When time is more important than money

I know that is hardly ever the case in this money obsessed country.  And I too have to eat and keep a roof over my head.  Yet ever since my days as an actor I have tried to keep to deadlines.  Back in the summer of 1996, during the Olympics here in Atlanta, I was given an opportunity in a two-performance production by a local playwright.  The catch was that I had just over a week to prepare.  It was a challenge, and I was brimming with confidence at the time, so I accepted.  The experience was probably one of my proudest moments as an actor.  It proved to me and to others that I was serious about the craft and capable of creating something of value with a limited amount of time.

Since transitioning to writing I have tried to keep the same mindset as I had back then: Establishing deadlines and abiding by them.  I am a firm believer that if you do not hold yourself accountable then you're not only letting yourself down, which is the worst thing you can do, but also others.  My screenplay 4-way, I wrote with Charles Thomas, was another example of abiding by a set amount of time and then delivering.  We knocked that first draft out in under two weeks.

These are only two examples.  Neither of which were done for any promised money.  But they were both experiences that helped shape my approach to my chosen art form of the moment.  In both instances the conditions surrounding each were perfect.  Unfortunately this is not always the case, as we all know.

My self-imposed July deadline for Monarch was one that I had every intention of keeping, and if I hadn't been held up by my aging body I would likely have achieved it, too.  (To those of you who were hoping to read Stage One this month I apologize.)  I actually chose to write this story because of its time constraints and the fact that I had been able to deliver in the past.  I knew going in that this story may have an expiration date for a potential readers interest, because it deals with 12/21/2012.  The fact that any possible money that might be made from this project will likely be made prior to 2013 might have dissuaded another writer from tackling the story.  That does not bother me; because, to me, it is just another time challenge to create something of value on a deadline.  I consider it a part of my continuous training as a writer.

Should someone take interest in my work and choose to pay me for it, great!  But then they may actually want something else after that.  Thus I would be on another deadline to deliver, and I would be prepared to fulfill that want.  So, yes, for now, time is more important than money.

-aap