{"id":1111,"date":"2020-03-30T01:08:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T08:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/propathscreenwriting.flywheelsites.com\/staging\/7934\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2020-04-29T21:47:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T04:47:38","slug":"the-hardest-lesson-to-learn-write-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/2020\/03\/30\/the-hardest-lesson-to-learn-write-now\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hardest Lesson to Learn – Write Now!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.4.1″ da_is_popup=”off” da_exit_intent=”off” da_has_close=”on” da_alt_close=”off” da_dark_close=”off” da_not_modal=”on” da_is_singular=”off” da_has_shadow=”on” da_disable_devices=”off|off|off”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.4.1″][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.4.1″ type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.1″ hover_enabled=”0″]Writing is a singular endeavor, that in the early stages of a career requires a great amount of discipline and self-motivation. You aren\u2019t under contract. You don\u2019t have a deadline except for the one you give yourself, so it becomes easy to do everything in the world but write. \n\nWriting is one of those pursuits where too much credit is given to the person who simply sits in front of a screen. But these days, that screen might hold everything except a screenplay. \n\nThe screen might be your list of recent online orders. It probably has social media that blinks alerts at you. Maybe a video game or two wait in your queue of favorites. And as always there\u2019s entertainment news and gossip, that the writer convinces herself is relevant to her writing career. \n\nTime for writing is eaten up by bad habits. Weak behavior. Shallow social interactions. \n\nBut it\u2019s not writing. It\u2019s a pretense of writing. It\u2019s another way the writer puts the act of writing in a secondary or tertiary position of priority\u2014and it shows. \n\nIt shows in the pages not written. It shows in the scenes that remain incomplete. It shows in the lack of depth and development of the story. But it also shows in the stunted growth of the writer, \n\nI admit, I\u2019m the teacher in a workshop who cringes when a student tells me she needs a writer\u2019s discipline. I feel a little hit of pain in my colon, because I\u2019m going to have to say the following words out loud. \n\n\u201cI don\u2019t teach discipline. Sorry.\u201d\n\nIf you aren\u2019t self-disciplined, writing just got harder for you. No one else should be responsible for cajoling, bribing, negotiating, or gently intimidating you into the effort of your own writing.\n\nDiscipline is a process of maturity. Maturity as writer, and maturity as a human being. \n\nIf you seek a teacher or a fellow scribe, a taskmaster that will force you to complete your own assignments? Then you need to be honest with yourself. Do you really have the interest, talent, or drive it takes to become a professional screenwriter? \n\nWriting will quickly winnow out the weak. Writing cares little about talent. Writing gives zero consideration to innate or God given gifts. Writing brutalizes the lazy. \n\nSelf-Discipline comes from a repetitive habit. The habit of writing every day. The work of learning skills by applying knowledge to the page. It comes from pushing through the hazards, boredom, frustrations of everyday life to place your tushie in a chair and then to face a screen with a blinking cursor. No matter what.\n\nIt means setting aside immediate and overwhelming voices that scream for your attention.\n\nTurn off the incoming messages. Turn off the shallow entertainment news. Turn off social media. Turn off the news.\n\nAnd write. \n\nWrite every day.\n\nWrite now.\n\nLoving you dear writer.[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writing is a singular endeavor, that in the early stages of a career requires a great amount of discipline and self-motivation. You aren\u2019t under contract. You don\u2019t have a deadline…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,28,27,21,15,16],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-film-school","tag-film-student","tag-filmmaker","tag-screenwriter","tag-screenwriting","tag-script"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propathscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}