Finished packaging up all of the goodies for our generous Sly Sylvester Kickstarter backers. If you haven’t received your package yet, you will soon!
There are 99 days left until May 1st, which is the deadline for the Nicholl Fellowship, and the May 15 deadline for the Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition follows closely behind. I finished the rewrite of Queen To Be on Friday and after a couple read throughs to double and triple check for typos, it will be ready for submission.
Still, my goal is to get two features submitted into the contests this year, so my next few months will be relatively busy as I work to knock out what I hope to be my best script within those 99 days. The outline of that script is nearly finished and I’m scheduled to dive into the first draft on February 1.
_____________
Congrats to the 49ers for the awesome season. Bummed they didn’t make it to the Super Bowl, but I’m proud they made it this far. Plus, them making it to the NFC Divisional Championships gave me an excuse to make (and eat) football cookies.
Spent most of the day yesterday celebrating the life of my Aunt Peggy. She really was a special woman.
This week…
+ Despite the circumstances under which it happened, I am happy I got to see some family yesterday at my aunt’s service.
+ Finished the latest rewrite of Queen To Be!
+ Caught a couple of Golden Globe movies, including Midnight in Paris and The Iron Lady.
+ Did some brainstorming on my new short film, Breakfast at Gerardo’s.
This weekend I have nothing planned except to hang out with my wife and catch Red Tails. Hope you all have a great weekend.
Sometimes I’m not sure what’s befitting to share on the site here and what should remain my own business. I’m guessing most of you are interested in my journey as a writer, but that’s only a small part of what’s going on in my life right now. However, I know that it’s annoying when your Facebook friends spout off about how great their early morning workout was or when they complain about the weather being exceptionally cold, so I certainly don’t want to discuss fruitless things that you could care less about. With that said, I’m going to share a personal piece…
My great aunt passed away over the weekend. At the moment my spunky, San Francisco Giants-faithful Aunt Peggy took her last breath, I was just on the other side of the San Francisco Bay, goofing around and laughing with my wife. I went out for a run around beautiful Lake Merritt and returned to find the voice mail from my mom. It always a bit mind blowing when tragedy strikes and you’re out screwing around. What’s up with us not being equipped some internal alarm system?
Preproduction on my next short, Breakfast at Gerardo’s, is underway. This one is going to pose some interesting challenges.
The same day I share that we submitted Sly Sylvester to a handful of additional film festivals, we hear back from one of the first to which we sent the film. Cinequest has unfortunately decided to not feature our short in their 2012 festival.
I took most of the day off yesterday to hang out with my wife, which means I’ve got a relatively packed four days of work ahead. Hope that you all had a great weekend.
Beginning preproduction on my next short film. To be released Spring/Summer 2012. Thanks to my little sis for the notebook.
by TO-FU
Being a writer can make you lonely at times. This week I’ve spent a significant number of hours alone in my office. Music keeping me company.
Still, there is much to be thankful for this week:
+ Was on my workout game. Pushed myself each day.
+ Picked up some new jeans and some shirts at the Levi’s outlet over the weekend. Each piece is a staple I hope will remain in my closet until I’m 50.
+ Cleaned out my closet and got rid of a bunch of pieces I don’t wear anymore.
+ Knocked out every little thing on my to-do list for the week, and it’s still morning on Friday. Now I can push through and work ahead towards next week’s objectives.
+ Nearly have everything packed and ready to send out to our Sly Sylvester Kickstarter backers.
This weekend I get to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday and share breakfast with a friend. Perhaps there will be some writing, running and a bit of yard work scattered throughout the two days as well.
Have a great weekend.
Kim
Some crack for my fellow screenwriters. An hour long presentation by Michael Arndt, Oscar winning writer of Little Miss Sunshine.
Thought this was an appropriate tee to throw on today as I continue my screenwriting journey into 2012. Available via Unscripted Clothing.
I am a big fan of taking the time to look back at what you accomplished, where you are at this point and then figuring out where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.
Here is the list of the goals I laid out for myself at the beginning of 2011:
1. Finish 3 feature-length scripts (completed 1)
2. Submit 2 of those scripts to Nicholl’s (submitted 1)
3. Kick major ass at my internship
4. Finish a short film with my wife
5. Run a half marathon with my best friend
6. Design a tee/sweatshirt and raise money to help public schools in my new city of Oakland
7. Go to the snow
8. Write the freelance articles that time allows and let the rest go
I’m pumped for the work I’m going to do in 2012 and I have high expectations for myself. This is going to be my best year both personally and professionally. Here are my professional goals for 2012:
1. Complete QUEEN TO BE rewrite and resubmit it to both the Austin Film Festival (5/15) & Nicholl’s (5/1).
2. Complete my feature-length script, which for now I’ll refer to as ESTD, and submit it to both the Austin Film Festival & Nicholl’s.
3. Complete second feature-length script, currently untitled and in the outlining phase.
4. Participate in my local screenwriting group 1x/month.
5. Read 1 script/week.
6. Watch 1 movie/week.
7. Produce my own stop-motion short film.
8. Redesign and update this website.
9. Take two trips down to LA.
10. Submit SLY SYLVESTER to the Austin Film Festival (6/1).
11. Attend Austin Film Festival.
You’ll notice there are no freelance work goals listed. I’m dedicating myself 100% to becoming a better screenwriter and while the freelance work made the checking account slightly more comfortable, I’d rather eat top ramen for the entire year so that I can produce more quality scripts.
It’s great to compile a list of objectives, but I think it would be useless if I didn’t break it down even further into shorter-term action items. I have put this list in an Excel spreadsheet, which I then broke down into monthly stepping-stone goals. For example, because I have the goal to complete the new ESTD feature script in time for the two screenwriting competitions in May, I’m going to need to plan out when my outline and first draft need to be done so I have time to tighten it up before the submission deadlines.
And so that’s what I’ve done. Currently I have January all planned out– what needs to be done to make progress towards each those goals this month. Then I dove even a bit further and broke those monthly goals down to what needs to be done each of the four weeks. Before I go to bed each night, I’ll plan out what needs to be done the following day, and at the end of January, I’ll look at where I’m at and what my action items for February will be.
Here’s to a fun 2012 for all of us.
Kim
