Quality Writing Time

So you've made the time to write which feels terrific except now...you have to write. And you stare at your computer screen. And you wonder...do they have wireless at this cafe? I should check. You check. They do. Your finger hovers over the "accept this sketchy wireless connection" message. You click it. You get wireless but it's pretty bad. You check your email and the weather and it takes forever to load so you give up and click back on your script. You tweak some dialogue and then scroll down to the next blank page where you need to write a new scene. You type EXT. and then start sweating. You open your outline. Where were you? Ahhhhh, right. Right, right, right. But - is this outline really working? You spend ten minutes going over it. A terrible feeling starts to overwhelm you. You put your chin in your hands and stare around the cafe at the other writers. They all seem so busy and immersed. But you - but - this script - this is terrible. The outline is terrible. The pages are terrible. You know what? Let's see if the weather page finally loaded. It didn't. Just write, you idiot, you think to yourself. Back to the blank page after the terrible page on page fourteen. EXT. - FBI BUILDING....oh man is this scene DAY or NIGHT? You know what? Your coffee is getting cold. You go get another latte. And as you stand at the counter waiting for it, you look around at the cozy scene inside the cafe and you feel suddenly quite writerly. Look at all these writers click-clicking away. This is the life! I am part of a community! A silent one, but still! We are all here creating. You get slightly high from that feeling mixed with the sound of the espresso machine and clink of coffee cups and the sharp scent of coffee.

But every step back to your seat is like walking the green mile. There's the blank page again. But this time, fueled even momentarily by your this-is-the-life thoughts, you sit back down and start writing. Click-clicking away, you write a scene. And it's beyond bad. It's awful. But you don't care. Two terrible pages flow out of you when suddenly you are gripped with the realization that now you have to go back to page two and explain something. God writing is awful! You fix the thing on page two. Huh. This is starting to feel okay. These pages are not bad. The outline is carrying you forth like the yellow brick road. You get in the groove. You feel like you can't stop. You look at the time - oooohhh man, gotta wrap up. In just a few minutes. Just a few....INT....more....OPERATING ROOM....minutes....NIGHT.

Two hours later and you pack up your computer. You've written five whole new pages and worked on previously existing pages too. You've run the gamut from self-loathing to self-congratulatory pretension and back. You've had two lattes and then bought a water because you feel guilty about how the cafe owner is possibly making enough money with all these writers perched like trolls, occupying tables for hours. You think, if this cafe owner charged ten bucks for table rental, you'd pay it. You hope this doesn't occur to the cafe owner. As you walk home you think to yourself, what Woody Allen said is true: 80% of success is showing up. Even if showing up for your script is a hero's journey filled with doubt, pitfalls, horror and highs.

And you know what you've just had? A great writing day. Because this IS what writing looks like. If you have some sort of fantasy in your mind that other writers experience anything much different than this, you're laboring under an illusion.

Like the 7 circles of hell, the wireless checking, the going to get more coffee ploy, the loathing of your pages, the checking and re-checking of the outline - this is all normal. It's what we have to do in order to get to the good part.

Here's the biggest secret to writing. Ready? Ass + chair + time. That's it.

Now get back to work.

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