I’ve been lucky to travel a lot this year. So far I’ve gotten to DC, NYC, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Phoenix/Arcosanti, Reno & Tahoe, Temecula — and most of those were “work” trips where I was visiting clients or doing research for my projects.
Traveling for your story is a must. I’m not saying that because I need to rationalize my spending on the travel that isn’t subsidized by my freelancing. (Okay, maybe that’s part of it!)
In the past few months, I’ve been writing and rewriting my new pilot that’s set in the Bay Area. Hitting the road and visiting the places my script is set in transformed my story. I also got to see some dope sea lions, and briefly considered whether or not my cat would be cool if I adopted one.
Find Inspiring Writing Spaces
There’s a beautiful AirBnb in La Honda that’s a cottage on a gorgeous ranch with horses and an acre or so of grasslands. You can wander the property, say hey — or hay 😉 — to the horses, or take a short drive to the cliffs where you can ponder life’s darkest secrets across the glittering tidepools. To get to this space, you drive through forest tunnels, and it feels as if you’re entering another dimension. My host was also kind enough to help me build a firepit so I could sit outside by the fire and do my writing with a glass of wine. This place is my go-to writing retreat, especially since there’s no wi-fi and had to use data to get my daily dose of the garbage fire that are Twitter memes. (I almost avoided the 30-50 feral hogs meme, but alas.)
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Yet not everything survived the transition into the real world, and I ended yet another relationship that crumbled in the face of my long hours and steadfast dedication to my career. It’s no secret that the path to becoming a TV writer is a long road that requires both the fortitude and portfolio to succeed in a sea of overqualified candidates, and while I’m in it for the long haul, sometimes the people I date see my love for my work as a limitation instead of a key part of who I am.