Thursday, March 5, 2009

Another Piece of Good Advice

I read this many years ago, in a book on screenwriting. It's great advice though, and can apply to any piece of writing you wish to invest yourself in. The advice is this: treat your script (manuscript or whatever) as if it were your significant other. Now this doesn't mean literally; you needn't sleep with your script in your bed. What this means is that in order to condition yourself to make time for your script and to treat it like the fantastic work of literary greatness that it is, you need to personify it a bit.

Think of it this way: if you run out on a date, your date gets pissed and will treat you like crap for treating them like crap. The same will be true of your script. If you neglect it, you will find it very hard to come back to after a long hiatus. If you care for it, tend to it's needs (and believe me, they have needs) and work on it when you're supposed to, it will treat you much better.

I know this may sound a bit strange, but think of it this way: our writing is the embodiment of ourselves, of our wishes, hopes and dreams. If we don't care about them, why should anyone else? If we work hard to make them a reality, our efforts will be repaid many times over.

Think about that the next time you decide to blow off working on your project in favor of something else. While you needn't spend every waking moment with your project, it deserves some attention.

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