I feel you

To be number one on the New York TIMES bestseller list, to achieve a $100 million opening weekend, to produce the top-rated cable show, to make a video go viral, _________________________ [no one has the answer].

I found clues in screenplay analysis class.

Screenplay analysis was the most challenging writing course I've taken. Each week we watched a new movie and dissected the structure and storytelling techniques such as planting and payoff, changing in place, polarity and more. The midterm terrified me and the final test took more than eight hours to complete (it was open book/open note).

Each of the films we studied during the semester had won major awards and I remember asking why, while many of the writers had written several screenplays, they hadn't won more than one award. The professor said he didn't have an easy answer.

A news story. A screenplay. A novel. A memoir. A documentary. A play. A cable series. 

It took years for me to learn how to tell a story. Then, after completing the master of professional writing degree I took more classes, studying screenwriting until I unraveled what had mystified me since I was a kid -- why does it feel as if no time has passed while watching some movies?

While analytics track and measure the reach and effectiveness of content, the magic comes when the audience is fully immersed in the content. Far from giving up their awareness they are not in a daze, their minds are working hard and quickly to decipher the incredibly complex elements built into well-crafted content.

Everyone who wants to leave 2016 behind -- I feel you.

At the office where I work (and it's a small office), five people have each lost a parent this year. My mom's lung cancer returned. She never smoked but has lived less than a block away from LA's 10 freeway for more than 40 years.

The new year can't come soon enough and here in California it's less than an hour away.

At work the editors have been asked to create professional and personal goals for 2017. We've chosen buddies to help us.

One of my personal goals mirrors the final in a Business of Writing class I took at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. We were asked to create a seven-year pathway to work in the industry. I received an A+ with a written comment, "Well thought through," from the teacher, Frank Wuliger.

Goals aren't much different from New Year's resolutions -- they can easily become as dusty as my Business of Writing final. But with our goals connected to our annual performance appraisals they will happen. Hmm, are performance appraisals equivalent to finals in school?