A constant question for writers waiting to breakthrough is the following: 'Am I doing enough?'
I have discussed this question many times myself with other writers on twitter. The trouble is that there's no answer really.
The question comes from frustration at not breaking through, so you pile pressure upon yourself to do whatever you can to breakthrough, but then you're not sure exactly what to do to breakthrough; which of your ideas to commit to, how to promote yourself, when to give yourself some downtime, watch some TV or whatever you do to relax. These constant questions can overcome you. Especially when you're applying that pressure, maybe because of a job that also takes up a lot of time that you're trying to escape from.
The only answer I have to the question is to ask yourself why you write? The reason I write is because I enjoy it, and that pressure can sometimes impede on my enjoyment. I know if I don't write I feel like gnawing my arm off so I will always write, so I've decided to try and remove that pressure of the question 'Am I doing enough?' and just enjoy my writing.
Promotion of myself and networking on the other hand is an area where I need to improve and ask myself 'Am I doing enough?' This has begun with me booking myself a ticket for this years London Screenwriter's Festival in October.
Finally, this question of 'Am I doing enough?' leads to how can you measure if you're doing enough, Danny Stack answered this question in the latest UK Screenwriter's podcast which can be found here:- http://bit.ly/d0DKlZ
Within it Danny Stack states that to monitor if you shouldn't give up writing or not, the best thing to check is that you're getting positive steps along the way, everyone gets rejection but as long as this is interspersed with little triumphs you know you're heading in the right direction. I apologise to Mr Stack for paraphrasing him there, but I believe that this also answers the question of whether or not you're doing enough.
Now, get back to that script.
No comments:
Post a Comment