Starting the year off with a behind-the-scenes look at my day
Happy 2023!
The new year is well underway and it’s time to get going telling some good stories. The ones we love to read or watch in our favorite movies books and shows. Or for some of us, it’s the stories we dream up and commit to the page or the screen. And for all of us as each day we write the story of our lives.
I’ve always found inspiration reading the stories of other people going about the business of their everyday lives while at the same time attempting to climb their professional “mountains”, whether as a writer, a filmmaker, an athlete, an entrepreneur, whatever!
PROCESS.
I am interested in process. How people accomplish the things they do in life amid all the distractions all of us have to deal with in our lives.
I am currently finishing up final revisions for my next novel, The Double, which is the first in a crime thriller series.
At the same time, I am beginning to write book two. An outline exists for book 2 but requires some revisions before plunging into the writing of the novel Itself.
I still work as a Hollywood writer-producer, though now my home base is New York. This is an invigorating way to start the year since I am originally from New York but I have been living in Los Angeles for 20 years. But this summer, my wife, our three kids, and our tiny dog departed LA to ‘head east young man’ (okay, middle-aged man). Here’s to beginning a new chapter.
Given that, I thought it might interesting to record the chaos of my everyday as I work on the next couple of novels as well as try to get my next tv show or movie made. All with a WGA writers strike looming in May.
All of which should make a weekly newsletter blog from that point of view at least mildly interesting.
Doing this in blog form serves several functions.
Writing warm up:
When Steinbeck wrote the grapes of wrath he began each day by writing briefly in his journal about the day’s work — and its inevitable distractions — before beginning the composition of the day.
Next, the blog/newsletter will be a consistent record of my efforts in the publishing game as well as in Hollywood, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the journey over the course of this year as I attempt to write more books, and produce shows and movies in Hollywood.
Lastly, it is a chance to connect with my people; that is, all of you out there who also love a good story, and who appreciate this kind of candid look at what goes into writing a book or creating a tv show or producing a movie.
Hopefully, this will prove interesting to those who enjoy this kind of stuff.
So here goes…
6:47a woke up. Did some stretches. Have been feeling very tight from sitting for long stretches in my desk chair doing revisions.
7:15a Made breakfast for the kids. Prepared school lunches for my two daughters while my son, the youngest of the troika, doesn’t pack a lunch to school. He only goes for half a day.
8:45: wife took last kid to school. I clean up after breakfast.
Then I go and say my morning prayers.
9:15: Review the day’s work. Emails.
9:45: Revisions on The Double, which is the first novel in The Eddie Ankin series about a former Marine, Hollywood stuntman turned crime solver. The book needs to be finished this week to goto an editor in January.
10:45: switch the Book 2 which I’ve just begun. Crank out 2100 words in 90 minutes. This is the quietest the house has been since my son was born and the pandemic hit. Today at least, that quiet and concentrations seems to have given me a productive start to the day.
12:30: lunch.call with author friend whose books I am trying to get produced as either a feature or a series.
1:35: My wife comes home with my son around 1pm. I make lunch for everyone.
1:45: write script for some social media posts I am filming tomorrow.
2:35: meet my sister and walk together to our kids’ school
3pm: pick up my daughters and my niece and walk home.
3:30pm: review reports on previous AMS (amazon) and Facebook ads for the relaunch of my first novel “The Strange Crimes of Beatrice Clover.” I schedule a promotion for the ebook for the end of January. The paperback edition was just published so I am going to run some ads to make the people who still love a physical copy of a book (like me) aware they can now pick up a copy. I am trying to glean some insight into the best keywords to convert sales so I can better target the ads for the paperback which begin running later this week.
While I reviewed that, my wife and I helped our eldest daughter with her homework. It was a little frustrating which I chalk up to the post-holiday blues, and getting back to the normal school routine.
Hey kid, I remember that feeling well.
415p: begin cooking dinner. We are trying to get our children to all eat the same meal so as to avoid the confusion my kids seem to have about the fact they do not live in a restaurant.
5:30p: dinner. Burritos. Mac n cheese for the kids. Plus chicken for my eldest. And chicken nuggets for my middle and youngest. So much for our attempt to get them to eat the same meal. But the battle rages on and we love to fight another day!
6-8p: family time and get ready for bed.
I glance at some emails. Start to plan tomorrow.
8:30p kids to bed. I fall asleep on the couch.
8:45pm: My middle child wakes me and wants help falling asleep. So I go to her room and run her back until she falls asleep. I nod off again for another 45 minutes.
9:30p: upstairs with my wife who is watching a show for work (she is a tv publicist). We discuss the show while I finish writing some of the social media scripts from earlier that I plan to film tomorrow.
11p: read for a bit. Can’t sleep. Open this post and write these last few entries to my day before I drift off to sleep around midnight.
More to come tomorrow…