We’re (Finally) Done Procrastinating!
First, aslkjfdl;sdkjf sorry for not blogging consistently, my loyal readers :'( I’ve been super busy this past week organizing March for Our Lives San Jose’s Rally for Change that happened just yesterday! I don’t have too many pictures because I was running around the whole day (and got to use walkie talkies!!) BUT enjoy this one (1) picture of me shaking Anna Eshoo’s hand!
BONUS:
Here’s one of the lead coordinators, Ben, getting a big ol’ smooch from Anna Eshoo, featuring all of our horrified reactions:
To further make up for my lack of blogging, here’s my advisor’s cat, Anastasia (Ah-nuh-stah-see-uh) trying to do yoga!
Now to get to the real reason why you’re here: I’m ready to start writing (again)! I’ve been procrastinating writing my pilot for quite a while now because I hated my first one (and all it’s subsequent versions) so much and was afraid of writing something bad again. But after working on my characters for weeks now, I finally feel like I understand their voices now; I can hear them saying their lines and can instantly pinpoint if a line of dialogue is something they would say. Moreover, I’ve completely re-written the pilot so instead of having Elizabeth talking directly into the camera describing all her family members, I’ve thrown the family into their worst nightmare: Jane getting left at the altar (*gasp*) Viewers will be able to get a feel for who the characters are without having one of them specifically telling them, “HEY MY SISTER JANE IS VERY NICE. MY SISTER MARY HAS NO PERSONALITY. MY MOM IS CRAZY.” I personally love this new story (of course I would, I wrote it.) and am very excited to get writing! You can read the outline below!
This past week, I also had the opportunity to speak to screenwriter Lex Edness who is currently working on ‘Dirty John’! My objective when talking to Lex was to get a second opinion and advice from another talented and successful screenwriter for my work. I showed Lex my earlier pilots and ‘Episode 2’ script, bible, character sheets, and updated pilot outline. His main advice was to keep the writing tight. The good part of sitcoms is that it’s 22 minutes long, but the bad news is that it’s 22 minutes long, meaning that every scene needs to be absolutely critical to the plot. Unlike Joe Wright’s adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, I can’t keep scenes for their aesthetic or comedy; the plot needs to be affected by each scene. And while you might think that’s a simple ask, it’s heartbreaking cutting lines that I find funny and I want to include as many funny lines as I can!
Whining aside, I think I’m more ready than ever to start writing a good pilot. Tune in for next week’s blog post (who knows when that’ll be?! Not me!) to get a preview of my pilot!
This week I’ve been listening to Billie Eilish’s new album, specifically the song ‘bad guy’. The song is in her typical creepy-yet-a-bop style and I love struggling to sing it in the shower 🙂
In addition to listening to Billie’s new music, I’ve also binged all of ‘The Haunting of Hill House,’ which is addictively terrifying. The ghosts, of which there are a lot, and the house may seem like the focal point of the story, but it’s actually one about the Crain family. That being said, I’ve lost count of the number of times I woke up terrified the Bent-Neck Lady was watching me. I highly recommend it!
