Half-way productive...

So that's how I spent half my day.

The first half I spent locked up inside the cottage (on Georgian Bay aka: Ontario's Caribbean) my earbuds in, working on the re-write to NOEL my Christmas adventure film script.

Well, that and answering emails, skype-ing my business partner, eating lunch etc.

But for the most part I focused on the re-write.

It's been going quite well.  For a script that I originally wrote three years ago, it still feels very fresh to me.  When I sat down today though I found that I needed to go back and read a bit to get 'in the flow' again.  That's when I realized I could shortcut that process by skimming the script and doing a scene by scene outline.

A scene by scene outline is pretty typical during the planning phase on a script but I've done it once before on a re-write, with 'THE STORM' but even then I did it in advance, planning it out. Today I did it as I went.  See, I'd re-written forty pages so I just went back and read it quickly and every time I got to a new scene I'd add a number in my notebook and a brief descriptor. That way I can quickly look back to see what I've done to the story.

'Cause the thing with re-writes is the 'ripple effect'.

You change one thing and that one thing can force a dozen changes down the road which is all fine and good if you're planning to do the re-write in one fell swoop but, like in my case, if you're a father of four, producer of two brand new TV series and doing your darndest to set up a couple more while working through setting up distribution on your first film while loving your wife and not burning out, you'll be going at it piecemeal over a longer period of time than you'd like and that'll mean it's never as 'fresh' as it should be and you'll forget which ripple goes where.  So this approach--the 'real time' outline is working well so far.

What's cool about the story is that it's getting better as I apply the changes suggested by my rep in L.A.  It's cool to have reached the stage where I've got a real 'pro' giving me notes.  It's not that he's any more enlightened than me or others but he has 'real world' experience that informs his bias and that's worth paying attention to.

So, I finished the re-write and hit the beach.

Drove my youngest son's new remote control speedboat with him.  Took my eldest son and daughter out on one of those floating trampolines and wrestled a bit.  Bounced my baby girl on my knee.  Took a boat out and just floated in it for a while--just me, the wind and the sun. Made dinner.  Put the kids to bed.  Took the shot above.  Went for my run.

That was rough.  Jogging at sunset by water's edge...

So instead of feeling like I 'wasted' a day by not working or 'wasted' a day because of working, I did a little bit of this and little bit of that and everybody was happy.

My wife and I had talked about it beforehand and we stuck to the plan.

And that's how I ended up half-way productive today.  And that seems to me a lesson worth noting.  A day doesn't have to be 100% to be good.  So, whatever it is you do, and whatever the pressures are that will seek to pull you from doing your thing--make sure you agree to do the best you can--bit by bit--day by day.

'Cause no family, no script, no Church, no vibrant career, no 'Rome' was built in a day.

T