The Show

Last summer something clicked in me and I instantly knew that I wanted to write a script about a baseball team. But not really about the team, more about the people on the team - the owners, managers, players, etc. I wanted to set something in the arena of baseball. I don't know if it was the third straight Lugnuts game I attended or the excitement of Detroit having a really good season, but I knew I wanted to explore it further.

So I bought several books on baseball, devoured them through the fall, watched as many Tigers' games as I could, and kept a notebook of ideas. I didn't want to rush this script, it felt special in a way I hadn't experienced before. It felt bigger than the others.

In the meantime I wrote a spec script (an episode of Community) and another pilot script (Torched, centering around a woman arson investigator) and kept taking notes, kept learning. And then finally, in February, I felt it was time. I'd figured out the main character and some of the story but now it was time to pull it all together. And today? Today I wrote "End of Show" on the script.

It was a weird sensation, several hours ago, knowing that I was almost done with the rough draft. Sure, there's a lot of rewriting and editing to come and I know that's never easy but for me, the bones are laid, the creation is complete. Most likely the people or the plot won't change now. I love what I have. And here's the thing - I didn't want to finish. I did not want to write "End of Show" on that last page. Sure it felt great once I'd done it but I really wasn't ready to be done with this story yet.

So I'll continue on this week and next, writing a bible for the series, an exercise I've never done. It's where you create a document (anywhere from a few pages to a hundred or so) that lists the backstory, the characters, everything and anything about your script's world and possible storylines. I'm excited to keep thinking of these characters and there lives but I'm excited to have them down on paper too.

As one of my favorite writers, Anne Lamott, said just today on Twitter, the first draft is a miracle, it exists where NOTHING did before. And tonight, I take great joy and satisfaction in that.

Play ball!