I know what you resolved around midnight. You resolved to get an agent or to finish that romantic comedy you've been working on for two decades or to start that new episode of House that's been rattling around in your brain. Why haven't you started working on it yet?
Trainer at the gym says he always gets a lot of business in January. By February most of those people are gone and he'll be back to training his long term clients. Everybody makes promises they fully intend to keep on New Year's Eve, but so few of us actually do it. So right this second is an opportunity for you to prove whether or not you'll keep your promises to yourself.
My kitchen used to be a disaster area. I didn't do my dishes for a really long time and they built up to the point where I couldn't catch up to the growing pile. Every time I washed some, more would build up right in their place and the gnats were living the high life while I cooked in this tiny space I carved out between dirty pans and dirty plates. I usually had to wash a plate to eat on because I had no clean ones in the cabinet. Then Houseguest came to stay with me and was quite unsatisfied with the squalor I'd created. It's not that I wanted to be disgusting, but I just looked at that pile of dishes and couldn't get up the energy to do anything about it. So Houseguest dragged me in the kitchen one day and started washing. I dried. Then he handed me a sponge and ordered me to clean the counter. So I did.
My kitchen hasn't been disgusting since because every night before I go to bed I wash the dishes. I don't let them sit like I used to, so they don't get a chance to be unmanageable.
That may sound like common sense to a lot of people. Most people probably wash their dishes at the end of the day, but I was always making excuses and as a result was unhappy with the way I lived.
Every day that goes by that you're not working on your script is a wasted day. Write one page every night before you go to sleep or plot out one scene in your head while you're in the car on the way to work. Sitting in a cubicle all day? Email some dialogue to yourself. Your boss will think you're working. He doesn't need to know how much fun you're having.
Because it is fun, right?
After I made some changes and sent the latest version of the spec pilot back to Writing Partner in a very timely fashion he texted me, "You have a strong work ethic."
"It's not work," I responded. "It's fun."
I'd much rather write pages than, say, wash dishes.
Why aren't you writing? Why do you keep making excuses? Maybe it's because you don't want to. Maybe you just don't have the ambition to get into the game. Maybe you don't actually like to write. If you aren't dying to get to your computer every day so you can make those changes that have been rattling around in your head, maybe it's because you don't actually want to be a writer.
So in 2007 make a decision. Either finish your freaking script already or admit that you never will.
Unless of course you already have. In that case, carry on.
Good stuff. Now, I'm hungry.
ReplyDeleteMy personal take is to give yourself an amount of time you plan to write a day, rather than page count. And leave it open-ended.
I write for an hour a day, but if I'm into it, I'll write longer. If not, I'll stop and I might come back to it later, or sometimes it won't be until the next day.
For me, it always seems I'm wrestling with page count towards the end of a script, rather than just writing.
A majority of my writing is just writing to get out ideas, and then trim them back. This means, there will be times when my page count is actually going backwards, but the writing time and productivity may be going through the roof.
If I was only looking at the page count it would get discouraging. But knowing that I am meeting my time goals, it gives me a sort of balance.
But that's me. To each, their own.
The important things is setting goals for yourself. It's great to see that you have.
Thanks for asking the important question about writing and not writing. Happy New Year, Emily.
ReplyDeleteMy apartment has to be clean before I sit down to write. Either that, or I get the hell out of the house. Coming back to a giant pile of dishes is depressing though.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Though I think there's another type of "writer" - someone who writes regularly but has re-written the last ten pages about a dozen times over the past couple months. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteFantastic post. Really, I got choked up for a minute there, like is she in my brain or something?
ReplyDeleteOne hour a day. Can't hurt, right?
Although, I do agree with cornelius to some degree. What about the writers who are perfectionists and must have everything they write be a masterpiece, or they don't write at all? Cause that's me. Maybe I should be seeking therapy.
Bravo. Important applications to writing and just about everything else in life, too.
ReplyDeleteRather than the hour-a-day, my rule is to do something writer-worthy every day. Sometimes it's write a few pages, sometimes it's making notes in a notebook, sometimes it's reading another script, sometimes it's talking things out. But sometheing. Every day. As a writer.
Great post~~