Creating a Personal Work Routine For Your Writing.

I came across this in an email from Final Draft. I kinda half use FD as a screenwriting programme. But thought this advice is quite good! What do you think? Please let me know.

Photo by Judit Peter on Pexels.com

Like with any kind of writing, it’s important for a screenwriter to create a personal work routine. 

From my experience the hardest thing about writing is starting to write. Once I get into a creative groove (a.k.a. “the zone”) the words come easy to me, and I’m usually able to knock out several pages within a couple hours. Starting to write, however, has always been a little trickier. I’ve heard this from many other writers as well: there’s just something about human nature that makes us want to push off work if we’re able to. This characteristic is likely ingrained in us at a young age when we didn’t want to go to school, do homework, etc. As we get older and enter the workforce, many of us take jobs we don’t love or might even hate, but we do it in order to make a living. As a result, there’s an additional reason for our psyches to be averse to work if we’re not put in a position where it’s essential to do so.

Obviously, if you’re a working screenwriter and getting paid to write or rewrite a script, you’re given monetary and contractual motivation and, as a result, it’s much easier to start writing. You have no choice: you have to do it! But as most professional screenwriters will tell you, only a handful of A-list writers are constantly working on paid assignments. Most of us have to jumpstart our career every few years with a new spec script. Aspiring screenwriters are likewise writing on spec (i.e. no one is paying you to write your script). Of course it’s unlikely you’ll have a screenwriting career — or jumpstart one if you already have one — if you don’t have a finished spec script or even a few under your belt. Still, it’s sometimes difficult to muster the necessary will power to start writing when you’re not contractually obliged or financially compensated. This is when you have to discipline yourself.

Every writer is different and has different habits: some writers need isolation to write; others can write in a busy coffee shop; some writers need music playing for inspiration; others prefer silence or ambient sound; some writers like to exercise before writing; others like to exercise afterwards (or not at all); some writers are most creative in the day; others are most creative at night; etc. Ideally, if you’re able to, you should choose the time of day you’re most creative and schedule your day around it. For example, I’ve always been most creative between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM and every day I make it a point to write within this time frame. So in my case, my writing is a 9-to-5 job. Regardless of when you clock in and out of work, treating your writing like a job, even if it’s a spec script, is the key to finishing a screenplay.

Having a scheduled framework keeps your days from escaping from you, and they will escape from you if you let them. As mentioned earlier, human beings are wired to push off work if they’re able to. Many times, procrastination is a writer’s greatest obstacle to overcome. You’ll find many things to distract you from writing, but these days the biggest is probably social media. Between Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and a 24 hours news bombardment, it’s very easy for your morning social media check-in to transform into hours of wasted time. This is where some self-discipline is required and you have to create boundaries for yourself. For example, I make it a point to only check-in on the social media platforms I belong to at designated and finite periods. Social media is essentially my “morning paper”; I check out what’s going on in the morning as I wake up and keep my eye on the time. If there was anything interesting going on, I’ll allow myself another check-in around lunchtime and one more after my writing is done for the day. This works for me. I’ve known others where they have to be stricter with themselves or else they’ll spend hours scrolling and commenting away. In such a case, this person shouldn’t connect to any social media until after they’ve reached their daily page count quota.

Regarding a page count quota, this is also contingent on the individual. Ideally, I like to get in 5 pages a day, but this isn’t set in stone. Some days I might just write 2 pages, but they were important pages and/or I came up with additional story beats. On other days — if I’m especially inspired or caffeinated —I can knock out 6 or 7 pages. But generally, I find a consistent 5 pages a day is the way to go, and consistency is definitely the key. You’ll find you’ll finish a script quicker with constant daily writing than going weeks without writing and then giving yourself a few weeks or a month to write en masse. Of course sometimes people don’t have any other option and have to work this way. Likewise, if you have a day job, you’ll have to write at night or on your days off. Ultimately, you write when you can if you’re an aspiring writer. However, the more consistent and routine you can make your writing, the better. It can be a specific routine customized for your life and responsibilities, but it should still be a routine nonetheless, and you should still be giving yourself writing goals and a personal deadline.

Creating a personal deadline is another way to help you finish a script. I know many aspiring writers — and even a few professional ones — who sometimes take a year or more to complete a spec script. If they were writing on assignment this simply wouldn’t fly and depending on the details of the contract, they’d be forced to turn in a finished script within a few months or a few weeks (if it’s a rewrite or polish). Again, people tend to procrastinate if they’re not obligated or bound to do something, and this is why some writers take a year or longer to finish a spec script. I’m not saying a writer should rush the creative process, but from my experience, catching lightning in a bottle happens quickly and not slowly. The screenwriting marketplace is constantly changing and what might be a fresh concept one year is likely to be “familiar” the following year. Screenplays aren’t novels; they’re blueprints for potential movies. The more a writer thinks of screenplays in those terms, the less they’ll labor over every line and word.

