Progress for me is normally swan-like; gentle forward motion on the surface as a result of mad pedalling below the surface.
Now I seem to be inverted. Lots of very visible pedalling accompanied by lots of splashing. Why? Trying to do too many things at once.
I’ve still got to finish editing The Novel. That needs a home on somebody’s slush pile because as sure as eggs are hard-shelled zygotes it ain’t going to magically turn inself into a bound volume on the shelf of Borders any other way.
Question: should I go straight to a publisher, a smart forward-thinking one like Snowbooks? Or find an agent? If I go play hunt the agent should I find one that does scripts and novels? Does such a beast exist?
Meanwhile I’m preparing a script for submission to writersroom. But I need to add all the stuff that goes with it such as character backgrounds, synopses, bribes. (Ha ha, joke, honest)
At the same time I’m PO3ing someone else’s script. Got the notes, need to write them up.
Simultaneously I am scripting the feature-length drama idea that I had before Christmas. It’s got cake zombies. I really want to get to the bit with the cake zombies.
In parallel to that I’m working on the sitcom idea that came about as a result of Michelle Lipton and I challenging ourselves to see how many pages of script we could write before the Red Planet results are announced.
Concurrent to these activities I’m trying to make a start on the supernatural thriller drama series concept thing that struck me like an Acme anvil a couple of weeks ago.
Besides all that nonsense I’ve got a pile of tasks in a Wait State that are seeing no progress at all: the short film, for example. It’s not the utter absence of film-making experience that’s preventing me from, well, making a film. Never let ignorance be a barrier to failing magnificently, that’s what I always say. No, it’s just a matter of Not Enough Time. Well, let’s put a positive spin on this one – at least I managed to deprioritise something.
Like we often say in the IT world, high frequency task switching across a high volume of similarly prioritised process-intensive threads in a single CPU environment will result in disproportionate performance degradation.
Translated: stop pissing about and focus.
Let this be a warning. Trying to do everything at once can invert your swan.
