Cookie Jars

Ever been caught with your hand in a cookie jar? Did you still get a cookie? Most of the time, I ended up with a cookie regardless of whether or not I should have had my chubby little hand in the jar. I knew that if I just went for it, I would (a) get a cookie and no one would be the wiser, (b) get caught, but get a pity cookie, or (c) get caught and get nothing. The odds were always good that I would eventually be wrapping my lips around a sweet chocolate chip cookie or its equivalent, if there is such a thing. Fast forward to now.

I've got my hands in several cookie jars, increasing my odds and the stress of it all. I often ask myself if I am in over my head, or if I should just say screw it and pull out. I'm ink deep in 4 writing assignments! It should be 5, but at the time I thought that was too much. I have the adaptation I am working on, RAISED FROM THE DEAD; a sit-com pilot that I pitched successfully a few weeks back, but haven't written yet; a treatment based on another successful pitch for a feature film; and a rewrite of a screenplay that's getting a fair amount of attention, but is in need of some sub-plot tweaking. The fifth one is a rewrite I should be doing on my screenplay, BAD LEROY BROWN. It's going to have to wait. The previous 4 have the potential of being a career catapult for me and are a must do.

In the meantime, I'm producing at a sound effects company. In other words, I make a lot of phone calls, emails, write up budget reports, make schedules, gather releases, set up locations, conduct some PR work, evaluate effects, and do general busy work that would make any creative monkey crazy. Don't get me wrong, the producing gig is nice. Who would ever want to turn down a steady paying gig for the world of speculation? Not me. I've got a family that demands food in their bellies and clothes on their backs. Me? I could live on coffee and go to work in a loincloth.

Anyway, the whole point of this little moment we are sharing here on the Internet is to let me vent, avoid actually writing something towards the various projects I just listed, brag, and have a self realizing moment that I am a self-indulging knucklehead. I love honesty, don't you?

So, I'm interested in hearing your stories of overcommitting. What say you?

GW