A Scattered Day

The morning started so well, with the first wave of cards going on the board --



Solid inspiration born out of a good morning of writing in bed. But then I had to hop on a conference call, then head out for a Break the Cycle presentation, so my flow was cut short.

Made a quick stop at Costco on the way back, where the excess is excessive --



I always like to look at the books, so neatly stacked and arranged --





Imagining the day when a book with my name on the cover appears among the titles. Sigh...

Left the store feeling in an emotional and creative funk. Probably because I've been listening to The Last Five Years cast album for two days straight. Raw and really depressing stuff, especially this track --



By the time I got to the Writers Junction for the evening, I wasn't feeling up for anything creative. I tried a few things to cheer up - caught up on photos of Boo, listened to the Hoops & Yoyo Christmas album, and read this beautiful NY Times article about my friend Suzanne's wedding, but never really snapped out of it.

These are the moments where discipline is proven, so rather than go home and call it a night, I forced myself to do one more 30-minute interval of writing that turned into an hour. Ended the night with a whole new set of cards on the board --



Take that, scattered brain!

Monday in Motion

Monday mornings are my favorite thanks to Zumba with Ashley. The best way to kick off my week! (And break my staying up too late / sleeping late cycle.)



The rest of the day was spent in the quiet, creative confines of the WriteGirl office. The view from my "desk," including a glimpse of Executive Director Keren Taylor hard at work --



If anyone knows any affluent people who are interested in changing the world, send them to WriteGirl! We're already transforming girls' lives - we just need sustained financial support to continue doing it. And it's all tax-deductible!

Evening was spent at a mixer for writers in Hollywood, rubbing elbows and talking about scripts. No sarcasm here - you already know how much I love meeting other writers. It was a truly wonderful night.

I connected with a few old friends, and ran into this crowd of people I'd just seen the night before!



They're stalking me, clearly.

By the time I got home, I was exhausted, so no writing happened.  Ack, not good. Promise to carve out time in the morning...

Sunday By The Hour

10:53 am - Woke up, shocked that I slept so late. Then remembered that I stayed up until 2am, so maybe it wasn't that weird.

11:15 am - Breakfast in bed!


11:24 am - Settled in for a Relax & Write meditation.

12:08 pm - Meditation completed. Opened my journal and started writing.


1:12 pm - Finished writing another chunk of my sci-fi novel! Indulged in an email, Twitter, and Facebook break. Yes, I was still in bed. (I love my life.)

2:00 pm - Lunch break! Chicken, spinach, artichoke, Parmesan, and egg scramble with fresh squeezed orange juice in a wine glass, because my drinking glasses were all in the dishwasher.


I felt pretty great about my creation until my sister texted me a picture of her lunch --


Korean BBQ - jealous!

I dined while watching the latest episode of Top Chef, featuring guest judge Chef Eddie Huang.

Many of my actor friends recently auditioned for a TV pilot based on Eddie's memoir Fresh Off the Boat, a title that made everyone roll their eyes. What the heck was this show going to be about?

But after watching him in action and doing some online research, I'm intrigued. He's a brash, unique personality who left the good Chinese lawyer son path to become a celebrity chef. It should be an interesting show!

3:10 pm - Transcribing time. I always write my fiction long-hand in journals, which means everything needs to be typed up after the fact. I try not to let the writing stack up too much before I transcribe it, but I've been lazy, which meant I had a lot of catching up to do.


4:00 pm - Still typing. Though I did take a break mid-way to watch these --




5:00 pm - Still typing! Damnit!

5:37 pm - Done! 22,000 words so far. Not that impressive when you consider that I started on January 1st and declared I would be done with this thing by the end of the year. Maybe I should adopt a NaNoWriMo-type mindset and drive to 50,000 words by December 31st. Oh, we'll see...

6:00 pm - Left the house for a party. What? Me at a social event? My friend Julian generously invited me to the cast party for Artist At Play's Cowboy vs. Samurai. I'm a huge fan of their work and am fortunate to count many of the actors and artistic directors as my friends.

I was a fly on the wall as they laughed and reminisced about their successful run --


And enjoyed the best homemade pound cake ever --


10:00 pm - Arrived home and jumped right back into my pajamas. Beat out this blog post and some more thoughts for my new pilot...

1:47 am - Called it a day - good night!

Retreating and Reviewing

Today was more productive than yesterday, but not by much!

I awoke early to read a short film script in preparation for an afternoon student film audition. The script was based on Sherwood Anderson's painfully beautiful short story "The Triumph of the Egg," written in 1921. A classic, moving portrait of desperation and the American dream - read it for yourself!

Then it was off to the annual WriteGirl volunteer retreat! Held at the GRAMMY Recording Academy in Santa Monica. Such a cool building --



Grabbed a brand new journal from a table full of generously donated journals - thank you Paper Blanks and Leuchtturm1917!



