I have always thought that a continual output of writing was an improbably, an impossible and an unrealistic expectation of one's time. I think it's hard to keep churning out material without new information coming in. It might not be that way for everyone: I have two friends who wrote a new pilot every month or two. And they got signed shortly after.
It's a goal-oriented thing. If you're invested in the achieving the goal, then you keep going and you achieve that goal. I am by nature a process oriented person. But I want goal results from a process. There's something faulty in that thinking. But there must be some middle ground, right?
Well, for quite a while now, I have been setting writing appointments with friends and showing up to get work done. It's a bit like office hours. I keep office hours at the West Hollywood library so that I am at a desk at least three days a week. Usually, I'm at a desk working between 4-6 days a week. Whether that's at home or at this library or the library near my Mom's house when I'm visiting her. It's my job and I need to treat it that way.
Creativity is the element at question here. Is it less creative to churn out material? Or, as explained in Seven Days in the Art World (a book I'm reading as research for the pilot I'm working on right now), is the productivity, the business of the work, the art itself? I think it's all in how you look at it.
I could look at things as an either/or proposition. I'm either creative or I'm prolific. Well, I've never subscribed to that theory. I have always been a fairly prolific writer. There are times where I have been less prolific because of work or other circumstances. But I've had periods where I've written three plays or three pilots in a row as well. And some of that has resulted in great work. Some of it was just to exercise the muscle.
I guess that's another factor. Maybe the problem isn't necessarily being goal-oriented, but being results-oriented. I can write three plays in a row, but those plays ended up going in a drawer. I haven't worked on them. I lost interest. But they were three plays that I wrote in quick succession. I guess I needed to clean the pipes. And I needed to prove to myself that I still had this prolific, productive writer inside of me.
The plays I've written since then have been more focused and more successful. I've had things to say. I've figured out my tone. They're just more successful. And that has led to this idea of doing a Seven Play Cycle based on the Seven Deadly Sins. So far I've written one play and I've finished a draft of the second play of which I'm having a reading of in May. I have another play, which I've been researching for the past nine months. I spent most of the summer doing heavy research on that.
I wrote three pilots two summers ago.
I don't know exactly how many scripts I write a year. It changes. But I do know that I write or work on writing every day. That might be reading something as research or watching something as research. That might be a conversation with a friend. That might be 20 pages of writing. That might be blogging. That might be keeping a journal for the next project I'm going to write. I try to have some sort of routine going that keeps me going.
But I realize that it's not just me at the typewriter for 8 hours straight 5 days a week. Sometimes it's not talking to my boyfriend so I stay in a certain state of mind. He doesn't always understand it. But it's a part of my process. I need a lot of alone time to do this.
My latest routine has been coming to the library at 11 when they open, but not really writing until 12:30. My brain and my body both have to wake up. I have to hit a certain rhythm. I can't explain that.
I guess ultimately that I am prolific. Maybe not 5 pilots in a row. I do like writing to be pleasurable. Not comfortable. Not pleasant. But pleasurable. Something needs to get me to the desk. Sometimes that's You Tube or last night's episode of Dancing with the Stars. Sometimes it's music. Sometimes it's that idea that I want to jot down. Sometimes I bring a book with me and have the computer open in case there's something I want to type.
It's got to be my time in the way that I like to get work done. It's imagining what kind of work day I would have if I owned my own creative business. And the truth is that I do. I'm not always getting paid for it, but I run my own business. I start my day at 11. I work until 2 some times. I work until 5 other days. I take a big break in the middle of the day. Sometimes I'm working until 2 AM, like I was last night. Sometimes I am watching three HBO documentaries in a row for research on a Saturday night, like I was this past weekend. But that's the work environment I like. I'm less pleasured when I'm structured to a certain amount of time and tied to one activity or one place. I actually like a 14 hour work day where I'm working here and there.
I am grateful for being able to work the way I want to.
I am grateful for good friendships to let me know that I'm not crazy.
I am grateful for silliness.
I am grateful for HBO Go and Netflix and the library.
I am grateful for my iTunes library.
I am grateful for 36 pages and 52 scenes in six days.
I am grateful for the moments of in-between.
I am grateful for "thinking about it."
I am grateful for distractions.
I am grateful for concentration.
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