My Life 101

228 days or 5,472 hours or 328,320 minutes.
That’s the time it took for you guys to get a new TV Calling post from me.

Is there anybody out there?

“Wait, wait! You’re telling me you still exist?”

Yes, I do!

After this wait, you may wonder, why come back at all?
If you’ve seen Galaxy Quest, then you know: Never give up, never surrender.
It may actually be better to ask why I took a break in the first place.
Time, travel, life.
Stuff happens.
Days turn into weeks, then months. And then it’s easier to not do than to do.
Sometimes it is also best to take a break from one writing to focus on another.

So what was 2012 like?
For one thing, the world did not end in December. That came as a shock to many people.
I was also busy re-watching Space Jam over and over again. Come on and slam!
A few pop-culture fads came and went. Psy anyone? Now we have some kind of Harlem Shake going on.
We also have a crazed ex-LAPD officer on a revenge binge running around our city.
On the entertainment front, well..
In those seven months, the biggest movies of all time came out, and they were…just okay.
J.J. was announced as the director of every movie and producer of every pilot.
Shows lived and shows died. Showrunners quit and showrunners were fired.

More importantly though, we opened a fancy Meetup group for TV writers like you.
It’s an off-shoot of the famous LA TV Writers Yahoo group.
Feel free to post all the meetups you want to host/attend. It is there for you!
I’ll probably end up adding a sidebar widget for upcoming events at some point.

Since people have been hammering me for months now about this very question:
Yes, the annual spec list will be published, but it’s still early February folks.
Many changes are afoot.
I know you were all excited to spec a Do No Harm, but sadly that ain’t happening.
All good things come to those who wait.

First things first.

Today, I come to you with a promise of hope and change.
And no, I’m not talking about a recovery, a bailout, medicare, or any other political issues.
I am talking about fresh new content. Right here. (right now?)

That’s right people. A TV Calling is back.

I am oiling this very machine (the website) to have it run more efficiently and smoothly (lean and mean). Faster load times, etc. It is, after all, a complex page with a lot of original graphics. This is kind of a behind-the-scenes makeover if you will.

I have also installed a brand new add-on/plug-in for all of the site’s posts: Flattr.
Flattr is a micro-donation service for creative content.
You set a monthly donation limit, and you “Flattr” (i.e. “like”) content across the web that you enjoy and/or think deserves something. At the end of the month, the set donation is divided across all the content you “Flattrd.“
Such a system may seem weird to install out of the blue. Simply put, I have been a fan of Flattr for a bit and I wanted to try it out from the creator’s angle. An experiment in progress.
I’ll expand on this process and why it matters on a creative level in an upcoming post.

On a personal note, I am also setting up 2013 to be kind of an experimental year for me on another front: life-logging. It is not as weird as it sounds. And you do not need to wait for Google Glass. This will be the subject of another post and, obviously, a very subjective article about my ongoing experiences with it.

You may think none of this has anything to do with TV writing or even the entertainment industry. What the hell is “life-logging” or “social micro-donations”?
But isn’t technology and new forms of storytelling what our industry is all about these days? What about monetization?
Yes, you will get actual articles about writing and television. These are just additional topics of conversation.
If you can’t expand your horizons, then what are you doing in a medium in constant flux?
Adaptation is the name of the game.
The distribution model is rapidly changing, and so is the creation model. For that matter, is there one to begin with? (that was deep)
Netflix premiered last week its first fully-developed series, House of Cards. Although not a completely original piece, it was still the first series of its kind in this new paradigm.
Ramblings to be developed in, you guessed it, a separate post.

To sum up.
Coming in the coming days, weeks, months: articles.
For real.

I hope you will follow me on this new journey.
Welcome to 2013.

Write on!

2 comments

Well hello there.

Firstly; no, I am not dead.
Let’s just say time flies when you’re having fun.

But back to why I’m posting this very post.

Today marks the fourth anniversary of A TV Calling.
Here I am, posting a little bit here, a little bit there, and four (four!) years later, this is where we are.
484 posts, and counting.
To put that into perspective, this blog has lasted longer than Arrested Development.

When I started A TV Calling a few years back (four to be exact — longer than Veronica Mars), there were only a few blogs dedicated to the business of television, let alone TV writing specifically.
I wanted to create a space of discussion, exchange, and camaraderie for (aspiring) television writers.
Ultimately, I can’t say this website has become as successful as Carnivale was, but clearly it lasted longer than the HBO show (i.e. four years).

This post seems to be the perfect place to thank the most integral part of this website: you.
That’s right, I really couldn’t have done it without you.
You’ve stuck around throughout the long months and years of void to come back, more determined, more focused, more writer (whatever that means).
I know you get what I am trying to convey through these long-winded sentences that never end and oh my god please just put a freaking full stop already I’m dying of old age over here. There.
Although I may not have had the time to personally respond to the many amazing e-mails I have received over the course of the past four years, I truly cherish them all.
I am oftentimes humbled by my fellow writers and readers of this website, who, little by little, are carving their way into writerdom.
This is not pandering, it’s the truth.
You are an amazing group of people.

But what I really want you to remember from this post, is that A TV Calling lives on beyond four extraordinary years.
In other words, longer than the original Star Trek series.

Now, unlike Dead Like Me, A TV Calling has lasted four years.
But what is the next frontier?

To tell you the truth, I am indeed planning on expanding this four year-old website into…something more.
Although I cannot give out details at this time, an announcement should be coming shortly (or not).
Definitely stay tuned.

I have just finished a gig so it looks like I’ll have more time on my hands to write (and write posts).
Comic-Con is fast approaching, so July may also be a little slow, but as Galaxy Quest once said:
’Never give up, never surrender!’

And now, as usual, let me conclude with my own inspirational prompt.
Write on!

See you on the next post.

2 comments

Is this mic still working?
Looks like I haven’t been here in a long while.
The truth of the matter of the fact of the reality is that I’ve been fairly busy (shoot-out to my work peeps).
That is, indeed, a poor excuse, but I don’t have a dog to blame everything on.

Moving on.

During my break-time from the blogosphere, I have received countless e-mails (I don’t know how to count over ten) about “when I would come back” or “how about you move your ass and write something to help me out on this Dallas spec?”, or better yet, “what’s up with that” (oooo ooo weeee).

My own bat-signal had been launched into the sky. My return to adventure. My moment of triumph. My call to arms.
But I resisted.
And then I realized.
Oh, who am I kidding?
A writer craves attention like Joffrey Baratheon needs a good smack-down.

Here we go.

It is with great sadness that, like all great Messiahs before me, I am announcing the launch of an exploratory committee to potentially, perhaps, maybe.…return to the world of wisdom-giving.

At this point, you may be wondering why I’m even bothering writing this post, especially if I am merely considering coming back instead of outright committing to it.

Here’s the thing: I can’t quit you guys. But I can’t quit my busy life either.
So, let’s make a deal.
I will come back here, as often as I can, to write interesting, insightful, thought-provoking, charming, magnificent, orgasmic, earth-shattering posts (notice the smooth transition to veridical adjectives).
In exchange for all of this, come back to me! Don’t leave me! You complete me! I have strong abandonment issues!
I’ll take your silence as your agreement.

But wait.
It’s not over yet.
You didn’t think I would write a new post four months after the last one just to ramble about, did you?

And now, for the real announcement everybody has been waiting for since the dawn of mankind…

I am currently working on the 2012 Spec List.
The double-whammy will be posted in the next couple of weeks.
What a twist!

To be continued.
For realsies.

3 comments