Do more. Achieve.

It's been too long since I lectured everybody on their work ethic. So get ready. It's time for Why Aren't You Working Harder Lecture Number 345.

I have more time to write than most people. Partner was recently getting on my case about how I'm not seeking an industry job with enough enthusiasm. Actually, Partner kind of gets on my case about a lot of stuff. He's the most exasperating person I know, but when he's not making me want to punch him in the face I usually want to hug him so I keep him around. It's an odd relationship.

Anyway, I like my job for now because I do it well, it's rewarding, I get paid a liveable wage and benefits and it gives me plenty of time to write. I'd still rather be paid to write all day, but this is the second best thing. When I leave this job it will be to become a professional writer. Nothing less.

But I am aware that I have time others don't. Still. I think most people take too long to write their screenplays.

There's a small discussion going over at Wordplay about what to do when you're in the middle of a script when you become more interested in a different idea. Everybody universally recommended finishing the script you're writing before moving to the next concept.

I suggested writing the one you're on too, but while you're writing for an hour or so a day, you have the whole rest of your day to plan the next one and exorcise your creative demons that way. Then you're always working on two scripts at a time.

That's how I do it. I'm never without a script to work on because while I'm writing I'm always planning the next one. Right around the moment one script is finished the next one is on deck and I don't waste any time.

I'm working on an action spec at the moment and brainstorming with Partner about our next collaboration at the same time. I'll finish my first draft of this one by the end of April, and hopefully Partner and I will have beaten out an outline for the next script by then. If not, I have spec TV episodes I'd like to write while I wait for the inspiration to fully form itself. I can also do my revisions on the action spec during my planning period when I start back to work.

But you can't always wait for all the elements to be in line before you write. Writing is work. It's fun work, but it's still work. You have to sit down and say, okay. Today I'm going to figure out how to get character A to location B. Then don't stop thinking about it until the problem is solved. Then write it.

Simple as that. Isn't it? I guess everybody works differently, but I hear a lot of people come up with a lot of excuses for why they can't get things done. I have this constant nagging voice in my ear telling me that any moment I'm not writing something I'm wasting time, so it won't let me settle in and eat hummus while I wait for Queen Mab to send me the perfect idea.

Now I have to go write an actual scene or my crazy head voice goes all Harrison Bergeron on me.

The title of this post is actually an inside joke, by the way. Nobody who reads my blog will get it but I get it and that's enough to crack me up.