Happy?

hi there!  Has anyone read the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin?  It's a really interesting book about a year spent pursuing the practical process of finding happiness.  I really recommend it--though I have to give some warning that it doesn't seem like her and her family have a financial struggle in any real way--and I can't recall if she addresses that?  But, I think they are very much of the Ivy League set--she clerked at the Supreme Court so she's very bright but maybe a little privileged?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/fashion/28rubin.html

Oh shoot---I just read a NY Times article about her---and yes, girlfriend doesn't have to worry about money.  Or, you know, paying rent.  Anywho, having said ALL of that (why is money and class so important to me?  I think it's because I have half a foot in the world of Elyria, Ohio, and half a foot in the Yuppie land that is the northside of Chicago and a finger in some upper-middle class wealth and a tiny slither in true actual poverty and I just worry that something here is askew.  I got so mad when I realized Ellie Kemper was a KEMPER as in the money people.  I'd be doing a solo show at UCB NY too if I didn't have to work for rent.  But, I also LOVE LOVE LOVE her characters and what she does?  It's strange, a lot of people in the improv world do have wealth and come from privilege and same with advertising.)

Here's some clues that someone doesn't have to worry about money:

• Their mom was a stay-at-home mom who ran a few Hallmark stores (for fun!)
• They spent their summers at the "club" or in Maine or New Buffalo
• They spent their weekends at the family lake house
• They attended a "country day" school (when I first heard that I was like WHAT IS THAT?)
• They didn't work a teen job in high school during the school year
• They had a car in high school instead of a bike
• They studied abroad/were in the greek system/didn't have to work in college
• They went to a private college instead of a state school and don't have student loans
• Their parents stay in a downtown hotel when they come to visit instead of crashing in your bed
• They can buy lunch out everyday and make fun of your packed lunch
• They are free to go to auditions and gigs and don't have to pretend like they are calling in sick to work to go to a day audition
• Their shoes aren't pleather from Payless
• They don't have 3 roommates
• They don't pay rent for the first year in the "big city"
• They wear pearl necklaces and diamond earrings. Like, real diamonds.
• They wait until they find out how much the check will be from their dad to book their wedding venue
• They don't have to save for a down payment
• They shop at garage sales "for fun"!
• They shop at Whole Foods
• They don't have to pay for their kids' private school and college
• They shop at Nordstrom
• They know their way around a wine menu
• They flew on a plane as a child
• They skied in Colorado or Banff growing up
• They had their own computer in college
• They take a lot of cabs that aren't expensable
• They belong to a gym
• They grew up in a "W" town in Chicago (Winnetka! Wilmette!) or Shaker in Cleveland or blah blah Hills in Cincinnati
• They don't know how to clean because they grew up with a cleaning lady
• They have a first name that is a last name of someone's grandmother's maiden name

I mean, that is super-awesome and I'm sure all of those people are REALLY grateful for the jumpstart they were given in life.

But sometimes it feels like, if you have the leg up on money, you also have the leg up on free time, so you can go to shows or take a dream job that pays for shit or take more classes and not have to get to bed early so you get to work on time in the am.

I don't know what I'm saying here except that I feel a little tired of hearing people, including myself, talk about diversity and inclusion in the workplace (comedy, corporate, whatevs) and never think about how your childhood experience/finances play in to it.  To me, it's harder to overcome the financial barriers than anything.

I could not have taken the internship I got if it hadn't been paid.  Thank god for that paid internship that led to my first job in advertising where I promptly went into deeper credit card debt to afford to live in Chicago.  Yes, all my own choices but man, if I couldn't make the $ work and I had a good college degree, what about someone from a background where there isn't a safety net?  I could always bail on Chicago and go back home and live with my parents if I needed to.

OK, enough woe is me, but man, there was NO way I could have taken any gig I got without having saved $ or known I had a day job when I came back home.

How do people do it?

People are funded.  That's the secret that I didn't know when I moved to the BIG CITY---and an old boyfriend told me---many people get money from their parents to live in Chicago, to buy a home, etc.

I was like WHAT???

This whole time while I was trying to make rent, and live on this tiny salary, these colleagues of mine who made fun of me for packing a lunch were getting their rent paid by mommy and daddy?  Wait, what?  This person who lives in an awesome place can do it because they have a trust fund?  OH!!!!

I don't resent that (no, that's not true, i do resent it) but it just helped me understand.  OH!  That's how you can swing it!

Before I knew all that, I figure I was really bad with my money.

And, it turned out, I just didn't have an extra flow of family money.  I wish I had known that then.  Or maybe it would have made me mad?

Anyway, people who are family rich don't talk about it but you can tell because they work for a charity or can wait tables and stuff instead of getting a job with HEALTH INSURANCE so you don't go bankrupt when an illness comes.  Or maybe, that's just my family motto!  That, and you can never have too much plaid or children.)

