This is going to be my new years resolution!

Okay, I've got the 'watching movies' bit down. And the writing and planning. It's reading screenplays I find the hardest (and I bet I'm not the only one), though I enjoy it when I remember to do it... Personal resolution - after a year spent writing mostly TV, get back to writing movies too!

I'd like to give a shout out to the notebook. I've started buying a notebook for each project, the kind that are small enough to carry around every day. I pick something that feels right for each project, too, and have discovered an affinity for the hard-backed kind with the magnetic clasp, as they're easy to write anywhere with and it's just something about that goofy clasp that makes me feel the information inside is protected in some good kind of way -- totally psychological, but sometimes that sort of trickery works. Anyway, whatever project is burning a hole in my brain is the notebook I'll be carrying that day and I've gotten so much prep work done as ideas and dialogue pop into mind. It beats the heck out of scrolling around on some electronic device and trying to type on a microscopic keyboard or waiting to put everything into a laptop.

I love this. Fairly doable. But...I don't quite have a project ready to start actual pages. So, my plan is to shoot for 500 words in short fiction as I have several of those projects already started. My question is, what would be a ballpark timeframe goal to set for completing prep work and getting to the page stage? I know every story is different, but in this goal-setting thinking, what would be your suggestion: 4 weeks? 8 weeks? 12 weeks?

Yup, it's definitely time for me to set some realistic goals for the next year. And very timely that you just retweeted the link to your old First Draft post, Scott (the "Get the damn thing done!" one). Because that's my big issue. No shortage of ideas, and of projects on the go. I have my first screenplay, a non-fiction story collection, a novel, a book translation (published in South America, now just more a publishing project here)... as well as ideas for a whole pile of short stories and one more screenplay. So my big goald for this coming year is to complete projects. My screenplay is the number one priority at the moment. I have written half of the script, and I have a very detailed scene-by-scene outline for the second half - so it is not so much an issue of brainstorming or problem-solving, I know where it is going and I am happy with it. It is just making myself expand the remaining scenes and finish it. I am doing it as my UBC thesis - which will push and prod me to finish first draft and through to at least a very polished second draft by April. Then... prioritize and complete the non-fiction and the translation books (they are both very close), while starting to prep the next screenplay. And, once I am through with my UBC course obligations, I am going to start to look more carefully at the courses you offer - possibly as a way to get that next screenplay kick-started. Oh, and to do my best to follow your program... read one script a week (hopefully mostly with you guys, that will make it easy) and do my best to watch two films a week (that one is harder for me, dedicating the time).

My goal is to realize the only thing I CAN control are the black letters on the white page... Not the eyeballs that gaze upon it.

Have a hit TV show on a cable network. Oh, you said reasonable? Well, I guess it doesn't have to be a hit to achieve the goal. But that'd be nice, right? :)

Love this. It is so do-able and builds a foundation of a) habit b) portfolio May I also suggest a few procratinating hours here and there to build your network online? ; )

The "1, 2, 7, 14" model appears to be an excellent one, and one I aim to achieve next year. My biggest hurdle is replacing bad habits with good habits. I started writing quite late in life. By the time I realized this was what I wanted to do with my time my brain was already hardwired to certain habits for certain times of day. I get home of an evening and all I want to do is either watch TV with the wife or play video games. Weekends are for socializing with friends, seeing family and getting drunk. Now these habits were fine when I was resigned to a less creative mode of existence, but these habits are no longer helpful with regards to the path I wish my life to take. But they are ground in deep. I always manage to write on my bus journey to work, probably because there are no distractions. But if I find myself with a free moment at any other time of the day, my brains simply says no - no writing (yet feels guilty about it - odd). And here is the really weird bit: I always feel resistance to both reading and writing scripts, but I always end up enjoying both activates immensely after I get started - and am loathed to stop. So I leap on the bus and force myself to write. It takes a while to get the creative juices flowing but they always do, and by the time my stop hoves into view, my brain is literally screaming, "NO! CARRY ON! FUCK WORK!" It's the same with reading scripts, which I've started to shoe-horn in on my lunch hours. When the time comes to head back to the grind stone my brain goes berserk, "ARE YOU MAD? READ JUST ONE MORE PAGE!" And so it goes. So, I guess one of my goals, perhaps my main goal, is to replace bad habits with good habits. This is the first site I came across on Google about such things: http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/strategies-for-breaking-bad-habits-and-cultivating-good-ones/ I believe that as of January 1st 2012 I will be able to do the 1,2,7 part of the plan quite comfortably if I put my mind to it. The 14 hours is the tricky part. However, if I get up one hour earlier each morning then that's 7 hours found. The other 7 will obviously have to come from either evenings and weekends. This is where the good habits have to come into play. How do other people in full time employment carve out more time for themselves?

I, like many others it seems, will be implimenting the 1-2-7-14 plan in the new year. If anyone knows how to make time stop, that information would also be greatly appreciated... On top of writing a feature I would like to attempt a television pilot and send out more of my work for feedback and criticism. Baby Steps.

1-1-12. It begins.

In 2012 I plan to: 1. Sell a screenplay or get a job on staff. 2. Finish writing my novel. 3. Finish writing at least one long form comic book. 4. Not give up.