Real Estate

A few months ago, I was chatting with my manager about what I was working on. I pitched one of my projects as “something just for fun, it won’t take much time.” This is a code for saying, “I’ll still have time to work on stuff that could make us money.” He instantly made his own point: “You only have so much mental real estate.”

This has stuck with me. Learning how to balance multiple projects is a must in Hollywood. Unless I’m on a writing staff or getting paid to write a feature, then everything is written on “spec”…which means I’m writing it for free in the hopes of selling it or using it to get work. When it’s all on spec, you can work on as many things simultaneously as you can handle.

But can you really? There’s the time I’m actually at the computer, working on one or more of my projects. Then there’s the rest of my day, and it’s interesting when I realize much work is done during that time. Taking a shower, walking to the store, driving to a meeting…those are times when the brain gets to wander. And almost always, my brain wanders to the most pressing of my projects. And I know I’m in trouble when during those precious times, my brain wanders to something other than my latest script.

Here’s what’s currently taking up my mental real estate:

1) I’m writing the first draft of a spec TV pilot. It was brought to me by a producing team and it’s based on an upcoming graphic novel.

2) I’m two drafts into a new feature screenplay, probably only a draft or two away from showing it to my agents and “sending it out”.

3) I’m co-creating a web-series called 20 Seconds to Live with my good friend, director Ben Rock. Along with our producer Cat Pasciak , we’ve shot two episodes (they’re very short) and are getting ready to shoot another batch of episodes before releasing them later this year.

4) I’m the marketing associate for the upcoming Sacred Fools Theater Company main-stage show, the world premiere of TASTE. It’s a very cool, very dark show directed by horror icon Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator). My job is to get butts in the seats any way I can, but mostly by writing press releases, doing community outreach, and blasting out the word via social media outlets.

5) Oh yeah, I also have a life. There’s spending time with my fiancée and our two cats, planning wedding events, studying kenpo, working out, my monthly writers group meeting, seeing my friends, and every once in a while, I write a blog.

There’s a lot going on in my brain. Too much, probably. Luckily, things are sorting themselves out. But the lesson remains. There’s tons of fun stuff to get involved with, plenty of ways to pack my schedule with projects involving people I love.

But I only have so much mental real estate. And so do you. So fill it carefully.