I recently read one of Bill Martell's script tips on writer's block:
"But sometimes we experience writer's block because of things happening in our personal life that have nothing to do with our scripts. Often writer's block is a symptom of depression or anxiety in our every day life. As writers we use OURSELVES as our tools, so when things go wrong in real life it may screw up the writing, too. This is the hardest stuff to deal with, because even after you realize "Hey! The reason why I have writer's block is because I caught my wife in bed with my best friend!" that doesn't solve the problem. If you are fighting serious personal problems it will be difficult to find the energy to write. Financial problems, relationship problems, health problems, family problems - stuff like that takes time to get over. But sometimes you can find a scene that matches your mood and write that - use whatever your personal problems are to fuel your writing." Read the full script tip here.
It struck a real chord with me...and I realised that one of the varients of writer's block that he describes - excerpt above - is what is currently happening to me.
D-YA-AARGH!
*gnashing of teeth*
I don't get writer's block. I refuse point blank. ... I shall use my personal crippling financial problems to fuel my writing. Okay, great.
...
How, do I do that exactly?
Between starving and getting evicted I mean... Okay, I exaggerate flagrantly. That's not actually happening.
In actual fact a second job is looking to become a reality -- in the heart of the wilds of Devon, even getting an interview is a bit of a miracle -- of course I could be jumping the gun, but I have a good feeling about this opportunity.
On the down side, it does mean I'll be working every hour there is. The up side is that it will keep the wolf away from the door. And junior doctors will probably still be jealous of the amount of down time I get... probably. And I can already feel my creative drive metaphorically opening a new pad of paper and sharpening its favourite pencil. :)
First things first though: murder all the competition so that I am the only applicant, and then shine at the interview. :)
Sorted.
Sunday 27 April 2008
Saturday 5 April 2008
Good and Bad Procrastination
Everyone seems to be banging on about Lions at the moment...well, okay, Alex is, and ED stole his post...um okay, actually it was Paul who mentioned the lions. -- Do you have a headache yet? I'm feeling a little dizzy.
Alright, lets break it down: Alex said that Paul Graham wrote a great piece about startup programmers and big company programmers in which he compares them to lions in the wild versus lions in the zoo. The lions in the zoo seem "both more worried and happier."
Alex then affirmed that his Canadian [ - read about the bru-ha-ha over Bill C-10] producer and writer friends are worried all the time. They don't know where their next paycheck is coming from. They don't know if the industry will collapse due to moralistic Conservative government intervention. They have no idea what they'd do for a living if people stopped hiring them, or paying them.
But their frustrations are the frustrations of lions in the wild. They are always stalking the next antelope, or trying to keep the hyenas off of one they've already caught.
They all seem so alive.
English Dave then provided the colourful language that actually got me to click on the link in the post that he had stolen from Alex...
Kinda says it all. A writer can never be a zoo lion, unless it is for research and even then they'll probably fuck a zebra and eat a keeper.
Thanks for that image ED.
Anyhow, to cut a long story even longer and perhaps finally get to the point: Paul Graham has a great essay up about his theories on procrastination.
The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?
Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.
But the trouble with big problems - like say, writing a screenplay* - can't be just that they promise no immediate reward and might cause you to waste a lot of time. If that were all, they'd be no worse than going to visit your in-laws. There's more to it than that. Big problems are terrifying. There's an almost physical pain in facing them. It's like having a vacuum cleaner hooked up to your imagination. All your initial ideas get sucked out immediately, and you don't have any more, and yet the vacuum cleaner is still sucking.
You can't look a big problem too directly in the eye. You have to approach it somewhat obliquely. But you have to adjust the angle just right: you have to be facing the big problem directly enough that you catch some of the excitement radiating from it, but not so much that it paralyzes you. You can tighten the angle once you get going, just as a sailboat can sail closer to the wind once it gets underway.
If you want to work on big things, you seem to have to trick yourself into doing it. You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators. It's not a sign of weakness to depend on such tricks. The very best work has been done this way.
*my emphasis
Well, it's good to get external confirmation that there is good procrastination. Now all I have to do is eliminate the bad procrastination and I'm on to a winner. :)
Alright, lets break it down: Alex said that Paul Graham wrote a great piece about startup programmers and big company programmers in which he compares them to lions in the wild versus lions in the zoo. The lions in the zoo seem "both more worried and happier."
Alex then affirmed that his Canadian [ - read about the bru-ha-ha over Bill C-10] producer and writer friends are worried all the time. They don't know where their next paycheck is coming from. They don't know if the industry will collapse due to moralistic Conservative government intervention. They have no idea what they'd do for a living if people stopped hiring them, or paying them.
But their frustrations are the frustrations of lions in the wild. They are always stalking the next antelope, or trying to keep the hyenas off of one they've already caught.
They all seem so alive.
English Dave then provided the colourful language that actually got me to click on the link in the post that he had stolen from Alex...
Kinda says it all. A writer can never be a zoo lion, unless it is for research and even then they'll probably fuck a zebra and eat a keeper.
Thanks for that image ED.
Anyhow, to cut a long story even longer and perhaps finally get to the point: Paul Graham has a great essay up about his theories on procrastination.
The most impressive people I know are all terrible procrastinators. So could it be that procrastination isn't always bad?
Most people who write about procrastination write about how to cure it. But this is, strictly speaking, impossible. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing. No matter what you work on, you're not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.
But the trouble with big problems - like say, writing a screenplay* - can't be just that they promise no immediate reward and might cause you to waste a lot of time. If that were all, they'd be no worse than going to visit your in-laws. There's more to it than that. Big problems are terrifying. There's an almost physical pain in facing them. It's like having a vacuum cleaner hooked up to your imagination. All your initial ideas get sucked out immediately, and you don't have any more, and yet the vacuum cleaner is still sucking.
You can't look a big problem too directly in the eye. You have to approach it somewhat obliquely. But you have to adjust the angle just right: you have to be facing the big problem directly enough that you catch some of the excitement radiating from it, but not so much that it paralyzes you. You can tighten the angle once you get going, just as a sailboat can sail closer to the wind once it gets underway.
If you want to work on big things, you seem to have to trick yourself into doing it. You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators. It's not a sign of weakness to depend on such tricks. The very best work has been done this way.
*my emphasis
Well, it's good to get external confirmation that there is good procrastination. Now all I have to do is eliminate the bad procrastination and I'm on to a winner. :)
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