Writing a TV Pilot in Three Days

I'm doing it again. Same basic show, only much much better. Why, you ask? The virtues of writing the entirety of a given project in a set number of days (a small set, preferably) are not the least bit diminished by the fact that what you write in that short span of time will be complete and utter dreck. Not the least bit diminished.

Maybe slightly diminished.

Regardless. The fact remains that I have seventy-five pages of pure writing, whether or not any of those pages, paragraphs, sentences, or individual words are worth preserving is well beyond the point. However, since most of those pages are not worth saving, I've decided to start over. It's hard looking back at all the work that you were so proud of at the moment you finished and realizing that there's really, really not much to actually be proud of.

Fact: the first draft of pRN the TV pilot contains the following maladies...

1. Dialogue that mirrors precisely the action that is taking place;

2. Two people sitting there talking with nothing else going on;

3. Freeze frames;

4. Flashbacks;

5. Las Vegas, mob bosses, cross dressing, Celine Dion and general piss-poor dialogue.

So, yeah, a little left of focused on this one. I think the thought here was "more is more and less is boring." It's easy to just throw everything in on the first attempt, a kind of padding of the editing process. If I put a bunch of stuff in there that I only remotely care about, I can insulate my favorite parts from getting cut by me.

For this endeavor, I need to focus. What is this series about, or perhaps more importantly who is this series about? The highest mark you can hit with any series is to establish characters that people actually care about. What those characters do should be interesting too, but almost everything about the story should serve to illuminate the qualities of your individual characters.

Honestly, I'm crap at this. I like story, plot, structure and formula. My writing is cookie-cutter predictable with only the occasional slices of ingenuity and original humor. I'm good at making the story about something, but making it about someone proves more difficult. The something of this story is important to me, but the someone (or someones) needs to feel equally as important, because it is. That's what this draft is for.

So, here's how I've set myself up for success:

1. Outline is ready. It's a completely new outline, though it utilizes plot points from the previous outline.

2. Days are free. I've got three days in a row this week with nothing to do but write, and those around me are well aware that I will be unavailable (and probably highly irritable) during this time.

3. Fridge is full. Food goes in mouth, fingers go on keyboard. Important not to mix that up.

4. Apartment is clean. Kind of. I'm working on it.

5. Expectations are set. I've all but guaranteed those interested (mom) that I will have a second draft completed by the end of these three days. Failure or success; there's no middle ground here.

Let's do this. Tuesday. Because I work tomorrow, so...