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We're here! The end of the line! A final review of the list of The Ten Mistakes New Writers Always Make (even though they think they know better): #1: Going Out with your Script Before It's Ready; #2: Going Out with your Script Before YOU'RE Ready; #3: Going Out with your Scripts Before The Industry is Ready; #4: Taking the Easy Road; #5: Taking the Hard Road; #6: Not Writing From Your Heart; Mistake #7: Not Writing From Your Wallet; Mistake #8: Not Knowing the Game; and Mistake #9: Not Doing your Homework.
So you've learned all nine of these lessons, and you're not making the mistakes any more. Good for you. You're rolling along, you know how to write, what to write, what you should know, what to avoid. Now all you have to do is write, right?
So...do you? Are you writing consistently, every day? Is your output a steady, dependable stream of pages, or is it more like water sputtering from some old plumbing -- alternately gushing and trickling, if not clogged altogether. If you're more familiar with the gush/trickle syndrome (and there's usually more trickle than gush) then you might be making, as the vast majority of writers both amateur and professional make...
Mistake #10: Sanctifying your Writing Time.
Don't worry, I'll explain. But first, let's see if this sounds familiar. You're starting a new script, you want to get it out and not lose any momentum. You start out strong, either writing several pages a day, or for a set amount of time, say a couple of hours. And you vow to keep it up, you will crank out the same number of pages or spend the same hours writing every single day -- you won't let ANYTHING stop you.
Until it does. Inevitably some other work or some out-of-town guests or the kids or SOMETHING gets in your writing way one day. No prob., you'll make up for it tomorrow, DOUBLING your output or hours. And you do...until something else interrupts you.
Before you know it, you're in the hole for a ton of hours or pages, you're losing momentum out the wazoo, and to top it off, you feel guilty that your Sacred Writing Time keeps getting trampled.
The net effect of all this is exactly what you wanted to avoid: losing momentum. Before you know it, you're dead-stopped smack in the middle of your script, you can't even start to get back to your writing time, and you feel like a failure.
Now the intention behind having Sacred Writing Time is noble; writing is extremely important to you, so it seems only fitting that you should carve out a sizable, sacred space for it. Only trouble is, this Sacred Writing Time is almost impossible to maintain. The solution? Lose it. Don't have Sacred Writing Time. Instead, choose a new model. Write JUST A LITTLE BIT, but do it every day.
More detail. The specific problem that Sacred Writing Time causes is that you feel that if you can't do it RIGHT (that is, get in at least a good portion of your pages/hours) then you end up not doing it at all. But if your writing quotient is MINIMAL (and I mean minimal, as you'll see below) then it seems to get done.
Think about it. There are numerous things you do throughout your day that seem to get done, day-after-day, and yet you don't even think about them. You don't have to set aside Sacred Shower Time or Sacred Reading-the-Paper time. They're just habits. Similarly, if you write AS LITTLE AS 1/3 of a page a day (or even JUST A LINE OR TWO) your writing becomes internalized, a habit, and soon it becomes something you do without having to even think about it.
And once that happens, you'll be able to gradually increase your load. You'll be able to get to two pages a day, and you'll be able to do it EVERY DAY. That's 730 pages a year. And once this kind of habitual writing becomes just a part of your day, you'll find you have three, four, five, six, even ten and twenty page days, and you won't even blink.
Try this, folks. It's magic, it works. Start with 1/3 page a day. Write ONLY 1/3 page a day, NO MORE, for two weeks. Then, at the end of this trial time, re-examine your writing chops. See if you don't fine it's a more natural, almost reflexive part of your makeup. And you'll probably find that you wrote more during that two weeks than plenty of other two week periods in which you were dutifully trying to keep up with your Sacred Writing Time.
So here you are. Armed with knowledge of these Ten Mistakes, and hence with the tools to avoid them, you'll be on your way, ready to crank out script-after-quality-script.
This will be my last column for awhile. My writing work is demanding somewhat more of my time than usual. But I've enjoyed the hell out of doing this. One thing I've sorely missed during this gig, though, is feedback. It's my own fault, of course, for not providing an avenue for the feed to come back. So here it is. I'd love to hear any of your thoughts, good or bad (don't be afraid to be brutal) about this series of columns. You can write me at:
steberg@mediaone.net
Finally, as you can see on my bio page, I run a seminar called PowerWriting, where I deal with all of the issues we've discussed here, and provide in-depth solutions, many along the lines of what I presented this last week. So if you liked these columns at all, then you might want to check out PowerWriting. You can contact us at 310-967-1385.
It's been a blast for me, and I hope it's been helpful for all of you. The writing life has been great to me, and I hope I've communicated some of the joy (along with the hard work) that it entails.
So for now, so long, and happy writing!
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