1-2-7-14: One Month In

So at the beginning of the year, I ran across Scott Myers 1-2-7-14 plan. In a nutshell, Scott suggested to read 1 screenplay per week, watch 2 movies per week, write 7 pages per week and work 14 hours per week prepping a story. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but after doing it for a month, I can tell you it is difficult being “on” all the time. “All the time,” you ask? Well it is actually about 20% of my awake time every week. It’s a still big change.

The two movies per week was dead easy for me. I’m addicted to movies. Reading one screenplay per week was a little more difficult but I gave up my Sunday evening for reading a screenplay instead. And so far I’ve read four screenplays. In a way it’s like watching a film, except it takes longer. I’m such a slow reader. I really fell down on the write 7 pages per week and the 14 hours per week prepping a story. I wrote zero pages and only spent about 40% of my allotted research time prepping stories. Considering that I was not doing this at all, it’s a huge leap forward. I am constantly reminding myself to look for story material and to find time to prep existing material. But it’s difficult.

Going back to the writing seven pages per week, I find that doesn’t suit my writing style. I can’t stop at just one page per day or seven in one week, even if written in one day. I find I write on average 5 pages per day when I get to the script stage to keep the creative juices flowing. Whether I spend four months writing 7 pages a week, or one month writing 5 pages per day, the end result is the same. A completed script. I think the paradigm was meant to be customized to the individual.

Now, not to make excuses, I do have a day job as a visual effects artist. Long hours and tight deadlines. At the end of the day, I’m usually so tapped my brain just doesn’t want to work anymore. But I’m learning to push past that.

I think that’s the point. I’ll check back at the end of February.