Sorry Gretch--love listening to you and your sister, but I worry about money constantly---and I have a pretty sweet life compared to others I know (mostly back in Ohio, not so much here in Chicago where it's a lot of white college-grads tromping around the northside, cheering for the cubs and buying condos in up and coming areas to flip them).  But, anyway, I shop at Aldi, garage sales and try to save money by cooking at home, biking, taking the el, and using points for vacations to places I can stay for free.

This post has become about money!  I remember a few years ago, I realized I was complaining about money all the time, so I made a new years resolution to stop bitching about money. That's when I also gave up on pursuing acting in any real way.

A lot of parents I know tell me about how creative their kids are and how much they want to pursue theatre (or, typically, be a YouTube star) and I tell them be sure that the kid pursues personal finances, a marketable day job (not waiting tables!) as equally as the creative pursuit.  Because, when you're trying to MAKE IT---what will stop you more than anything is running out of money in very expensive cities.  And, you can't compromise your health and safety---there's just not affordable and safe housing options out there in NY or LA for a starving artist.  It's just not there unless you live with 6 people.  So, figure out your finances and then you buy yourself some time to audition or write or perform.  Those parents don't like to hear that (I think they've seen too many movies like "The Devil Wears Prada" where that girl lives in a "starter apartment" and it's amazing. Take a gander at Kimmy Schmidt---they are not JOKING about where she lives and the conditions of their apartment. Or what Jacqueline White did to get to her financial level.)  But, anyway, that's my advice.  Pursue it, tell your kid a lot of your competition is FUNDED and don't have to worry about rent or such and get a good paying day job with flexibility.

That's how I found happiness?  (Still pursuing!)

Spec!!! Script!!!

Hello blog people!

I think I wrote about this on a prior blog, but I spent the month of February in LA. I wasn't working, so I was able to make writing and testing out LA a priority. I suspected I would really like it, and I did really like it.

I also took 2 writing classes out there, attended panel discussions on writing, was very nicely able to attend a pitch meeting (matt craig is a very generous soul) and also went to the hollywood retirement center (lovely Jen Clymer) twice!

Anywho, I had 3 goals:
1) See how it feels to live in LA vs just visit.  Drive a lot, walk a lot, etc
2) Take this writing class seriously, do the work each week and make it a priority
3) To meet up with someone every day.  Someone who I knew in Chicago or college, and try to find out how they carve up a life for themselves in Cali.  Not trying to get them to do anything for me---but truly, just seeing what it means to live and work in SoCal.  It was lovely---I got to re-connect with a ton of friends who have long since left Chicago for LA, and all of them were so nice, and often insisted on paying for the meal.

I realize I should have made this more about writing a pilot---but that was the prior blog.

Anyway, for anyone who was writing or aspiring to be a sitcom writer, the general advice was to write a pilot.  It used to be to write a spec script, but now it seems pilot was the general consensus.

So, I wrote both.  And I'm planning to move to LA in January, too.

A spec script means (speculative) is one you write for an existing show (I believe).  Meaning, if you were writing in the 90s, you'd probably write for Roseanne or Seinfeld. You'd take on the voice and tone and feeling of the show, and write your own situation.  It's typical that you'd write a spec script for a show you love and know well.  And, I think, back in the day, say you wanted to write for 30 Rock---you might write a spec script for Parks and Recreation, so you can give that to anyone on 30 Rock.  Why?  They can't read an unsolicited script for 30 rock---because if they do, then if those writers soak up any ideas from that spec script of 30 rock and they show up in an actual show, everyone involved would lose their shit and start slinging around accusations of stealing ideas, etc.  So, instead, an aspiring writer would write a spec script for another show, and send that off to the 30 Rock crew.

Though, as I write this, I'm sure there are other reasons for a spec, and those writers probably can't even read anything unsolicited, even if it's not for their show?  (Unsolicited means you send it in an envelope or over email, but you don't have any kind of representation or agent or that legal shit so that writer or pa probably won't even read it).  Anyway, my point is this:  if you want to write for sitcoms, you have to start writing sitcoms.

I do want to be a writer for sitcoms (I think!) so my goal in the first half of 2017 was to write 2 first drafts--a pilot and a spec.

When it came time to pick the show I wanted to write my spec for I--I had no trouble at all.  Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.  I came up with a few story ideas, but quickly landed on one that I liked.  I wrote this script to exist in Season 2---and after I wrote it, Season 3 came out and some of the stuff I referenced was resolved a bit. So, I was happy about that---I understood the show well enough to head in the same direction as the writers.

Anyway, I have sitting, on my hard drive, a draft of a spec script for "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt".

I keep saying I'm not interested in writing sitcoms for rich people who say they are middle class (I'm looking at you Modern Family, though that show totally cracks me up).  I mean, I don't want to write Oliver Twist or anything, but I like it when people on tv are more like the people I know in my life.  They have ok houses, maybe not houses, maybe apartments.  They have normal jobs, live in normal neighborhoods where everyone isn't lilly-white or perfectly "ethnic" and maybe, god forbid, aren't 100% liberal but live in a world somewhere between "My name is Earl"'s trailer park and Modern Family's california upper middle class life.

