No this isn’t another sad post about how little money is in my savings account.  Although it’s definitely less these days thanks to a trip back east.  This post is about something you often find in Hollywood, which is good news that leaves you hanging.

What I mean by that is most recently I sold a show with a friend of mine.  He warned me right up front, “This deal could take a while.”  See, the project has a couple of variables in it.  One it’s based on a comic book so they have to secure the rights and authors’ involvement in the show based on their material.  And two, my friend and his writing partner are big time and already have four other projects they’ve sold recently that take precedence over the one I’m involved with.  Networks don’t like to be second position, never mind fifth.  So the monetary and legal mambo begins.

The bad thing about this of course is you’re like “Yes!  After a year of unemployment and almost homelessness, I finally got something going!  But the deal could take like six months and I don’t have money to last that long.  Ugh.”

The good thing about it is, if the residual gods bless me with enough to get my wife and I through, it’s like an automatic savings account… an inheritance from a relative you know is going to die soon.  It gives you the comfort to know that the worst is seemingly over and that some day down the road, you’re going to get a paycheck.  For now you just gotta hold tight, pinch your pennies while giving yourself some occasional leeway for fun and hunker down.

And of course, keep writing, writing, writing and pitching your ass off.  ‘Cuz the only thing better than selling a show could be selling three. 

Sorry about the delay in posting this.  Life has been what can only be called interesting.

It started getting rough when my wife and I figured out that we only had about four months of savings left to keep us afloat before literally having to give up our apartment.  Ahhh, the writer’s life.  Needless to say, the stress was brutal and had us both amping up the already ten hours a day of job applications to everything from our fields to Walmart.  At this point we’d gotten nothing.  Not even a return call.

It’s been pretty frustrating.  I mean, I couldn’t even land a writer’s assistant job.  The very job that I did for like six years before landing my first full time staff gig.  It’s like once you go writer, you can’t go back.  Either you’re overqualified or people just feel bad and don’t want to look at you having taken a “step back” and wonder if they’ll ever be in your shoes.  Frustrating.

Well, then there was the pitch.  The last thing I blogged about.  Like I said, the pitch went well and I was pretty stoked on it.  But then one day passed… then another… then another… that’s not good news when it comes to a pitch.  Then Thanksgiving break came which meant at least another five days on top of the week we’d already been waiting.  I (and most of my writing pals) thought it was a pass.  Often what happens in this town is if a network likes you and wants to work with you in the future, they won’t tell you “no” at all.  They’ll just pretend it never happened.  As if saying “no” would make you not want to work with them again.  Frustrating.

But HAZZAH!  I got a call from my friend who brought me in on the pitch on Tuesday and low and behold, THEY BOUGHT THE SHOW!  I still can’t quite believe it.

So now the next step of the process begins.  Any time a pitch is based on an original property, in this case a comic book, it’s gonna be a while before a deal is closed and any money comes in.  Not to mention of course me being the low man on the totem pole in this.  But I couldn’t be happier and I will surely wait as long as it takes.  Which brings me back to the beginning of this post.

Anyone looking for a writer’s assistant?