heading.



Perhaps the next day I'll have a great idea for a spec and start breaking it down.



If I truly care about doing this, and give it everything I've got then even long odds won't ultimately stop me.



And that is why I've named this blog The Relentless Writer; because I think that being relentless is perhaps the most essential ingredient of success: mine, yours, anyone's.

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