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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Can You Find Two Hours?

Okay Wavers - here's our weekend challenge. Can you find two hours to write this weekend? In between the laundry, grocery shopping, Academy Awards and doing-of-things-with-your-significant-other-if-you-have-one? Doesn't have to be two consecutive hours, although that is ideal. Maybe you can write for 45 minutes this morning and an hour and 15 minutes tomorrow morning. Maybe you can write in increments of 20 minutes. Maybe you can duck out of your usual weekend obligations and just crank out two solid hours. Is this too much to ask of us? Are we taking our screenwriting careers seriously? Do our families understand how important this is to us? No, yes and of course.

Remember: this is like exercise. You will have 32 excuses why you don't have time, all seemingly quite legitimate. And yet - if you manage to squeeze some writing time in, you'll feel like a million bucks afterward.

So try to carve two measly hours out of this weekend someway, somehow and get some writing done. I'll be right there with ya. Who's in?


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10 comments:

E.C. Henry said...

Writing is fun. I have NO PROBLEM meeting doing it for two hours Saturday AND Sunday. Working for a living all I can do is an hour on the weekdays (morning before work), and on the weekends I like, what I call, "binge writing" which has the possibility of going over an hour.

Right now I'm alternationg between banging away a 1st draft in Final Draft, and outlining and exloring scenes manualing writing on paper. NOT all writing is done just typing away... (just a thought)

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

MovieGuy76 said...

I'm game. I'll be working on rewrites to the script. Who else is joining E.C. and me?

Anthony Peterson said...

Thanks for your encouragement Julie. You are a blessing to so many people.

Milli Thornton said...

Does research count?

I'm reading a book on steam trains this weekend for my script ... that's so my research time won't cut into my writing time during the week.

(This past week I did two 12-hour stints on my screenplay.)

I would say "Yes!" - my husband takes my screenwriting seriously. That's cuz I've promised to buy him his dream car after I sell some scripts.

Just kidding...

He never interferes with my writing time and has offered to read my script for accuracy. He even read my treatment - and this is a guy who normally only reads magazines about techie stuff, travel or boating.

I'm lucky that way :0)

Unknown said...

Julie,

I work for the weekends -- all week long my focus is on that screenplay. I drive 70 minutes one way to work -- plenty of time to plan and organize my weekend writing.

I write at a Panera Bread – can’t write at home, just doesn’t work for me. But at Panera....
From the time they open – 6:30am on Saturday, 7:30am on Sunday until 11:30am -- I write.
And write.

Nine hours every weekend.
Did I mention that I work for the weekend?

Keep Writing!

Julie Gray said...

@Anthony - well, gosh, thank you. But hey, we're all in this together, right? The dreamers, the schemers, the liars and the people who need two hours to just WRITE in order to feel normal.

@Milli - it's ALL good :)))

Unknown said...

If I had read this earlier than Sunday at 10, sure. At this time I stick to my normal writing exercises (which takes in consideration that a two-year-old and a three-n-a-half-year-old have the right to claim my time when they want to).

Hope you all have had a lovely weekend.

Anonymous said...

I actually have a daily repeating to-do item on my Palm that reads "15 minutes on screenplay." It's a small enough time frame that it's easy to commit to, and more often than not, I go way beyond that. But if that's all I can do, hey, progress is progress, right?

Luzid said...

I can't, because that would be a reduction in my nightly 2-3 hour writing block. Like E.C., I love the process of writing, so finding the time isn't a problem.

It's easy when you're single :p

All my friends and family support my writing, to the point that one is getting actors together for a reading - a gesture I never expected when I pitched the script. Neat, huh?

Support is crucial, starting with yourself. If you don't believe in your work, no one else will.

Tiago said...

I did it.
Thanks!