Alex: I did it! Holy shitcakes Nik, I finished the FIRST draft of my pilot! I don’t even know how to tell you what I’m feeling right now. I’ve never been this far along on a creative project in my life. 54 pages. Read em’ and weep baby. I feel like I could run an entire marathon right now. Honestly, nothing could make me angry in this moment. I’ll prove it. Try to say something that you think will make me mad.
Nik: I can’t because I’m so flipping happy right now!
Alex: C’mon try!
Nik: Uh… I slept with Aaron Rodgers while I was in GB.
Alex: See? Not mad!
Nik: Yeah, that’s more high five worthy anyway. Seriously though, I’m so proud of you. Finishing a script is a HUGE accomplishment. You stepped up and you got it done.
Alex: It’s moments like this that I realize hard work really does pay off. I know I still have a ways to go until it’s ready for you to read, but I proved to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to. Even better, I proved to myself that I am a writer. I had many late nights at the office finishing this, and I know I still have many more to come. But it doesn’t scare me. I had to remind myself to think long-term gratification rather than short-term gratification. Whenever I needed a dose of motivation I’d read Quotes Porn. I stayed in a lot, missed out on a few parties and dinners. But this feeling beats any party, any food. Even pizza. And if I’m honest, I’m more excited to be done with this project so I can move on to the next one. I have a pocket full of other ideas that I’m ready to play with. Life is good, Nik. Thank you for inspiring me on the days I felt defeated. You a bad ass bitch, I learned from the best.
Nik: We need to celebrate.
Alex: With pizza?
Nik: Anything you want.
Alex: A naked Aaron Rodgers feeding us Pizza.

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MAY 8
Text from Nik to Alex:  The 100 got picked up.  Waiting to hear if they need a PA.  Send me your resume right now.
Alex:  I interview with HR at Epic tomorrow to finalize my start date!  What do I do?!
Nik:  Buy time.

MAY 9
Text from Alex to Nik:  I told them I couldn’t start until the 15th.  Have you heard anything?
Nik:  Not yet.  I should know something by Monday.

MAY 12
Text from Nik to Alex:  You interview tomorrow.  Expect a call today about setting a time.
Alex:  YES!!!  Shit!  Okay, should I tell Epic that I’m interviewing?  She knows I’m into writing…she just asked me to keep her up to date with everything going on. Or should I just call her once I find out about the job? Oh my gosh my heart is beating so fast. She is going to hate me for quitting right away.  What do I do?
Nik: Normally, I’d go the route of most respect, but for this I’m going to suggest you meet on The 100 first.  Nail the interview.  Get the job.  Then make the call to Epic.  In the most graceful and apologetic way, tell them you had a change of heart.  Then drink wine.   A lot of wine.
Alex:  Okay.
Nik: You should watch all the episodes of The 100 and read the pilot to prepare.
Alex:  I’m already 4 episodes in!

MAY 13
Text from Alex to Nik:  On my way to the interview now. So nervous!
Nik:  Just be yourself.  You got this.
(later)
Alex: I GOT THE JOB!!!!!  
Nik:  YES!!!!!
Alex:  I was hired right then and there at the end of the interview. This industry wastes no time, I start Monday. It’s night and day how different I feel after finding out I got this job versus finding out I got the job at Epic. It just feels right. I’m so excited to start! I’m going to call and quit Epic now before this happy feeling wears off.
Nik: I’ll have wine waiting.
(five minutes later)
Alex: Yep, she hates me.  That phone call sucked so hard.  She wasn’t happy. I really do feel bad for quitting before I even started, but you’re right, I have to do what’s best for me. I recommended a friend who is looking to work in the music industry and he has an interview there tomorrow so hopefully that softens the blow a little bit.
Nik: I know that was hard and definitely not the way you wanted to handle things, but the timing made it too risky not to have a back up plan.  She’ll be fine.  And you my friend just said yes to the beginning of your career in TV writing. Proud of you. Time to kick ass.

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Alex: Now that I have a script to finish, I’ve been focusing on getting my work flow down. It’s tough. I don’t know how some people do it. Some days I’m uber productive and sometimes I’ll go on a week bender where I do nothing besides breathe, eat and drink wine. Sometimes I’ll procrastinate by reading things about being productive. That’s how I stumbled across this gem. James Clear “Forget About Setting Goals. Focus on This Instead.” It was like he was in my head, connecting the dots that I didn’t even know existed. I love when people can make you look at things from a different angle. I love it even more when that different angle looks better than your own point of view. (That is one of the main reasons why I want to be a writer!) James talks about the difference between goals and systems and how you need to commit to a process, not a goal. This article was a really easy read and spoke so loudly to me that I needed to share it.
Nik:  Here’s what I have to say about this.  Yes, system is incredibly important.  You have to focus on the everyday discipline of whatever it is you’re doing to get results.  I think that it makes sense in terms of changing your diet or exercising, meal by meal, workout by workout, but when it comes to writing I have a problem with his logic.  Yes, you need to sit down everyday and write, but just because you sat down every Monday and Thursday and managed to compile 115,000 words, doesn’t mean you wrote a book.  You did not create a beginning, middle and end of a NY Times bestseller that people are going to want to read.  You wrote a bunch of blog posts that might be fantastic, but you can’t suddenly label this achievement a book.  It is not a book.  Or two books.  It is a blog.  And his goal, whether he wants to avoid calling it that or not, was to have a blog with good content.  The two go hand in hand.  You need a goal.  You need a system. The magic happens when you have both.  I’m not trying to rain on his parade,  there’s definitely truth to what he’s getting at,  but I could never sit down to write a script or a book without knowing whether I’m writing a script or a book.  I can’t write everyday without knowing what I’m writing for.  I’m all for journaling daily to get inspiration or break through writer’s block, but can you imagine if I wrote everyday for the last six months and then gave it to my agent and told him it was a thriller?  Even though I didn’t know I was writing a thriller?  I bet those days about my favorite new restaurants would be terrifying.  I mean, what?!
Alex: You’re annoying but you make a lot of sense. And now the dots in my head are in a triangle.
Nik: Just shut your pie hole and write your SCRIPT.

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