Back Away from the Chaos!

Wear your favorite pink dress for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  You have a few more days.











LET THEM SEE YOUR SWEAT?

...If it seems slow, do not despair, for those things will surely come to pass. Just be patient! They will not be overdue a single day! Habakkuk 2:3 - The Old Testament




A producer friend told me that once you make a networking contact don't let too much time pass before you follow up.  This was sage advice, of course I didn't initially follow it.  Believe me, I've learned my lesson.   Now that I see a flicker of light at the end of my tunnel, no longer a rabbit hole... I won't make that mistake again.   (running woman)

If I'm going to write for a television show and have my book in production in a year, I have to make it so.  

Let it never be said that Joan B. Average doesn't learn from her mistakes.  Okay, I still wear plaid with stripes, but most mistakes I'm a quick learner.


You're probably still wondering what I meant by let them see your sweat.  I'm not suggesting you forego baths and Lady Speedstick. (please don't)  I'm talking about the fruits of your labor.  Producers, agents and all other gatekeepers want to see your efforts in quadruple form.  One or two scripts simply won't cut it. 

(ABC - Ugly Betty)

(Tyler Perry's Daddy's Little Girls)

As I toil in three different... no, four different areas, I'm a little overwhelmed... scratch that... a lot overwhelmed. 

I wish I can concentrate on one project at a time, but like so many writers who work nine-to-five while writing that novel or script -- I must also toil at freelance gigs with fierce discipline.  I like to call them  independent writing gigs rather than freelance, because nobody's giving their work away for free, so why should writers be any different.  I'll spare you my rant and save that topic for a future post. 

(Three women at computer)

As a writer, you often feel like your feet are stuck in mud and you move this way and that way, but you're still in the same place, a year later.  Not a good feeling.  So, what's a girl to do?  Pray.  Always.  And...?  Keep writing.  Keep Reading.  Keep talking up what you do, whether you get the "glazed-over look or not."   And write a plan.  No, not a business plan... well maybe that's the way we should look at it... as a business plan, because writing is a crazy, competitive business.

(NYC)
My producer friend told me about a friend of a frend she referred to a TV exec  halfway up the entertainment food chain.  He contacted her not once, not twice... but three times with the same one script. 

Sorry to say, she read him the riot act and told him she needed to see that he had penned no less than five television spec scripts more than three spec features, a pilot treatment and one or two scripts for that pilot before she'd think about talking to him again.   Ouch!  In other words, she wanted to see his sweat.  Ah, you liked how I worked that into my story?   I do what I can.

(I Love Lucy)

In the frantic world of book publishing, it makes since to start writing your second book as soon as you write "The End" on the first.  I didn't know it at that writing stage, but three books immediately unfolded in my novel I turned into a family saga.  When I was done writing, I had a whopping 1,100 pages of manuscript.  I am not kidding  Whoa! 

I realized as I read the engaging monstrosity, that the story fell neatly into three books.  As I see it, I'm already ahead of the game.  Hopefully, my dream publisher will see that too and whip out a contract with a Mont Blanc pen poised in the coming months.  I'm in the final editing stages as I take a break to talk to all of you.

I didn't have a plan when I decided to write a novel, but my sweat led to a plan that I hope will become profitable.  This family saga sprouted from the seed of a novel, and now there are shoots growing into a young adult series and a television pilot.  Who knew?  

Of course, the  decision to do a YA series' spin came after a visit to my local Barnes and Noble almost sent me screaming out the door with nightmares. 
(Books)

Will you enlighten me... when did young adult fiction take a walk on the dark side?  Did somebody forget to hug the writers or what?  What happened to Sweet Valley, 18 Pine Street, The Cheetah Girls, Sunset Beach and my girl... Nancy Drew solving her whodunits.  I'm sure The Cheetah Girls are still around, but I couldn't find them with my eyes half-closed.  Don't Generation Y like a mystery that doesn't involve a serial slasher? 

I guess not, because that day... vampire teens, children of serial killers... and other gruesome covers stared back at me.  I'm getting queasy just thinking about them. 

Look, I know times have changed, but can we still take a trip to happy land now and then?

(Dancing with the Stars)

I do love my visits to Happy Land, but I always return back home to the real world.  I know that order, not chaos will give my dreams of a book jacket and movie credit a fighting chance. 

So again... we start with a plan.  Call me prophetic, but I know what you're thinking, us creative folks don't need no stinking business plan.  Uh, yes we do, if we don't want to stink as a writer. 

Come on... there's a seat for you at the grownups table.  Now let's see abut that creative business plan.  Does that sound better?  I thought so.

Now that we're at the grownups table, let's look at wikipedia's definition of a business plan for inspiration.  You know how we love to begin with inspiration, even Average Joans and Joes.

(Busiiness Plans)

Wikipedia
A business plan is a formal statement of a set of buisness goals, the reason why they are believed attainable and the plan for reaching those goals.  It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach these goals.

Wake up... there's more...

Business Plan Content
1. Background Information
What do you bring to the literary, broadcast, cinematic or dramatic table?

