Blog of writer Pat Griffith

Word by Word

1/18/2017

(Source Thinkstock Images)

The old adage is that writers write. I'm a writer, I have two books you can buy right now. Haven't written much in three months.

I'm not going to say I have writer block. It may be, but I'm not convinced. I think it's more akin to extreme procrastination. I am avoiding writing. I don't know why but I am. Once I sit down and start doing it I'm fine, it's the getting started part that I am struggling with.

Part of the problem is distraction. Unlimited data is not my friend. Netflix and Hulu must think I'm bed ridden. Ray Bradbury has strong opinions about TV and he is not someone I would lightly dismiss.

In addition, for the last two years I have been obsessing over various fandoms. (Looking at you RvB and Star Wars.) Other fans are a source of great delight to me but it is a deep hole that can be hard to get away from, especially if I am facing a hard scene.

Lastly, people. There is a lot of demand on my time. I strongly believe that investing in the right relationships is important but it has come at a cost and that price has been my dedicated writing time. I have to schedule that time and I have to defend it, vehemently, or it will never happen.

I am not saying any of these activities are bad. All I am saying is that for me they are not helping me advance in my writing. If it doesn't contribute to my current goal of finishing book three it has to be set aside.

So. This is what I am resorting to. My goal, once a day, just write one sentence. That's it. Five to fifteen little words in the context of my story.

But you see it’s trick. Once I write one sentence the next one comes pretty easily. In no time I have a bona fide paragraph. And then I am on my way. As a precaution I have made myself accountable to someone. I text them that I have done my sentence. If they don’t hear from me they ask about it. Somedays I only have enough energy for the one sentence, but it’s still progress, I am still moving forward.

This is nothing new, it's Anne Lamont's bird by bird story. Start with one word, then do another. Don't think about the big picture. Focus on that one thing. Because all I need right now is my shitty first draft and the only way to get that is laying down sentences one word at a time.

1 Comment

Lewis Nowosad link

1/18/2017 06:27:10 am

At one point, I was a ‘prolific’ songwriter and then, shit happened. It cast me into the condition we artists refer to as ‘writer’s block’. I used to log every song I wrote each year and compare it to the number of songs I wrote in the previous year and pat myself on the back about it, but that thing that happened…well…it kinda’ killed writing for me. That story would take up fifty pages and if you’re curious about it, find me and I’ll tell you, but let’s get onto the point of this reply…

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ writer/director James Gunn posted a ‘Pro Tip’ on his page with regards to the aforementioned condition. Just like James, himself, it was honest and blunt. That could also be a trait inherent of someone who lives down in the Los Angeles basin, too, but I hope what he said to me may shed some light into the frustration and cold shadows of ‘writer’s block’.

I’ll preclude the remainder of this by stating that if you have ever watched James in any conversational context, (interviews, his ‘live’ feeds on Facebook, etc…), he’s longwinded - so it comes as no surprise that his response was this long. I was flattered, and could hear his nasal tone as I read it aloud for the first time…

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“When people ask me for advice on writing or directing, or almost any project, "finish what you start" is the first thing I tell them. As a young man I'd start a novel or a script or a film and it would all be going amazingly well, and then I'd hit a snag... something that stopped me. Maybe I was judging the project, or I lost my passionate fuel, or I became distracted by a newer, shiner project. And so I just stopped and moved on. I didn't think the problem was me; I thought it was the projects I was choosing. I thought I would eventually find the right project that would fix everything for me, that would be THE project that would propel me to success.
I was in my twenties and becoming discouraged. I was seeing people around me, who I thought were less talented than me, getting film deals and TV deals. It wasn't because I was lazy - I was often writing for fifteen or sixteen hours a day. Why wasn't I doing as well as others?
And one day it came to me in a burst of inspiration: Perhaps the missing ingredient was incredibly simple - I just needed to finish whatever I started. There was nothing wrong with the projects I had been choosing. The problem was me: I just hadn't followed them through. Any of them could have been "the one."
Fear was what most often kept me from completing something. What if it wasn't good enough? What if I put my heart into something and put it out there and I looked stupid? I realized I had to act despite my fear if I wanted any of the benefits of artistic achievement (which include artistic achievement itself).
So I started finishing whatever I started. It became the primary goal of my writing. And it was only a matter of months before everything in my life changed dramatically, both in terms of how I felt about myself, and in terms of how the world treated me in regards to my career.
Finishing what you start - plowing ahead, no matter what - is what separates amateurs from professionals. It's what transformed me from a wannabe, kinda writer into an actual writer.
Obviously, not everyone who finishes what they start in every endeavor will be successful - natural ability and experience and personality make up a huge part of success. But I do think it is the most important aspect of being successful. (And, contrary to popular belief, "having connections" is NOT an important aspect of being successful - of all my successful friends in the film industry, maybe two were born with connections.)
As writers and directors we have to be self-starters, because no one will hire us with nothing to show for it. And, if you're a beginner, finishing what you start is the quickest way to improve. You learn a lot more about writing from completing a screenplay than you do from writing the first thirty pages of ten screenplays.
Finally, if you're an open-minded and honest person, finishing what you start is a way to learn if you want to pursue a career in whatever field you're considering. Maybe you aren't that great at the job you're considering - but you'll never know that unless you try.
I don't know what's propelled me to write all this this morning - perhaps it's a conversation I had this weekend. But enough of Facebook for me, as I have a project I need to get to finishing.
I wish you all luck and perseverance.
Have a lovely day, james”
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I thanked him, going into detail regarding my recent plight, (a long story distilled to 218 words), and how it affected my muse; the fuel that drove my writing machine…and what impressed me the

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