Heidi's Journey

Ever faced a disappointment in life? Me too. Here's how I am turning my latest into a win!

Note: Since writing this post I started using a pen name, not for secrecy but because my last name is difficult to say. So the image below shows Heidi Sawitzke for State of Nature . That's me! Maybe I will do a post about pen names. A lot has happened since my last post! 1) Harvard found my thesis advisor! 2) Schools out for summer! 3) I made it into the top 25 of the Save the Cat Competition! 4) Today is my first day of the year of following my dreams! While all of those so

I am a perfectionist. As in, I have a bit of an issue with beating myself up over every little mistake I make. Some people wear their perfectionism like a badge of honor. They cling to the idea that they can reach a version of themselves where they will always do the right thing and be recognized for all their hard work. People have little competitions, never stated but always there, with other perfectionists about who is working the hardest, suffering the most, and deserves

I don't have a lot of time to contribute to the blog at the moment. It saddens me, but I have a lot going on in the next couple of weeks! So what I figured is that I would show you how I work through overwhelming times in my life in case you have similar issues pop up. I hope it's helpful to someone! 1. Recognize Stress I used to be terrible at recognizing the buildup of stress in myself. It would pile on further and further until I would break down, usually in the form of te

Note: This is the third post in a three post series about writing a Spec Script. If you haven't read the first and second posts, you can find them here: Pre-Work and Plotting . In my first post, I came up with six steps to writing that spec script. As a refresher they are: 1. Choose a show 2. Study said show 3. Find a minor detail that you can spin into a plot 4. Outline your episode 5. Write that first draft! 6. Edit it! This post is going to focus on steps five and six, s

Note: This is the second post in a three post series about writing a Spec Script. If you haven't read the first post, you can find it here. In my first post, I came up with six steps to writing that spec script. As a refresher they are: 1. Choose a show 2. Study said show 3. Find a minor detail that you can spin into a plot 4. Outline your episode 5. Write that first draft! 6. Edit it! This post is going to focus on steps three and four, which are a bit of a puzzle, so let's

I just typed ‘The End’ for my first spec script. It’s a first draft, a very messy one (I did the actual writing in just four days), but it is a draft. So I thought it might be nice, for those of you who are thinking about writing your first spec script, to hear the process! First Things First, What is a Spec Script? A spec script for television is an episode written for a show already on the air. This script will almost certainly never be bought or produced—so why do it? Spec

Hello there, Lurkers! I see you, I’ve been you, and I am here to tell you why it’s important to subscribe to people you support. First off, how many junk emails a year do you get from people you don’t know, don’t like, and don’t care one iota for? A lot, right? What do you do with those emails? I’d bet that you simply get rid of them. There is no reason you can’t do that with a subscribed email from someone you actually support. And hey, if they put out something that grabs y

I have been hustling. Like, seriously, any time not at work I’ve been writing. You see, I still have nine weeks of my teaching contract to fulfill. Even though I won’t be returning, I am giving these kiddos everything I’ve got until we part. That’s just who I am. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave me a lot of time to work on my writing, hence the whole quitting teaching thing. As Stephen King said in his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft , “teaching school is like having

Yup. You heard me right. I am quitting my stable job to become a writer. No, it isn’t ‘sweet’ or ‘cute’. It is a career change, just like millions of people do all the time. But the difference is I’m not making a brick and mortar business, one that people can understand, one where they can grasp onto that sticky table with the gum underneath and wipe off all that tangibility. No. My business is in my mind. And if you’re not privy to my mind, I can understand how you can’t con