2. Marketing Plan
How will you market yourself as a professional writer?  How will you get your creative project to the decision-makers?  No, a singing telegram is not what we have in mind.

3. Operational Plan
Devise a writing and research schedule and stick to it... like the mail person and that rain or shine mantra.

4. Financial Plan
Write down funding plan, funding needs, cash flow statement.
How will you upgrade your equipment?  Find the cash flow to enter contests, attend writing conferences, join organizations...?

With that said, back away from the chaos, embrace order and productivity.  And have a plan and make it plain.  Happy hunting!

Miracles and Blessings!

P.S. -- Check out iCafe Woman Moderne's,
The Little Pink Dress Designed for a Cure

Lifetime Television, Not Your Mama's Television

Lifetime Television... not Your Mama's Television Network... It's Drop Dead Better!

What... too kitchy?  Well call me Kitchy Kia... how could I resist giving you a teaser? 

Drop Dead Diva, Army Wives, the return of Rita Rocks! and a new original sitcom, Sherri -- sent me back to the "strong women's"  network during primetime television-watching hours.

But first, a brief word not from our sponsor... "Got Mammogram?  Make sure you get your mammogram and do monthly self-exams.  Early detection saves lives. 

After four benign breast biopsies before my diagnosis of fibrocystic breasts... every day became breast cancer awareness and a blessing... so stay informed.  And never stop praying for a cure.

Now, back to Joan B. Average, Scriptwriter... an Average Joan's adventures into the creative world of possibilities.

Well, I guess you've figured it out... my Spec Script Do It Now! list include My Lifetime faves topping it.  Okay, if we're being truthful here, Lifetime was my weekend network with some early evening reality show viewing on a few Mondays through Fridays. 

I love Lifetime movies, but sitcoms and episodics were never a thought.  Can you say syndication... re-run city?  That is... until, Army Wives tore off our safe knee socks and helped us step into daring fishnets.  Louise Jefferson and Carol Brady would be so proud. 

I would love to see Samantha Who? wake up from the sleep-induced coma ABC must have administered, because it's not in the Fall line-up and it should be. 

There's nothing about the show that puts me to sleep.  And this from an Average Joan who initially vowed not to watch it.  (I still squint and focus on the left side of the show's title.)

I would love to see Samantha Who? wake up on Lifetime right after Sherri and Rita Rocks!  How many more Reba reruns can we stomach without an ache?

Getting back to drop dead diva... I'm digging the concept of a Price is Right model wannabe slash diva
-- transforming into an Average Joan who catapulted herself back to diva status. Her-rah!
(left - Kate Spade - Loupe)

Yes, there's a but.  I would've preferred she never died.  I'm pretty sure she could've changed her life without dying and her spirit taking a nose-dive back to earth.  Spiritually, I do not compute.  But, there's nothing God can't do.  It's so up to Him. 

I love drop dead diva.  What's great is that there are so many messages about society's fixation on youth and beauty that speaks volumes on the show.  So, renewed minds can't help but happen... right?  I'm all over that!

But you won't find my Diva definition in any Merriam Webster's.   For me, Diva is a strong woman... a survivor.  She takes life's lemonades, add some Kiwis and sweet cream... whirl it into a frappuccino with extra whipped cream and a blackberry on top.  Yes, a weird combination that still goes down sweet.  Yum!

Now I understand the reason for the sudden crop of hospital shows from the nurse's perspective rather than the usual doctor's.  

Jada Pinkett-Smith's HawthoRNe raised the bar and kept me glued to TNT on Tuesday nights from 9 to 10 p.m.  Unfortunately, I ditch the network after next week's preview ends and head for my computer.  Those spec scripts don't write themselves.

And what is there for a Seinfeld fan to say about The Adventures of Old Christine?  Other than, can Elaine Benes come back out to play? 

But the bigger question is... who nominated Old Christine for an Emmy?  I must need a new prescription for my glasses.  The acting talent is there... the writing... not so much. 

Dear Network TV,

I know it's a hard pill to swallow, but Cable television has leveled the playing field.  They now have the ball and maybe even the court. 

Oh yeah, you still make those amazing three-pointer shots, but at least now you know there's room on the court for anyone creating innnovative television shows with an ethnic compass and a conscious.

Watch out agents and producers, get plenty of rest and take your vitamins because this Average Joan scribe and others have jumped on the spec script bandwagon and we're taking it up a notch. Bam!  (Thanks Emeril)  World... get ready to reap the happy rewards.   

Of course, I can't close without giving a big thanks to yesterday's trailblazing scribes.  Without your fearlessness, today's innovative shows may have stayed inside the minds of dreamers.  Thanks for daring to dream and dreaming it into reality.

(Below - Cosby Show) (The Dick Van Dyke Show)

What are your thoughts about the 2009 Fall line-up?  Are you loving the new Cougar network show starring Courtney Cox? Are you hanging out in Cable-land a little more?

Give me your 411 on this season's sitcoms and episodics. 

Miracles and Blessing!

P.S. - You'll also find Joan B. Average, Scriptwriter hanging out at iCafe Woman Moderne or shopping untill she drops at iCafe Woman Moderne store.