how i am here and who i am
stumbled upon this site through the unlikeliest of places but find it a low barrier of entry to get some thoughts on some ones and zeroes. for now, just as i’ve done in the past, i’ll keep my identity hidden but not a secret. if anyone cared enough to go sherlock on this, they could certainly put pieces together. but i struggle with this public face and so for now, you can call me codax. he/him/his human who had an amazing year in 2018 selling his first television pilot script, staffing on his first produced television show, and landing a big studio feature rewrite job. since then, it’s slowed down significantly. for much of 2020, i blamed it on the circumstances of the year. how could writing jobs come in when production wasn’t happening? there was a bottleneck in the industry and so development all across the board ceased. deep down, however, i also knew that i was the problem.
a selection of my struggles of 2020 and the ‘why’
i could make countless excuses that year, the identification of China being an existential threat, BLM, moving back in with my parents, the year of turning thirty years old… the list is an endless rite aid receipt. i know i shouldn’t be so hard on myself for that year, especially because i did find productivity. i wrote a new pilot and a new feature, but these two projects also revealed a giant flaw in my process, one that a former writing partner seemed to fill incredibly well. like any other dopamine addicted creative, i would start, relying on others to finish and refine. so the past several years have been a self examination on whether i’ve ever in my now 32 years of living ever really understood how to finish something. i wouldn’t consider myself jack of all trades, master of none. more, master of beginnings, jester of endings. as if when writing a project, my ‘setup’ is brilliant and exciting, the ‘debate’ challenging, but as we enter into act two… it all fizzles. any amateur screenwriter struggles with this. you might even have an incredible twist but will it ever feel earned if that meat on the bones has substance? me not being able to truly take a project to the finish line was a reflection of this. i was stuck in the act one of my life.
where we are now and what to expect
as we enter the final days of 2022, it’s time to commit to some changes. and my one hope is that this substack can be one of those commitments. writing is personal and so you can expect from this arena an exploration of my life. i recognize i’ve been vague here but we will throw certain moments under the microscope and see how they’ve affected who i am and how it’s moved my writing. i hope to answer any questions about breaking in as a screenwriter, working at an a list talent agency (i worked my up from the infamous mailroom to assistant), working for an a list academy award winning director, writing in a television writers room, and anything else. the kind of community i would love to build is comprised of anyone who loves story, storytellers, creatives of all walks of life, the motivated and the ones seeking motivation, the procrastinators and the type a control freaks… i welcome you all with open lanky arms. if you’re interested in what i may have to say, then i’m interested in accepting your money. but you also need not pay anything! i intend to post a lot of free content. the goal is to post every day, with at least one free post a week. the subscription tier will include more specifics on what types of projects i’m working (read: struggling) on and will also be a place where i’m unafraid to doxx myself regularly. simply, i’ll be more open in the paid tier. what you should not expect is perfectly edited writing. part of this commitment is that it should remain fun and the moment i obsess with the perfection of this (although it contradicts what i’ve cited as my weakness), is the moment this becomes a chore and less fun. so let’s keep it fun and break into our second acts together!