Hello and welcome to the journal / blog / website / diary / whatever it is.
Over the past six months I have put 376.5 hours into studying learning experience design (instructional design + UX design). Below is a visualization of the data. For what it’s worth, that’s 376 focused studying hours, no not much clowning around on Twitter or reading interesting Wikipedia articles while learning.
Before I go any further, a shout out to WGU. You can take an unlimited number of classes (at your own pace) in a degree program for a flat rate 6-month term. What that means for me is that I completed an entire regionally accredited Masters degree program in 6-months for the cost of ~$3,900, which I presume after tax incentives will end up around, if not a bit below, $3,000. You can check out the program curriculum here.
What does that have to do screenwriting? Not much. But, my experience did prove something to me: If I could stay disciplined enough to study a relatively dull subject, could I 10x that and put 3,000 hours into another subject over the next 10 six-month periods (5 years)?
I like screenwriting because it’s not super hierarchical and it’s at least somewhat subjective. I will probably know if/when I get good (part of the proof will be avoiding using phrases like get good), but that will certainly not mean I find commercial success. That’s fine.
The biggest curveball as of now will be limiting social media usage. I found that to be the hardest obstacle when studying learning experience design: It almost cost me another six-month tuition payment. Luckily, screenwriting is WAY more interesting, so I will probably lean more on motivation versus the discipline and grit needed to push through the more than occasional monotonous textbook reading.