54 days in LA: A guide to selling your screenplay.

Today’s entry is gonna be hella short. I still have a thousand things to do, but I have some major discoveries on the road to getting a script acquired. So make sure you check out the bolded sections.
Ok, so here it goes.
Where there is light, there is also, dark. And this journey in LA is no different.
I told myself upon coming here that I would most likely discover things about myself that didn’t work here, every day.
I was right.
The good news is, I’ve worked hard to actively maintain a viewpoint that all my frustration is, in fact, a weakness in myself, instead of a flaw in the external world. Not only does this prevent me from seeing the outside world as hostile, but it also promotes self-growth in a constant flow.
It’s not about being hard on yourself, it’s about adaptation and evolution in a city where it is demanded upon the sword of greatness. A city that doesn’t stop to check the pulse of the fallen, casting those resistant and stubborn ‘dreamers’ to the dirty curbs between West Hollywood and Downtown.
It’s not malicious or diabolical. People talk about people from LA as if they’re jerks and monsters. But that’s not how it works. It is the entertainment capital of the world, taking the best of the best from millions and millions of hopers and dreamers and finding that .1% that doesn’t suck. It doesn’t have time to look through every shit script, nor does it have the time to read your messages, take a phone call or anything else.
They’ve already got a thousand of those each to get done by Friday. It’s not about you, it’s not even about them. It’s about something bigger. It’s about the cult of performance, of color and metaphor, seduction and persuasion. It’s a spirit that has long lived in our bones and in our blood, which urged itself into manifestation as an enormous hub of human interaction, we all call “Greater Los Angeles.”
If that disheartens you, then you should stay home. Because the odds are you suck at writing. The odds are I do too. But to the extent we are willing to change and improve through the brutally hard work it takes to do so, is what separates the winners from the losers in this city. If that inspires you, then buy a plane ticket tomorrow and know that if you let this place in, it will transform you into the artist you need to be, with the thickness of skin you need to have.
I try my best in every aspect of my life, to not have an Us vs. Them mentalities. Because it never helped anybody do anything.
If the cars drive fast and honk, then I’ll drive fast and honk too. If they need you running around the city with a set of four of the most ridiculously long mixtures of coffee, milk, sugar and other stuff, then that’s what you do.
Evolve, blend, become. And get where you are going. Be like water.
With that said, I know we all fail sometimes, and internalize the external struggle.
I am no stranger these past two days.
My major external struggle is this mess of a hostel. It’s terrible. Like really terrible. Nothing I have ever been used to. In my opinion, it shouldn’t even be allowed on Airbnb, and they should come up with a better system of vetting people.
The smoke alarms hang by the wires out of the walls.
Their advertised ‘common area’ is just a wasteland of garbage, linens that you’re not sure whether they’re clean or not, random clothes probably from a renter that left years ago, five parking spots for 7 cars, and so many other terrible things.
Oh like the fridge, or, half fridge for ten rooms, that’s more like an electric powered cave full of little monsters. The mold is working on nuclear energy.
And none of the tenants talk to each other. There is no manager or day to day cleaner. So there’s no connectivity. How can the fridge get cleaned if no one knows if the food is someone’s who is currently here or left a month ago?
But we’re taking it in stride because just down the street are some of the most amazing places in the world.
I lost my temper a little this morning when someone was blocking my car in the parking lot.
“They didn’t leave a fucking note?” I said as I looked at the side window.
No, they did, it was on the front window. Which I didn’t even bothered to look at before losing my cool.
Is this what LA does to you, or is this just me?
Work is overwhelming me. Paying bills, my remote tutoring business, working on my screenplay and pitch bible, helping my friends with their work, maintaining my relationships and trying to figure out why half my back feels like it’s on fire for most of the day.
It’s just hard sometimes and it piles up. All I want to do right now is be stuck on the lake in a canoe, breathing, listening to the loons in the distance, fog completely cutting off my view from the shore.
I write for the story, for the art, but I also write to get there…
To be free, on my own terms and spend the best of my time with the people that I love. That’s why any of us do it, right?
And I’m stubborn as hell, so I don’t let any of it sway me. But it’s really fucking hard. Just the same, home is where the heart is and truly, all circumstances are ultimately fleeting. Life is a transient experience always in motion.
Today’s lesson is to breathe, rely on those things that bring you joy, be honest yet thoughtful with what you say. Don’t let anything sit on your shoulders, confront your demons and make the best of the worst situations. It will transform the environment and get you to the finish line.
Daily Networking: We kicked our LinkedIn contacting up to 20 connects a day and ten detailed messages. It takes about two hours which we split up, morning and night.
I added, talking to one person in public and asking them a question about selling a screenplay. My question right now, until I get a good answer is, “Where do the cool kids of filmmaking hang out?”
Today I got a recommendation to check out a place called LAMILLS Coffee on Silver Lake Blvd. We’re going to check it out tomorrow, and I’ll let you know what happens.
When you’re looking for people to connect with on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or wherever, look for junior executives, interns and people in ‘acquisitions.’ From what I am hearing from the industry experts, these are the people that are holding the doors open at places like Netflix, HBO and so on.
Pro Survival Tip: Find your Zen. Be honest, say what’s on your mind and be kind when you do it. One of the worst things you can do to your heart and mind is let something heavy weigh on it. It will mess with your mind and your body. Take walks, stretch, meditate, work out and do yoga. Lot’s of hours at the computer are gonna cramp you up and steal that natural nimble feeling. Counteract it with good practices.
Pro Writing Tip: Once you have completed the script, and I mean, once you have drafted the son of a bitch a hundred times, send your presumably pristine draft to a couple great editors and let them shred it for you. It’s a great investment long term, especially when you want to copyright it and not copyright it again. It’s twenty bucks every time so it WILL add up if you have to keep going back and changing the there’s to theirs.
Something about the Show (Excerpt from the “Purpose” of the show):
“The exploration of human organization, psychology, and interaction between individuals and groups is one of the most important foundational elements of the show. It’s not flashy, but it is substantial, providing a narrative backbone which allows for all other elements, fantastic and otherwise, to have momentum and endurance throughout the operation.
Human history is marked with many achievements and evolutions in these disciplines. From a world where most governments and their absolute leaders were “ordained” by “gods”, to royal bloodlines, to representative republics. The human political experiment has shown that there are so many ways to conduct a given nation or civilization. Is there a right way? When we change the way we operate governments, is it always an upgrade or is it more an adjustment to fit the current environment? If aliens started to invade the planet today, would we wait on Congress to pass bills or would we assign absolute power to a given few individuals we deem the most competent among the human race? It may be entirely circumstantial.”
People: Are too much for me sometimes.
People in LA: Mostly have LinkedIn premium. So it’s almost impossible to message them without having it too. Which is probably why they got it in the first place. It’s a vicious cycle I know I’m going to get pulled into.
I Am: Aggravated and my back hurts.
Thanks: To Jen, who has been one of the most wonderfully supportive and resourceful people in my life for years. I don’t know what I would even be if she wasn’t there. Probably a houseplant. With brown leaves.