"The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read. Not by any other person, and not even by yourself at some later date. Otherwise you begin excusing yourself. You must see the writing as emerging like a long scroll of ink from the index … Continue reading QOTD
Tag: creative writing
Sonder.
“Can You Read My Script?”
I’ve been on both sides of this question. It seems pretty harmless, doesn’t it? When someone asks me to read their script, I always say yes. As a writer myself, I know it is not always an easy thing to ask. From there, it goes down like this: They send over the script. And it’s never … Continue reading “Can You Read My Script?”
Let It Go
First Draft I recently finished the first draft of the comedy pilot I’ve been working on with a writing partner. It’s great except that it’s about twenty pages too long and not funny. We cringed every time we read it. The thing needed rewrites. Not the kind where we could just go through the script … Continue reading Let It Go
QOTD
"When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thick-skinned, to learn that not every project will survive. A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles … Continue reading QOTD
My Favorite QOTD
"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, … Continue reading My Favorite QOTD
Excuses, Excuses
In my personal experience, twenty-something aspiring writers are good at a few things -- avoiding phone conversations, Call of Duty, and making excuses to not write. I’ve heard some pretty hilarious excuses lately, and I feel the need to address them. Excuse #1: “All the authors I admire were really old when their books got … Continue reading Excuses, Excuses
QOTD
"I’ve found my productive writing-to-screwing around ratio to be one to seven. So for every eight hour day of writing, there is only one good productive hour of work being done. The other seven hours are preparing for writing: pacing around the house, collapsing cardboard boxes for recycling, reading the DVD extras pamphlet from the … Continue reading QOTD
Before I Write…
A few things simple things need to be in place before I can write a thing. I need a cup of coffee on my desk. Sometimes I don’t even drink it. I just need to know it’s there. The promise of caffeine. Then I turn on the Self Control app. How it works: You select the … Continue reading Before I Write…
QOTD
"When you’re a writer, you’re never quite like other people — you’re doing a job that other people don’t know you’re doing and you can’t talk about it, really, and you’re just always finding your way in the secret world and then you’re doing something else in the “normal” world." … Continue reading QOTD
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