The single hardest thing about screenwriting is waiting. And man, is there a lot of waiting. Finish a script? No, not really. It goes to someone. A reader. An assistant. A manager, agent, producer, studio, director, talent… Sometimes, it seems as if there’s as much waiting to hear back from people as there is writing. I’m in that mode right now. One script with a producer looking for a green light on financing my first independent film, and another with a network to see if they’ll come play with my movie of the week. It’s exciting and frustrating and more than a little nerve-racking.

I used to think I was a fairly patient guy, but this gets to you. I’ve started other projects. One for research on a feature,  did a rewrite of my animation spec and I’m about half way through a draft rewrite of my action adventure thriller. If nothing else, the nervous energy of waiting creates a good deal of work at the keyboard. It’s good to just lose oneself in the motivations of a character or reworking a plot point to get the mind off wondering how things are going. In the advertising world this was never a big problem – you did your client pitch and before you got back to the agency after the presentation, there was another deadline looming. I’m new enough at the screenwriting bit to not have those issues yet.

Since I only have self-imposed deadlines and way more time to kill while things move on other people’s schedules – I really get a lot done. The website has been tweaked. Catching up on blog posts. Fixed the twitter feed problem. I’m not to the point of cleaning the garage, but I can feel that coming. Nah… that can wait.