There’s A Million Excuses Not To Write by Mark Sanderson
Film Courage: We had a comment that came in which said [in response to a video interview] “That’s easy for this person to say because this person is a professional screenwriter and it’s their job to write all day. It makes sense to say it’s your job (kind of like get over it, just do it). But most people that watch the Film Courage [Youtube] channel [Which is very nice that they think this] are not professional screenwriters they actually have other jobs that have to pay the bills. Screenwriting is a hobby for them at best while they make the two worlds work and that I get. So no…you don’t have to write everyday to be a writer.”
Mark Sanderson: I don’t write every day. I do when I am on assignment and then when I’m not, I’m kind of exhausted. And the last year has been crazy I mean with like 6 movies. So it’s like almost every 3 months turnaround.
But it’s fantastic because I was constantly writing, but it’s draining. It’s almost like I want to go do something else and stop. And they say “Well, when you stop the assignment, you want to go work on your spec.” Like not right now because I don’t have the time, you know? But you have to manage your time, you really do and there is no excuse. I’ve had to do it when I was in college in film school. I was working 4 to 5 nights a week in a restaurant. But I had friends who went to film school or any college and they could just go to school. They had the luxury of living at home, their parents paid for everything. I had to pay my bills. But I think that trained me into really sectioning my time. Yeah, you can go to parties and all this stuff and I was not only making movies in film school, but I was also after day class I had to go down (I was working in Westwood here) and work a 5-hour shift and then come home. So it really trained me for that. And there’s a million excuses why we don’t want to write. I mean truthfully when it’s difficult, even more “Oh, you know?”
Like I said, I never have the house as clean as when I am procrastinating. But the movie I just turned in on assignment was my 35th screenplay. It’s still learning, I still respect the craft and bow down to it because I learn something every time. Every project is different, every producer or company you work with, it’s a whole different scenario each time. Yes, you know how it works a lot better. I look at old scripts now and like my 4th spec (my 5th one sold), my 4th one made some noise. We met with the A-list actors about it (this was a million years ago) but I looked back at that script and I was like “Arrgghh! If we’d only, if I could only go back and rewrite that with what I know now!” But you only have the knowledge that you have this exact moment in time and you can’t live with regrets. So study, get better, write more screenplays.
Yes, writers write, but I don’t think you should feel guilty if you’re not writing every day. But don’t let it go two days because two leads to four, four leads to a week. This weekend we’ve got something going on, you have to schedule it and I always say to aspiring screenwriters, treat it like your job because it will be. You don’t…(Watch the video and read more on FilmCourage.com here).
