Last week, I was both disappointed and encouraged (though more the latter) by a rejection I got from a management company. Sandwiched between then and now was Thanksgiving, the mother of all holidays, especially for starving artists. Not only did I trek back to Northern Virginia (OK traffic on Wednesday, living Hell yesterday) for food, friends, family, and firewater (lots and lots of firewater), but I had some time to think about what I wanted to focus on next. While I didn't do as much thinking as I would have liked, I did let the ideas roll around in my wine and whiskey addled head.
As a writer, overcoming a writing slump can be a timely endeavor. I have four ideas I'm sorting through right now. I have a very bare-boned outline for two of them (read: I know roughly the trajectory they might take). One idea is heavy on the concept, but light on any concept of execution. The last is pretty much just an idea inferred from a title. What I do know, though, is that it's time to start putting things on paper again. (And, consequently, time to send out query letters for my comic book style spec - thanks, League, for help on the logline last week!)
It's an interesting thing we aspiring writers face - the ability to keep writing in the face of any possible distractor: holidays, relationships, family, and (the BIGGEST) often disagreeable day jobs. How do you do it? What's your trick for not letting that slump go on too long, for making sure you get back on the horse in time to finish the race?
I've found, and I think Zombie would agree, at least recently, that working on more than one project at a time is a great way to keep your head above the water. It's quite easy to be reluctant to do this, after all, wouldn't that mean working on more than one project at a time?!?! Daunting, yes, sometimes. Personally, while I'm a big proponent of outlines, I also hate them. I find that they give me, without fail, at least one whole week of pure, unguarded hell before I make headway in them. After that walk through fire, the writing I do seems cheap and dirty. I know exactly what'll come next, who will say what, and where Character X kicks the bucket. Working on two new projects at the same time usually would mean working on two new outlines at the same time, and that's just no good.
The key, then, is to dust off one of those scripts you've put on the back burner while working on that devil's minion of an outline at the same time. I think that, at any given time, there are about 5 scripts I have gathering proverbial dust in the deep recesses of my computer. As long as I still have any attachment to them, it's worth taking them out for a walk, at least as a safety blanket while I struggle with the outline of death.
Then again, outlines and oldies, maybe they're just my way of getting back on the horse. Writers, what are yours?
4 comments:
I agree. Working on more than one project at a time does tend to keep the productivity rolling -- just as long as you're still disciplined.
Perhaps it's thanks to our skittish attention span -- let's face it, we've all got a serious case of ADD now-a-days, -- but it seems smart to have more than one developing at a time. Then again, perhaps this is how writers have been working for centuries.
I read a pretty solid quote about multi-tasking, which made solid sense, though put to shame the idea of doing more than one project at once; it went something like this:
"Multi-tasking means doing multiple things poorly."
The idea makes sense. Would Tiger Woods be as good as he is at golf if he spent half of his time playing ping-pong?
An interesting argument, but I feel writing is a bit more forgiving -- regardless of the project, you're improving your writing simply by writing!
Great article CakeMan!
Thanks for your comment, Christopher. You're absolutely right, while "Multi-tasking means doing multiple things poorly" in many instances, writing is probably a notable exception (most of the time). Having two projects going at once could wind up producing as little writing as one single project. For the most part, though, I think anyone who has worked on multiple things at once has found it to be helpful and liberating, especially in the face of writer's block confronting one project (just switch gears over to the other for a bit).
By the way, very interesting post about the Rule of Page One (http://www.scriptxray.com/2008/11/20/101-the-rule-of-page-one/ for readers). It's actually something I never really thought about - the absence of "1" in the bottom corner of the first page of a script, but it makes perfect sense. I look forward to the rest of your 101 tips.
Thanks! The rule of page one is something I've been wanting to write about for a while ... it was only recently that I finally put it all together.
Writing for multiple stories -- especially if they contrast drastically -- sounds fun; if something's not quite working over in the romance area, it'd be nice to swing over to a action-packed adventure story!
Did the league all go to school together? How's you guys team up? You a writer's group?
You're very welcome. I dig your site a lot.
The League is comprised almost entirely of people who went through the Dramatic Writing program at NYU together. King Suckerman is our only exception - he's been writing for quite a while and works with Zombie, which is how we know him. In addition to this blog, we are also a writers group - just met yesterday, actually. It's been great, not only keeping one another writing, but having people to workshop everything from outlines and scripts to loglines and query letters.
Writing is usually such a lone wolf endeavor that having other people doing the same thing and pushing you to do your best at it is really great. I think I can speak for everyone in the group when I say that the drafts of scripts I've been sending out to managers and agents are nowhere near as good as they would have been had I not had the League pushing me to fix every possible glitch. We enforce perfection on one another, despite the overwhelming amount of crap out there, and we're better writers for it.
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