Trusting the process to get writing again
Mar. 22nd, 2021 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11I’ve always liked Mount Auburn Cemetery, but since the pandemic started I’ve been spending more time there. It’s beautiful and quiet, and I like places I can walk around by myself for long periods. Funny how even socially distancing, I love places where I can be alone.
I’ve been working on the next episode of Dream Machine, after a long break I took to do the Hawking shows. I had about a month in between when I was feeling too lethargic to do much of anything, but some rest and vitamin D supplements got me back to writing. Also, when I was struggling to buckle down, I put in place a strategy I teach to my students— set a ridiculously low bar as a daily writing goal and make it as easy as possible to make steady progress. Sometimes I get hung up on how I should be able to get more done, but that usually stops me from doing anything at all. But by permitting myself to do as little as one screenplay page a day, yesterday I managed to finish the first draft of the new fifth script. So I need to remember that this process really works for when I’m stuck, and I definitely recommend it to anyone else who’s struggling to get something on paper.
While I’m not great at gauging my own early-draft work, I feel like this one’s going to need a lot of editing. I have a tendency of assuming that something that was hard to write didn’t come out well, but this one feels like it lacks thematic cohesion, like it’s just lot of ideas thrown together. It should be salvageable with editing, but I think it’s more extreme than is usual for a first draft.
I’m going to have it read on Saturday, and I hope that proves helpful. Knowing people will look at it provides an incentive to get on improving it so I don’t embarrass myself. And of course the act of hearing it always highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a script. It feels a little hopeless now— my old refrain of “If I knew how to write it right, I would have done it that was the first time!” —but by now I at least know to trust the process, and it’ll come out okay.
I’ve been working on the next episode of Dream Machine, after a long break I took to do the Hawking shows. I had about a month in between when I was feeling too lethargic to do much of anything, but some rest and vitamin D supplements got me back to writing. Also, when I was struggling to buckle down, I put in place a strategy I teach to my students— set a ridiculously low bar as a daily writing goal and make it as easy as possible to make steady progress. Sometimes I get hung up on how I should be able to get more done, but that usually stops me from doing anything at all. But by permitting myself to do as little as one screenplay page a day, yesterday I managed to finish the first draft of the new fifth script. So I need to remember that this process really works for when I’m stuck, and I definitely recommend it to anyone else who’s struggling to get something on paper.
While I’m not great at gauging my own early-draft work, I feel like this one’s going to need a lot of editing. I have a tendency of assuming that something that was hard to write didn’t come out well, but this one feels like it lacks thematic cohesion, like it’s just lot of ideas thrown together. It should be salvageable with editing, but I think it’s more extreme than is usual for a first draft.
I’m going to have it read on Saturday, and I hope that proves helpful. Knowing people will look at it provides an incentive to get on improving it so I don’t embarrass myself. And of course the act of hearing it always highlights the strengths and weaknesses of a script. It feels a little hopeless now— my old refrain of “If I knew how to write it right, I would have done it that was the first time!” —but by now I at least know to trust the process, and it’ll come out okay.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}