Not sure about any of you, but sometimes I feel like I have so many ideas that I end up not doing anything: writing, editing, developing, etc. It is so easy to just think about things than it is to not ever get started. If you haven't heard it before I am here to say, "Get Started!" Sometimes the best thing to do is to just start writing, start editing, start brainstorm, just start doing something.
I am part of a writers group and in the spring we all set deadlines and tossed some money into a pot. If we met our ultimate deadline by the end of the semester we got our money back, if we failed then the money went to a big party for the group or something like that. Needless to say, $20 is a lot of money to me so I finished a 105 page script in roughly four months time. I tried it again the following month but only got an outline and 30 pages written, now I have 2 more ideas and have been more thinking about them then actually doing something about it.
Post-production on a movie can sometimes have the same effect. It gets tedious after a while, watching the same thing over and over, fine tuning the edits. You can easily let it sit around for years at a time, or you can start working your butt off to get it done so you can move on to the next project.
I have determined that if I don't push hard to the end of a project, whether a website, script or a movie. Then I will have a really hard time getting anything else done. I was inspired again this month when I found out about National Novel Writing Month, http://www.nanowrimo.org. My brother was participating and he has been hammering out an insane amount of pages and is looking to finish 50,000 words this month. He also introduced me to another organization, Script Frenzy, http://www.scriptfrenzy.org. Now I am hoping to have three scripts written by June so I can participate in the Script Writing Month and not have these other scripts hanging over my head.
So to end it a quote from something I am not quite sure I know where it is from, "Get 'er done!"
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4 comments:
The quote comes from this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXkSEcCwU8A
I get a little bit scared at all the millions of words. We are so buried already in the mountains of books, perodicals, films that already get published and produced. And most of it is junk. Maybe these high-volume word exercises are a good exercise for the writer to prompt and uncover some nugget of value but for the casual reader, have mercy. Something seems to cry out within me not for volume, but for quality. One script finely honed, crafted into a classic over several years if need be, seems worth at least 50 'just do it' cliches and tired plot rescrambles.
This is so true. The part a lot of people forget is that getting it done doesn't mean it is ready to publish and share with the world. The last script I produced "Bounty" was sat on for a year, then went through a year of writes ending with a total of 18 drafts of the script. Then we made adjustments on set and even in the editing room.
It all starts with story and if you mess that up you are contributing to the stack of junk that is produced already.
So yeah, I think you are right on the nose.
Another thought I had on the subject. A lot of the learning process is doing. For example, and this one is overly used, Robert Rodriguez (Desperado, Spy Kids 1-3, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Sin City, Planet Terror) made over 30 short films before he made his first feature. I have heard it also said that every writer/filmmaker has at least 5 really bad stories in them, so might as well get them done and out of the way as soon as possible so you can stick them in a draw and starting writing good stuff. If you are still stuck with the idea in your head years from now then maybe it is worth revisiting. The key is put to action what your say. If you are a writer, then write; a painter, then paint; a sculptor, then sculpt; a musician, then play; don't just talk about it - do it.
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