You don't really know how well you're going to stick to something until you've been at it solid for a while. So far it has almost been an entire fortnight that I've been keeping up with my one thousand word a day word quota and needless to say I'm pretty proud of myself so far.
Last week I averaged at 1117.5 words per day which is actually past my target. Yay! Numbers aside, I've written a fair few first draft character profiles for my teleplay pilot for Screnzy and also a near full treatment for a short film that I'm gonna carry over to Screnzy as well. In fact, I hammered out about three scene by scene treatments for that one. I'll spill the beans for that one maybe in a few weeks' time 'cause I wanna see where I can go with it in the near future.
Though for the past couple of days I've only really managed to just brush past my target as you can see up there. I have a rule where once it hits midnight, that's a new day. I mean, it officially is but I do want to try to be strict with myself there. So in other words, if I haven't hit my word quota by midnight, tough. I stop as soon as it hits twelve, record the total for the day in the spreadsheet then start the count from zero for the new day before I continue writing.
Anyway, what I want to start doing is to try to organise exactly what I'll be writing each day and maybe even knock a day off for each week to set aside for reading and/or research. That said, if I can manage to trail myself up out of bed before midday again, that'll certainly help my routine! So yeah. Timetabling my routine a bit more. I'll still have the word quota of course and whatever I write for the day will go straight in there, including anything I write in a blog post.
The reason for this is that I've been finding myself stumped a lot for what to write next. I certainly don't want to cave into writer's block; no way, not now, not ever, thank you very much. I feel as though organising generally what I'll be writing will be a good idea to try and ward it off a bit better and to give me something to meditate on so I'm not just twiddling my thumbs or sitting 'liking' pictures of Siberian Husky and German Shepherd puppies on Facebook instead of actual writing things down or typing them up, whichever the case may be. As I said in the previous paragraph, I might even knock a day off so I can read and research.
Lack of research is actually, I've found, something that bothers me while I'm trying to write. For example, my teleplay for the Screnzy project is set in various periods. How can I write about something I know nothing about? A general rule of thumb for writing is to write what you know but also to just write. I think in this case though you should probably be best doing your research first. That and giving myself the time to watch some more television programmes to see how they're structured so my writing is better informed (I am a terrible Film & TV student for the sheer amount I haven't watched). Know your medium and your work station and all that jazz.
Blog-wise especially I think I'll need to decide what I'll be writing a fair bit in advance so it's not just a complete rambling mess. I'd like to do analyses 'cause they're always interesting. I suppose for my feature article for my Critic/Film Studies module my seminar lecturer said I had about three strong enough ideas that I could have taken up so I've got something to work from there at least! With that, I think I should start labelling the posts as journals, an analysis, idea development, etc., so I'll start with this one. Actually, thinking about it, I can go back and edit the others, haha.
Now, if you're one of the oh so lucky folks who follows me on Twitter, you'll know I haven't actually slept and I'm somehow still awake (the playlist honestly helps actually) so I'm probably best off now. See you Sunday!
On Tuesday I decided to give myself a writing quota of 1000 words per day and so far I've done pretty well sticking to it. I'm blogging as a part of it as well seeing as that's another form of writing plus it's good to keep track. I'm hoping to post some more organised posts in the form of essays and what have you because why not?
In the last post I was talking about thwarting a hypothetical (or should that be 'an'?) gremlin in your ear 'cause I thought that would be a good way to get into this. I mean, it's still there for me but it's a lot quieter, thank God. If you get it as well, I hope you can get it to quieten down too! It's a bit like the critic in Gloria's mind level of Tim Schafer's Psychonauts I suppose so maybe it's all thanks to Raz rather than my own determination, haha.
Either way, I'm thankful for it having been toned down and I hope it stays that way. So far, apart from this particular blog post, I've written 6705 words and 105 today (after midnight is a new day regardles of having been to bed or not!). If you're one of my unlucky followers who has to deal with my impulsive tweeting, you probably already knew that. Anyway, it's from the previous blog entry, preparation for my Screnzy project and the treatment for a short film I have in mind. I'm pretty excited to start writing the other ideas down but I'll hammer out the treatment for the latter mentioned one before I do anything.
It's great to get the ideas down because it really helps to organise the multitude of them floating around in your head; it gets a bit chaotic and you come off as quite manic trying to explain them to people, not really knowing where they're going. That's another thing to focus on though I think; where it's good to get critique, try to keep those people at a minimum and make sure it's people you trust and really respect the opinions of. Being told 'yeah, that's good' is not really great advice even if it makes you feel all fluffy inside but neither is being told your idea sucks and that includes from the little gremlin. Which, again, is why it's good to get some feedback from someone you trust. I hate seminars in university for this reason; I don't necessarily trust some of these people but sometimes you can be surprised. It's always something worth being mindful over though.
Throughout the week I've been wondering if 1000 words is maybe too much, especially whenever I've hit my midway point and it's quite late in the evening but I've managed to go beyond it every time so I'm gonna stick to that for the next week and see how well I fare; it's early days yet! As I said, I'm actually almost finished the first draft of a short film scene-by-scene outline, then a lot of intensive development for my Screnzy project. I'm a little nervous about the latter as it's actually quite a complex project. That said, I've gone through a lot with it this past week and thanks to the help of my trusty friend, Luke, I can re-assure myself every time. I'm not sure if I can say the same for my 'Writing Playlist' on YouTube; it's supposed to help me get in the zone but it could very well be distracting me. Sometimes it's helpful, other times I'm just quietly singing along to the lyrics instead of writing my own thing. Whoops.