When I wake up every morning, I skim my “morning paper”, exercise and take a walk around a nearby park, make coffee or tea, eat breakfast, select the right music, and I make it a point to write regardless of how inspired I’m feeling. Eventually, inspiration takes hold if I keep slogging away at it. And whether it’s five pages of a Final Draft document or 1,221 words of a screenwriting article, I don’t clock out of work until I’ve reached my daily writing goal. 

This helps make writing more than just a hobby.

It helps make it a career.

Written by: Edwin Cannistraci – a professional screenwriter. His comedy specs PIERRE PIERRE and O’GUNN both sold with more than one A-list actor and director attached. In addition, he’s successfully pitched feature scripts, TV pilots and has landed various assignment jobs for Universal, Warner Bros, Paramount and Disney.

Soho, London, Pubs, Karl Marx and Dylan Thomas

Soho Square by Peter Trimming is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0

Summary:

Nick Hennegan looks at Soho, Pubs on Dean Street, Karl Marx and Dylan Thomas with his lost script and A Visit To America.

Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message

Me first Xmas Party – Nov 22!

Summary

I’ve been invited to a party. By Fitzrovia in London! — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message

All the Best People at the Literary Pub Crawl!

Sky and Dad Rob in Soho.

Internationally acclaimed Poet Skye Bowdon and her father visiting London to collect her latest award, The #Foyle Prize for Creative Writing. They’re obviously aware that the visit would not be complete without experiencing the London Literary Pub Crawl!

Join us every Saturday in Soho!

Henry V -Lion of England in Brighton. Sort of!

This is from the archive and features a 3 minute video behind-the-scenes of the production at Brighton Pavilion theatre. This was before I bought a Mac! How times have a-changed..!

Henry V – Lion of England. The Movie! (sort of…)

Hoorah! Me first video! This is very rough and is my first attempt with a little mini DV camera I got back in August for my birthday. Spot the not so deliberate mistake in the opening caption. November 2008? I think that should read 2007. 

I’ve also found an editing programme on this computer called ULead, and as it’s free, I’ve tried to edit with that. If you know any other or better free editing software, please let me know.

I’ve always been taken with the drama and power of the visual image and, indeed, wrote a storyboard for a film version of Henry V – Lion of England back in 1993. In 1997 (flippin’ eck, TEN years ago!) I made a short film for ITV’s First Cuts called ‘Boy, Girl, Boy, Bike?’ I may try and get it up on here, although it was made in the days before Digital media and I think I only have a VHS copy, so I’m not sure how the technology works. It’s about 12 minutes long and is a sweet rites of passage tale with the lovely kids who were involved in my production, ‘A Ghost of A Chance’.

This little film looks backstage at Brighton and is, I hope, a bit of a teaser for our Spring Tour, which is going ahead despite funding problems. Myself and Deborah, our part-time administrator, are going to pitch a bank for working capital, given the excellent tour Penny, the booker, has arranged for the Spring. It’s a bit more urgent for me than anyone else, as my house is on the line! But somehow I’ve managed to survive this long and my plans for the next 3 years will mean Maverick will be in a very strong position, if I can just get through the next three months…!

Busy Bohemian week..!

Busy week; we’ve stared a new DipCP course for new producers; rights secured for ‘Two’ and ‘Educating Rita’; UK tour for ‘Winston & David’ Sept ’23 – and extra days filming on ‘The Crown’ for Lucy! #theatrelife #NetflixUK

Latest updates from Me and Maverick 11/11/22

Summary:

A quick update about new theatre tours; TWO and Educating Rita! — Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/bohemianbritain/message

Lest We Forget… my Dad’s first AND ONLY visit to London – aged 86!

I thought I’d share this from November 2009 when British and Allied troops were in Afghanistan. Dad lived another 7 years after this. But it remains the only time he ever visited London. And one of very few times he talked about his war-time experience.

My Dad, above, on the Thames embankment for the first time, aged 86. Note cap in hand.

It’s been an unusually domestic week for me. And with remembrance day, British troops in Afghanistan and the Sun newspaper giving Gordon Brown a bad time over his handwriting, one that has given me pause for thought too.

It was a big week on the domestic front because my Dad, at 86, had never been to London before. He apparently drove near it in the 1940’s, but that was in the back of an army truck. So he and my lovely sister came down for a few days. I don’t think I ever spend enough time with my family. Is it just me or do we all feel like that? I am so focused on trying to create art and avoid arts oft nearby regular bedfellow – grinding poverty! So it was nice when they came down, and as ever Bex was the perfect hostess, fussing over every detail.

