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?