2017 Q1 Update
For those of you following along at home, I committed to some fairly ambitious goals for this year. To hold myself accountable, I will post quarterly updates and use them to reflect on progress. Words cannot express how grateful I am to all of you who continue to support me through these objectives despite how weird or inconvenient some of them may be.
Blog every day
Yep, on track. 90 days in and 90 posts (this counts for my 91st). Follow me on Medium to keep up! Except for people following on twitter, it sounds like it’s not particularly easy to keep up with posts, so I am considering reverting to my old wordpress. If you have any thoughts, please let me know.
Visit my seventh of seven continents
I booked and paid for an expedition to Antarctica November 13–26 by way of Buenos Aires and Ushuaia, Argentina. My brother and his girlfriend, Jen, will accompany me. While we still need to buy clothes for the cold and book one last airbnb in Ushuaia, flights, hotels, transportation, and the boat are secured. For all intents and purposes, this goal is very much in motion.
Read ten books
So far, so good! I’m near the end of my fourth book and have scheduled the other six at a pace of roughly 14 pages per day. For my sanity and clarity of mind amidst pursuing all of these other intellectually demanding goals, I’ve added more fiction to the list to alternate with non-fiction. I’ve read The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler, World After Capital by Albert Wenger, Shadows of the Empire by Steve Perry, and America’s Constitution: A Biography by Akhil Reed Amar. Next up? The Fellowship of the Ring.
Keep alcohol consumption to no more than 6 drinks per week
I am about one week behind on this goal. Rather than cap drinking outright, I’ve allowed myself to accrue six drinks per week to keep life flexible for things like out of town visitors, birthday benders, bachelor parties, and special events. Due largely to the perfect storm of a friend visiting for five days, perfect weather in Denver, brewery collaboration events across town, birthdays, and celebrations all in a matter of ten days in March, I am six drinks in debt going into April. Fortunately, I do not anticipate an event warranting heavy drinking until the end of May and have a lot of project work to do before then, so it should not be too difficult to get back on track.
Assemble a show bible and write the pilot for a dramatic series
I am on track with my research schedule for this project. This past Monday, I finally finished a 313 hour research binge and dramatic outline (of which 223 hours were logged in 2017). This roughly equated to giving myself a college minor in history of the Roman Republic. Beyond Roman history, I have two months scheduled for research into other texts and historical events around that same time period. All of this historical research will frame the telling of a modern story and help me outline four seasons of television. With luck, all research on narrative and allegorical frameworks will end in May and give way to building the show bible in June and July. I am averaging just shy of 20 hours per week on this project and feeling good enough about it.
Finish a feature-length screenplay adaptation
While I can account for far less measured progress against this goal than others, I have had a few narrative and character breakthroughs that I am excited to play with. That said, I did spend 75 hours in March engaging with material from the franchise I aim to adapt. One might call it “research.” Once I finally finish my “research,” more time will open to get tactical on making more measured progress herein. I hope to have a much more concrete update for this project next quarter.
Until next quarter, please feel free to give me a hard time about my projects. Given that they’re all 100% self-motivated, I can use all the help and support I can get!
