One more step hurdled.

Tom, Paul and I met at lunchtime to hammer out a deal. And now we have one. Thanks to the WGA web site, we had guidelines to use so that Paul and I could make a deal with Tom, which he can then take to John. (I was, I'm proud to say, the most prepared of the three of us. My agent has made me self-sufficient!)

Paul and I will cowrite equally, and we also talked about how that will work. We almost immediately agreed on a 50/50 split. (He later said that he was going to ask for 60/40 to which I replied that I wasn't going to settle for less than 50/50.)

Once the money comes in, and we get paid for our services, we'll sit down with the producers involved for an extensive story session. Paul and I will then beat out the story in a well-detailed treatment. What we will have will be very similar to a beat sheet that TV writers use when creating episodes for TV shows. Not a surprise, since Paul's credits to date have been on the TV side.

Once we get the treatment/beat sheet done, we will write scenes, send them back and forth by e-mail, rewrite as necessary and then move on. Once we get to this stage, this should be easy. It's the beat sheet stage that will require the most work, give and take, and brainstorming. Once the template's set, all that's left to do is fill in the blanks!

After lunch, Tom immediately called John to set up a meeting on Friday. The two will get together and Tom will present his own services, as well as our contract, to John. Then, we wait and see what John says.

I think it's a very good sign that John was ready to meet with Tom so soon. What remains to be seen is if he can come up with the money to get this show on the road.

The roller-coaster is in that click-click-click stage where it's going up and up and up the first hill. The question is, how big is this climb?