Ep. 489: Feeling Less Fractured & Giving Good Logline

Happier in Hollywood

Hosts Liz Craft and Sarah Fane discuss finding a rare moment of professional focus while working on their projects 'Bad Trip' and 'Angry Unl

Key takeaways

The hosts are currently prioritizing two specific projects: the book 'Bad and Trip' and the pilot 'Angry Unlikable Women'.
Sarah is navigating a 'season of sacrifice' due to the demands of training her new puppy, Pumpkin Spice.

Main topics

Professional focus and productivity
The 'Season of Sacrifice' mental framework

Notable quotes

If you acknowledge that this is a season, then it's much easier to get through it.

Conclusion

The episode provides actionable mental reframing tools for managing li

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:02) I have Speaker 2 (0:06) a confession to make on my word count the other day. Speaker 1 (0:11) So, Speaker 2 (0:11) because the previous day I had done like 520 words, I decided the next day to do 480. And yes, I was counting. You know Speaker 3 (0:22) what? That's okay. I'm sure I've never done that, and I never will. So, no judgment here. Speaker 2 (0:37) Hi, and welcome to Happier in Hollywood, the podcast about how to be happier, healthier, saner, more creative, more successful, and more productive in a backbiting, superficial, chaotic, unpredictable, fundamentally insane world. I'm Liz Craft, a TV writer and producer living in L.A., and with me is my high school friend and writing Speaker 3 (0:57) partner, Sarah. That's me, Sarah Fane. On this podcast, we talk about being writers in Hollywood, how we balance a career and friendship, and how to survive the war of attrition that is life in Los Angeles. Today, Speaker 2 (1:10) we're going to discuss how, for the first time in a long time, we don't feel all over the place. Then in Take a Hike, we revisit the topic of seasons of sacrifice. Sarah is in one. I am. This Speaker 3 (1:25) week's Hollywood hack has my floors looking amazing. Finally, I have a book Speaker 2 (1:30) recommendation. But first, a quick update. Wanted to let everyone know, Sarah, that over on Happier with Gretchen Rubin, we are preparing for our next book club episode. And we are reading Harlan Coben's new book, which is called Plot Twist, Life, Craft, and the Messy First Draft. It's a memoir on writing. It's great. Highly recommend. And of course, you and I worked with Harlan. Yes, we did a pilot. Speaker 3 (2:00) Based on a couple of his books several years ago for Sony, he is truly the nicest guy. I'm so glad you get to talk to him with Gretchen, and I can't wait to read his book. Speaker 2 (2:12) Yes, it's really insightful. In case you don't know, he is a hugely successful mystery writer, has many TV shows. and movies. So anyway, read Plot Twist by Harlan Coben, and you can send questions to happierinhollywoodatgmail.com, and I will pass them along to the Happier podcast as we prepare for that episode. Speaker 3 (2:36) All right, Liz, it's time for From the Treadmill Desks Up, where we talk about what's most pressing in our work psyches. And right now, it's just savoring this moment of not feeling. fractured or at least less fractured. Speaker 2 (2:51) Yes. So Sarah, we talk a lot about feeling like we're being pulled in a thousand different directions, you know, how we have all these different projects and we're constantly trying to balance what to do each day and having to switch from one to the other and not knowing kind of how to distinguish, okay, what's important versus urgent. And it's an ongoing discussion we've had on the podcast. But right now, we're pretty focused. Yes, we are Speaker 3 (3:22) in this moment where we know that our top two priorities are the book, Bad Trip, and the original pilot, Angry Unlikable Women, that we're writing. And we're really trying to stick to a schedule of, in the morning, we talk about and break. Angry Unlikable Women. And in the afternoon, we write at least 500 words of bad trip. Speaker 2 (3:45) Yes. And it's been going well. And we've really gotten a lot done on both fronts. When we're feeling so fractured, Speaker 3 (3:55) I always yearn for a time like this. And I am really enjoying it. It does. feel, though, unfortunately, like the second we found this rhythm, other things started to impede on our day and butt in and appear. And that has been frustrating. Speaker 2 (4:21) I know. So I was thinking about that because, you know, I knew obviously we were going to talk about this. And I was thinking about, I hope this lasts, though, however, because it feels. There's stuff on the edges. Just Speaker 3 (4:33) pushing, pushing right at the boundaries, right? It Speaker 2 (4:35) always Speaker 3 (4:35) happens. Speaker 2 (4:36) But at least we have this time. The other thing I was thinking about, and I think maybe it's partly because we're not so fractured or maybe because we're working on two things that are of us very much. I'm feeling like I did before we ever got our first job and we were working on things where it was just so self-motivated. And it just has that feel. It Speaker 3 (5:01) does. No, I woke up at 530 this morning, not on purpose. That's when I woke up and I grabbed my iPad and I started working on my words for the day, which is very much going back to when we were on the shield and writing our young adult books. And I would get up and just type, type, type, type, type in the morning. And I love that Speaker 2 (5:25) feeling. It is really helpful not to have a million things going on. But at the same time, here's what I will say. I do get a little bit of a nagging, like, anxiety when we don't have outside things. I mean, the good thing is, though, we always have them. Speaker 3 (5:47) I mean, we were just talking about things already starting to push at the boundaries. And part of why we have this time is that we're waiting. for various things to happen on a couple of things. So at some point, those will come raging back in and that will happen very quickly. I think I just would like another month of this. If we could get another month of this, that would feel like we can't. Like I already can tell that we can't, but that's my dream. If we could, it would be such a luxury. Speaker 2 (6:18) It would. Well, we will just do what we can. when we can. And the good news is on the pilot, for instance, the book is its own animal that we have been wrestling for so long now. The pilot, though, I feel like we've made enough progress that progress can continue even... When we are more fractured, if you see what I'm saying. I feel like we've been focused enough. It's gelled enough. Absolutely. That we are well down the road. Speaker 3 (6:52) Agree. And just spoiler alert for our conversation later. I did have a thought today on the story we were struggling with yesterday. So I'm feeling slightly more hopeful this morning than I did yesterday afternoon. Speaker 2 (7:08) Oh, good. Excellent. Love to hear it. Yes. Okay, Sarah, it is time for Take a Hike when we talk