Dad actually passed near London in the 1940’s to jump on a plane for Operation Market Garden at Arnhem. Dad was a paratrooper, a ‘Red Devil’ and was part of the cock up that marked a bridge too far. He was wounded and spent a long time as a P.O.W. However, it’s just as well he was captured when he was. I checked his company details on the ‘tinterweb and the very day of the morning of his capture most of his comrades were wiped out by a machine gun nest. Incredible, but true.

So in London, we did the usual thing, showing Dad and Sis around darkest Chiswick and taking them to our favourite haunts. I’d met them both at Euston Mainline station and we took the Northern and District Underground Lines to get home. Now Dad is sharp and full of humour and although his hearing isn’t too good (and he stubbornly refuses to wear his hearing aid) and he’s not as lithe as he used to be, he’s nobodies fool. So it was strange to see how strange the everyday of London was to him. He was fascinated by the electronic signs inside the tube carriages. He thought they were a great idea and seemed transfixed by them all the way back to Stamford Brook. He couldn’t understand the need for all the different tube lines until I explained the distances involved and that the map was a condensed representation of the network.

“And what if you’re colour blind with all those colours on that tube map?” he commented. He was also shocked by how violently the turnstile doors slapped open and shut. I think he may have a point there.

But what really made me think was us walking from Westminster to Embankment pier past the RAF war memorial. I was slightly ahead of Dad looking for my camera. When I looked back he was looking up at the memorial and had his cap in his hand.

“You all right Dad?” I asked.

“Just thought I’d say hello to the boys,” he said and nodded at the memorial. “They looked after us as much as they could.” I’d never heard Dad talk like that.

I took the pic, then he doffed his cap to the memorial, put it on his head and off we went.

I asked him about it later. Dad was born into extreme poverty, the youngest of eleven kids. His mom, my Grandmother, died when Dad was seven. My Grandfather, Paddy, was an Irish labourer from Co Mayo in the west of Ireland. He was a big drinker (so THAT’S where I get it from… not my fault then!) who would often use his belt on the kids when he’d had a bit too much, which was apparently most nights. I have some sympathy.  Not with beating the kids, of course, but the pressures on him must have been immense. There were 12 of them, pre welfare-state in the 1930’s depression, in two rooms in an up and down house in Leeds and often they went hungry too. When Paddy sobered up later in life he would often tell Dad the army was a good way out. Three square meals a day was a lot better than the everyday life they enjoyed. So aged 16 Dad and a mate from Leeds lied about their ages and signed up. Not the best of times to join the army. As Paddy said, 

“Join the army, yes, but not when there’s a bloody war on!”

So Dad was grateful to the airman who took care to give them a safe landing at Arnhem. But it transpired later that there were other people looking out for him too. Dad’s C.O. never acknowledged Dad’s age. But the day they got captured, the day Dad’s platoon was massacred, the C.O. got his company up in the early morning, and moved off quietly, leaving my wounded Dad and his young chum asleep. When they woke up, the older guys had gone. The German officer who first captured them looked set to turn violent until he saw their age. In perfect English he said to Dad, “You are too young to die in this war.”

I attended a wedding in Scotland a few years ago. Behind the bar was a young man… maybe 19 years old. He was wearing a Parachute Regiment Tie. I asked him about it and he said he was in the Territorial Army. I happened to mention that my Dad was in 2 Para and dropped at Nijmegen Bridge in 1944. His reaction took me completely by surprise. He shook my hand. “Woah! Your Dad! What heroes those guys were.” And in spite of protestations, I was unable to pay for a drink all night!

Dad’s reaction to the memorial and the young guy in Scotland got me to thinking about the current engagements. The loss of life is hugely regrettable in Afganastan at the moment and indeed many of my cousins in Leeds were in the forces,. But was WW2 the last TRULY justifiable war? Can the 9/11 tragedy be compared to the invasion of Poland by Hitler? Is it right the Sun newspaper seems to be making an attempt to discredit the P.M. by using and directing the anger of a grieving mother?  Isn’t that just a bit too much 21st century?

Something don’t smell right, kids. I feel uncomfortable. I suppose it’s always us, the great unwashed, the working class who get stuffed by other peoples principles; it’s always us that ends up galloping into the cannons or marching into the hail of shot. But is it right, nowadays? I dunno. This time last year, during a performance of Henry V – Lion of England, in Brighton I had actor Ed Morris place a poppy in his coat at the end of the show which caused a palpable gasp from the audience. (I won’t give too much away about that. I want you to see the show!) But what do you think? 

I’m just very grateful to Dad’s C.O. and that unnamed German officer in Holland. Or I almost certainly wouldn’t be here to ask these questions.