ALLIGATORS IN A HELICOPTER

a pro script reader ponders movies, reading, writing and the occasional personal flashback

Thursday, August 16, 2007

New Year's In August

Consecutive days writing at least one hour: 4, counting today.

The whole writing-every-day thing works. I know that it's an obvious thing, something that everyone always talks about, but how many people have actually tried to string together a lot of days?

I'm going to try to do at least 100 straight. That'll take me up until the day before Thanksgiving, when we may be going on vacation anyway. Kismet.

Maybe I'll even write on Thanksgiving, before the tryptophan kicks in.

The great thing about writing every day is that not only to the pages pile up, but that a script is like a camel -- it's easier to keep it moving once it is moving, than to constantly be trying to rouse it from a nap.

One for the Bedouin writers out there.

The first three days were hour-on-the-laptop days, and much progress was made. Today I just curled up with a pad of paper in Starbucks for over an hour, and just brainstormed where the rest is going.

The Starbucks district manager came in to have a meeting, and set up camp near me. I moved over one table to give them some space/chairs, and they rewarded me with a free pound of expensive coffee.

You may call it hooking me on the good stuff. I call it kismet.

So I'm determined to keep this writing-an-hour-every-day resolution going, and it occurred to me that resolutions shouldn't just be limited to New Year's, that any day is a good day to rededicate yourself to what you need to do to get where you want to be.

So I made a second resolution. My blood sugar has been creeping up with my weight, and it's time to get them both down.

So I spent 30 minutes on the treadmill today, and then swam for a while. I live in a complex with a gym and a pool -- sort of a tradeoff for living in the exact hottest spot in LA County.

(Woodland Hills. Next time they put up a weather map, look for it. I guarantee that's where the triple digits are).

I'm going to try to eat better -- not that I've been eating terribly, but there's room to eat less crap and less in general. So no fair plying me with cookies if you see me. Okay. Maybe one.

Resolutions. They're not just for January any more.

9 Comments:

At 5:44 PM, Blogger Fun Joel said...

Congrats on the progress! Keep it up. I rejoined a gym a week or two ago, and though I'm not going THAT frequently yet, I'm still going more than I have been. And after feeling "off" all weekend last week, I decided that this week was going to be one for healthier eating as well. So we're in much the same boat here, brother.

 
At 5:54 PM, Blogger Patrick J. Rodio said...

The gym thing works, I go there to get some raquetball in mainly. Mine has a pool to but it's unsually infested with really old people, so I skip it.

 
At 7:32 PM, Blogger E.C. Henry said...

Scott, glad to hear the hour a day thing is catching on with you, I TRY to adhere to that, but I look forward to what I call "binge" writting even more. When it's going well I love it when I can write like 4 - 6 hours straight, usually on a Saturday.

Today at work, durring my half an hour lunch, I tried to stay in the zone by drawing a picture of the scene I just wrote. You should have seen the eyes of the warehouse worker sitting next to me when he saw what I was drawing. He looked at me like I was straight out of the zoo!

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

 
At 9:09 PM, Blogger Dante Kleinberg said...

Hottest spot? Feh!

It's been over 100 degrees every day on the border twixt Tarzana Reseda for a week...

 
At 11:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll give you a week on the treadmill before you give it away, and that is being generous!

 
At 11:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You like to use the word "kismet". And E.C. Henry, you're a crazy bastard. I love reading your posts.

 
At 6:13 AM, Blogger Thomas Crymes said...

I think I can save you a bunch of time. Write while on the treadmill. Two birds with one stone. You can spend the extra time not eating sugar.

 
At 6:41 AM, Blogger japhy99 said...

Go man, go. You and Rodio both.

That's it. If we don't have the baby tonight or tomorrow, I'm getting back on my bike in the morning for a long ride, then writing all during the two-year-old's nap time.

 
At 10:15 AM, Blogger Team Brindle said...

I try for an hour every day too. I say *TRY*... sometimes it's very difficult. Keeping the momentum going has always been a problem of mine.

Right now, building a house gets in the way.

If i can't get any words down, i at least read over the old material or brainstorm new ideas, just so i don't feel like a complete turd.

I grew up in Canoga Park. My Nor Cal-raised hub couldn't stand the heat so we moved.

 

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