A lot of what's been helpful are my How To books; particularly Victoria Schmidt's 45 Master Characters and James Scott Bell's Plot & Structure. The main issue I'm having is that I feel like I'm being overly reliant on them at times; as if their ways are the be all and end all way to do it. Thankfully I'm forced to adapt myself with Bell's book because his primary focus is novels rather than television or film stories. They really do have some solid advice though and I highly recommend those books to take a highlighter to and annotate to your heart's content! The sole disadvantage to library book loans; ack!
One more thing that I'm hoping will improve within the week is my sleeping pattern which has gone awry yet again. I set about four alarms which all go off again if I ignore them and I sleep through all or at least most of them and end up sleeping in 'til about midday. Ideally I get up for 9am and start working on my projects, whether they're university related or personal, and then I can get a lot more done in the day and finish up a lot sooner as well. Not to mention how long it actually takes this professional procrastinator to actually get started in the first place. If you are, in fact, one of the unlucky ones to follow me on Twitter, you'll notice an influx of tweets when I'm busy or, rather, supposed to be busy. I suppose it gets me in the mindset of it but I think that, with any luck, maybe these blog posts will help me divert my attention from impulsive tweets. Though that is very likely just wishful thinking. Eh, fingers crossed.
So I'm proud of my progress so far but there are definitely points to work on, such as the dreaded procrastination and ruined sleeping pattern. Taking starting up some new drafts of my Screnzy project work (which is a television show) is up there on the to do list as is writing up another idea for a feature. Finishing up the first draft short film idea is something I'll probably finish tonight (or this morning I suppose). And with that, hopefully I'll become less waffly with my blog posts and I'm off to inject my veins with caffeine. Er, grab a cup of coffee. Night!
I've always had trouble with sticking to my ideas, not taking them much further than the conception stage itself to be honest. Sometimes I'd really get into it, start writing it, then I just lose confidence in the idea. I get this self-doubt where in my head I hear, 'this isn't worth it', 'it isn't going anywhere', and 'this is a terrible idea anyway' which, of course, is never encouraging. This is the gremlin.
I've seen it talked about in various blogs shared on the likes of Facebook and Twitter and it's scary just how much I could relate to them. That said, it is so re-assuring to know that I'm not the only one who has to deal with the little arse hole every once in a while or, as the case may be, constantly.
Recently something clicked in me though. I started writing down all my raw ideas because I'd been repeatedly exposed to advice by tutors and self-help books to keep notebooks to do just this. It sounds obvious but, would you believe, how well it works? I have to say as well it is very encouraging and motivating to see just how many ideas you have written down on paper; how many you can actually start to develop. It's best to try to stick to one or two though I think because it can get exhausting but certainly keep writing down anything that strikes you.
I own a fair amount of books on writing because I find them helpful, motivating and inspiring. When I feel as though I've lost some hope or need a touch of guidance, I pick one up and give it a read. James Scott Bell talks about 'The Big Lie' in his book Plot & Structure (2004) in his very first chapter where writing allegedly cannot be taught. He gives you tips and tricks on how to improve your writing and the very first step of which is motivation. He gives you examples of what motivates him and states you should do the same, albeit whatever is unique to you. He recommends starting a quota and to not give up with your writing. They are wise words. Very wise words that are worth at least giving a shot.
The difference with me now is that I'm actually carrying out these exercises and, so far, I'm sticking to them. The purpose of this blog is for me to record my progress and is also a part of my writing quota to change things up a bit so I don't get bored or tired of the same thing. If I don't stick to it, well, that's just going to be a big disappointment in myself and I'll have to deal with that. So far, the little Gremlin in my ear is pretty quiet and he's going to ruddy well stay that way until he shuts off completely. Ignore them 'til they get bored and all that.
I'm not just going to record my progress in this though; I might talk about the things that inspire me as well, like what I enjoy watching or listening to and what it says to me. I think writing about it will help motivate me and it's another form of writing so I can at least practise my structure and stop be more concise with my points and what have you.
I've got some projects that are coming up which have me pretty excited for writing and that's the now unofficial Script Frenzy April, or Screnzy for short, which is a set one hundred page target for one or multiple scripts within the month of April. These are designed at people like myself who keep saying they're going to write, then don't. As NaNoWriMo's sister challenge, it encourages you to just write and worry about redrafting later. You have some fab ideas? Get writing! Definitely prepare it beforehand but the idea is to just write and make these ideas actually exist.
The entirety of my writing quota, which I officially started on Tuesday of this week, has been preparation for my Screnzy project. Character profiles, discussing the themes, the lore of the series, et cetera, and I'm just thankful I have my friend Luke to discuss it with. He's encouraging but still offers solid critique so I can grow and develop the ideas more effectively. It's great to have someone like that for the re-assurance and, even if it's an online friend or pen-pal, I'd say it's dead beneficial to have. What isn't helpful is negative energy so cut that out from your life whatever way you can.
I think thwarting the Gremlin in whatever way you can is really important if you expect to grow and improve yourself as a writer. I had a teacher in grammar school who said that 'there is no such thing as writer's block; just laziness' and I actually agreed with him. Now though, I've adapted that writer's block as being the little Gremlin that whispers despicable discouragement in your ear and stops you from writing. I understand how difficult it is to just ignore it and to just do it; that is pretty lazy advice but that is, no doubt, one of the first steps to overcoming it I think. This is a good list to read and it's final step is to 'just go for it'.
That's what I'm doing now and, although it took a while, I'm hoping I'll stick to it for a long time and the the Gremlin will be so miniscule I just won't give a damn about it anymore. It's starting to work and I've been pretty happy with myself lately because of it.