Our fearless leader Keren Taylor getting volunteers ready for a new season of mentoring teen girls through creative writing!





Lunch was the best potluck spread ever. Better than any Las Vegas buffet I've ever seen!









Remember those posterboards I bought last night? I used them to make this display to recruit volunteers to the Public Relations team --



Though the In-Schools team leader had me beat with her Mr. T sign --



Ended the retreat with a professional development panel of accomplished women writers and agents --



I love being a volunteer for this inspirational and impactful nonprofit!

My afternoon audition got postponed due to filmmaker illness, so I headed over to the Writers Junction for the rest of the night. Snagged one of the private writing rooms --



And hunkered down for some writing time, baby! I reviewed all my random notes on my pilot idea and started pulling them together into a series proposal. Aiming to finish by tomorrow night in time to send out for writers group!

Ended the night with a little transcription work on my sci-fi novel. Feeling good about tomorrow - a whole day free to just write! We'll see how it goes...

Accountability Check, Please!

Working stiffs often talk about striving to find a work / life balance. Now that I'm working part-time at WriteGirl, one of the non-profits with which I volunteer, I'm realizing I need to find a work / work / life balance.

That is, I need to find enough time in my week for my public relations duties for WriteGirl, my writing, while maintaining some semblance of a life.

In the past few weeks, it's the middle category that's been suffering. I need to get going on this new TV pilot script and I have an unfinished novel nagging at my door. And I'm really eager to spend more time on them. But the one thing I don't have more of is time.

So I'm turning to this blog for some accountability. Like I did during my previous Writer's Diet Experiments, I'm committing to one week of daily blogging, with the hopes that reporting my day to day actions will force me to find a balance.

Because if you don't see me writing enough, I give you permission to fill my inbox with finger-wagging messages. Here goes!

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Friday began with an audition for a TV comedy. My waiting room spot was right next to the casting office's drop box, which was overflowing with actors' hopes and dreams --


I was thoroughly entertained by this excellent piece of art in the office --


The Periodic Table of the Muppets? Genius!


After my audition, I headed to the WriteGirl office for the rest of the day, intending to leave by 5pm. I left around 6:30pm. Ack.

Was greeted by this stunning sunset as I got on the freeway --


Made a quick stop at the 99 Cent Only store to pick up some posterboards for a WriteGirl-related art project --


More on that tomorrow...

Then, I made dinner and caught up on episodes of Revenge while doing some more WriteGirl stuff. Looking back, I should have written in the morning before going to my audition. Ah, hindsight.

See why I need help? Here's to more productivity tomorrow...

Writer's Diet, Days 6 & 7 - Lazy Conclusion

Where did I go after last Friday's Writer's Diet Experiment? What happened to Days 6 & 7?

I guess you could say I went on a mental vacation. Wish it were a literal one to Hawaii or something, but no, I just could not bring myself to blog after my busy weekend.

But for those who've been anticipating the end of my experiment, here's what happened last weekend.

Saturday started the way every Saturday starts for me - with class at Relax & Write --

And ended with a fundraiser for Artists at Play, a friend's theater company --

FUNdrasier, to be exact, with all the trappings of a great event. Drinks --

Food from The Bun Truck --

I got a Kalbi Marinated Sirloin Bun, a Deep Fried Pork Katsu Bun, and Duck Fat Fries. Flavor heaven!

And a dessert bar from Sugar Fix --

The Brown Butter & Sea Salt Rice Crispy Treats were amazing!

And of course, great friends --

Entertainment was terrific - from an intense Rock Paper Scissors tournament --

To the always incredible Prince Gomolvilas recounting the hilarious adventure that began with his blog post "How Gay is 'High School Musical'?". Epic.

I had to leave early because of the short film shoot the next morning, but not before I won a prize in the raffle --

A 2-Hour Headshot Session with M. Palma Photography - woot! Teresapalooza out!

Here's the video recap of the event -- congrats to Artists at Play for a fantastic evening!

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Last Sunday began early - 4:00 am to be exact. I whipped up some Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches for crafty and picked up a coffee traveler from Starbucks.

The shoot began in the apartment in downtown LA --

Then moved to outside a Walgreens --

We don't look conspicuous at all, do we?

The bulk of the day was spent shooting a scene in a car. From the outside, we couldn't hear a thing.

You can see me in the background of this shot, trying to figure out if the scene is going well.

Then back to the apartment building to grab one last scene in a public bathroom --

A long day, but a wonderfully successful one. Happy director --

And a happy producer, with the lead actress and the key prop --

That's a wrap on the shoot...

And a wrap on my Writer's Diet experiment! Phew - day in the life blogging can be time-consuming. I don't know how Lynn Chen does it.

Until next time...