Two Birds, One Stone

Yesterday I attended the Bob Mayer Warrior Writer workshop and during my breaks I wrote out my New Adventures of Old Christine!

I know that some writers are very keen on sticking to s schedule in order to write. You know, write 2000 words before checking their email etc, but for me, I tend to write when I can and I knew that yesterday if I didn’t take full advantage of the breaks I wouldn’t have written anything and I need to finish this script this week.

I am determined to do so, and it will be done.

I believe that everyone has a different schedule and while some have the ability and flexible hours to make a plan, some of us, do not. That doesn’t mean that I am less committed, it just means that it is more of a challenge.

My day job is art. I’m an artist. I am a professional, commercial artist who works for money in traditional animation. The hours are grueling, long, hard and there is no planning for when or how long I will work. When I worked full time at Disney, it was easy to do something else on the side, because I knew that from 10-midnight I would be free, or whatever the exact hours were. Working freelance is a whole different kettle of fish, as they say, because you have to work around the studio’s schedule and impossible deadlines.

So the way I do it is this:

I write in at least two of my 5 blogs every morning before checking my email. Then I make a plan for writing for that day. I am working on so many different writing projects that I can’t actually say the novel every day or what not.

This week, the goal is, finish the New Adventures of Old Christine and outline my new novel (* you can read about that on Micheline’s blog if you like*)

I also have to finish a huge animation scene for the film I am on and possible do some freelance for a Disney project-not sure, so my time is limited. Each day I will try to kill two birds with one stone. I will work on animation and I will also write during breaks.

As well, every day this week, I am going to add an agency or studio to a list that at the end of the week, I will query.

I am in charge of my career and I need to do it the best way I can and if that means writing an episode of a show during a workshop while the others network and grab coffee, so be it.