So, anywho, that's what I know and grew up around so that's what I'm trying to write and why I love Kimmy Schmidt so much.

She lives in a closet!  In a basement apartment!  She has like, 4 outfits, and drives an uber for money. That's pretty amazing and real and I love love love it.

I know have a spec script for Kimmy and an original Pilot.  I have to pause around that, because I am proud of myself. I guess that's bragging, but I am.

Everyone I talked to in LA got work or were seeking work as a writer had all kind of different paths to a job in the writer's room working on a tv (or streaming) show.

Some got in with plays or short stories they had written. Others had worked with so and so star years ago, and now so and so needed someone to work in the writing room and wanted to work with their old colleague, who was funny, smart, and "got them".  Others were doing sitcom contests--where you submit your sitcom, and if you end up winning you get to meet an agent, or get a development exec to read your work.  Others take classes, and then make pals and then go from there.  Others get an agent or manager or both, and go from there.

For me, I decided I needed to be brave.  Everything I did in LA for the month of February was about being brave and pushing past my own fears of being a super-shitty coward and acting like I don't belong in a room with a bunch of more-talented writers than me.  Or, being brave about re-connecting with old friends who have gotten to work, and I didn't want to seem like I was kissing up to them because of their awesome success and be a user.  Even friends that I was pretty close with back in the pre-LA days! I am so afraid of seeming like I'm only talking to them because of their success, that I just stop talking to them!  That's so unkind, and so selfish and what kind of friend does that make me?

A coward.  So, in the sense of being brave, I'm back to these blogs, and saying, the thing I want to do is try to write on sitcoms.  That'll likely change and shift and move in a different direction (because I also really like my day job and not being in debt) but for now, I want to do this.  (Look at all those qualifiers I put around even making that statement!)

And, I also re-mounted a favorite old show, Montgomery and Cooke,  with my pal, Jamie Buell in May. We wrote a bunch of new material and that was super-fun, too. I also started a new temp job at Rodale, and did a shit ton of awesome Mind Gym gigs.  Went on a few awful first dates (Hope spring eternal) and thought about Aldi a lot.

If anyone wants to weigh in on specs, and writing packets and such, feel free!  Or, you know, being brave?

Oh poor blog, Pilots (not blind)

I've been away from you for a while, dear blog.  When I came back from LA, I put a lot of things in motion for myself. I started doing more Mind Gym gigs (I love love love this work!), I signed up for 2 writing classes (one is writing a Pilot script, which is essentially a script you write for the first episode of a tv show.  (or, nowadays, streaming or whatever show).  It's all-new concept, from your own brain, and becomes part of your writing packet, shows your voice, tone, the topics you care about.  Some really well-written pilots include Cheers, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, um, Mary Tyler Moore (though I myself haven't watched that one).  Anyway, we meet the characters, the world (setting, time period, types of relationships, etc) and watch an episode unfold.  There are two kinds of pilots--one that you watch, and as a viewer, you are dropped into an existing world, and get to see what happens this particular week.  Or, the other is an "origin" pilot--where you set up the world and see the big change that happens, and then you will watch the rest of the show forever in this world. I'm trying to think of examples that some actual writers have shared with me (I am currently very much an amateur in this game)---I think Cheers is a blend---the main character, Sam, is a bartender and works with all of his employees and knows is customers.  The other main character, Diane, ends up in the bar, and over the course of the pilot, her life plan changes dramatically, and she starts a new life.  So, maybe it's both?  Same with Friends---5 of the friends hang out at Central Perk, and then Rachel busts in, and she is the one who starts a new life.  So, is that an origin sitcom? Or, the other kind (I am too lazy to get up and get my notes from meetings in LA because that notebook is far away in the sunroom, and i'm in the kitchen making potato salad and listening to the dishwasher run and smelling that delicious aroma of hot liquid dishwasher detergent...mmmmm).

Anyway, I'll probably never have a career writing sitcoms if I don't improve my memory--but that is my big goal.  And, like any goal, we'll see what actually happens.  I get distracted writing my blog by a can of olives I need to open and drain and add to the pepper salad I made earlier, so how the heck can I discipline myself enough to write a sitcom?

But, somehow, since I've returned from LA, I've done just that. I wrote a first draft of a Pilot.  It's about a lady who works in the world of startups in Silicon Valley, and realizes it's a lot of smoke and mirrors, and super-sexist, and has a breakdown and goes back home to Cleveland to lick her wounds and decides that she can apply everything she loved in Cali to life in Cleveland and make everyone happy, richer, have jobs etc.  She's got a lot of blind optimism.  Anywho, it's essentially a fantasy-world of my life played out---a Silicon Valley meets Roseanne or Ed.

I have a first draft.  It's got to be re-done, but I'm taking a break and working on other things and will come back to it.

And, I also wrote another script (a spec script) which I'll write about in my next blog.

Thanks for all the support--and weigh in with your knowledge and opinions on how to get things done that you put off.  For me, it's take a class to hold myself accountable and say it out loud.  And take some eves off from socializing.

You?