Eye on the target, Pull the string back...

Each and every early morning, there's a cafe waiting for me. Owner with a friendly hello, and off at the front counter, hunched with pen and paper, another writer.

And, very often, when I take a break from my laptop, and he takes a break from his paper, we talk.

He used to work in the story department of a TV show, a one-hour drama, (one-camera) and it's refreshing to talk with someone who knows the difference between breaking a story, and deciding where the commercials go. He's understandably cynical of the industry, of what goes on, but he's surprising relaxed and candid to share his experience with me. (I withhold his name only because I haven't asked him if I can include him here.)

And it reached the point, on Monday, in our talks, that I could open up my concerns about my own writing.

"I'm really good at starting things..." and I let that linger, settle in. Then again, "really good at starting things."

The answer is a smile that already knows what I mean, I don't have to repeat.

"In TV, you don't have a lot of time, maybe two weeks. Let's say three days to break story, to get a solid structure, and the remaining time to deliver your script." He's a big one on "getting the structure down solid, it's like building the framework before you start finishing rooms. Writing a scene is finishing a room."

He's knows, from first meeting me, my aim is features, and he knows I'm working on one, but at the moment, we're sticking to TV.

"What do you watch?"

I tell him the current show that I know best, "Lost" .... "-- but it's serialized, arcs for the whole series ... you can't spec that."

"No problem, because you're not going for a staff position. You're just going to write an episode that demonstrates that you understand its tone and structure."

Okay...

"And I have two weeks?"

He considers that for the briefest of seconds, "You have exactly one month."

"That would make it...."

"... February 28th."

And he's already hunched over his writing.

"And, if i can't make that deadline, we write an agreement that I'll never work in this biz again?"

He turned cold. "You keep going. Never Quit."

I smiled agreement, and returned to my table.

What'd'ya know, I aim for features, and TV specs are the way to get there. I didn't see that coming.

Is he advising me right? Is this good before I finish my feature spec?