Motivation through deprivation
June 11th, 2007 by screenwriterguy
Writing isn’t fun.
Sure, there are parts that are brilliant. Every writer loves working through ideas for the first time, and nothing beats the moment when a flash of inspiration hits you, making your story a million times better. And then I love outlining, wrestling all those ideas into an actual shape that might entertain people. Similarly, editing one’s draft is immensely satisfying, shaping and wordsmithing the clay you’ve previously put in place until it looks just so, exactly how you want it. I even love the process where you have to go back and make the deep cuts, because you know that unless you get your script down below 105 pages, it’s not allowed to be a comedy.
But the actual part where it’s you, your outline, a keyboard, and a white screen? That can be painful and frustrating. Writing isn’t fun. It’s having written something that’s enjoyable.
To get myself through the rough draft part, killing pages, I will often promise myself a reward when I’ve finished. Or, more precisely, I will deny myself some reward until I’ve finished.
Creating a My Name Is Earl spec has recently moved to the top of my priority list, after a while on the back burner, partly because a premise I like came to me while I was recently re-watching every episode of the show, and partly out of Jane Espenson’s urging to generate an entirely new script by the Disney Fellowship’s July 1st deadline. I’m interested in pushing myself to faster and faster writing, and four weeks certainly qualifies as an aggressive, aggressive target, especially since the premise is about all I have. Ms. Espenson suggests that a month is plenty. I think she’s right, but I also think that in her writing she has two advantages I do not: 1.) she has a writers’ room in which to break stories, and 2.) she’s Jane Espenson. I know that I’m going to be super busy ramping up an online comedy web site and the comedy troupe that supports it this summer, but given that tutoring work will soon slow to a trickle, I can devote more writing time at the end of this month than I normally would, so it’s worth a shot.
Even if I don’t hit the July 1st deadline, pushing for it should help me achieve some writing that I might otherwise not. Plus, my next turn to present in my writers’ group comes on July 17th.
In case two deadlines isn’t enough, the next Harry Potter book is out on July 21st. I’m not going to allow myself to read it until I’ve successfully added an Earl spec script to my stack. Given that every day one spends not having read the latest Harry is a day one risks someone spoiling parts of it, I should be sufficiently motivated.
Seeing as she doesn’t have the next Harry to drive her through the rough draft phase, I gotta wonder what J.K. Rowling does to motivate her writing…
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Jun 11th 2007 at 2:31 pm
She’s waiting for your spec script?
Jun 11th 2007 at 3:30 pm
Amen! I am dreading my writing for the day, and it is no where as important as yours. I would love to hear more about what you do though. It sounds very interesting. Oh, and I am pretty sure it is easy for J.K. Rowling to write the next Harry Potter when there is a humungeous paycheck waiting for her. Just my thought. If I was getting paid a couple of million dollars to write, I might do more of it.