5 Ways to Inspire Your Writing: Part V

5) Find your process. Repeat.

Ray Allen arrives 3 hours before every single NBA basketball game and shoots the basketball over and over and over again. Bob Dylan used to exclusively write songs on trains and buses. I do all my chores before I write. Everyone has a different process and contrary to popular belief, most artists do not have to be drunk or high to create. The important thing is that you remove the panic from your life by remembering that most cars don’t go from 0-90 in an instant. They, like your brain, require time to warm up, engage, and speed up.

This is a real psychological phenomenon. When basketball players claim the basket looks big on one night and small another, it is because our brains have literal zones. Sometimes, you are creative, sometimes you are less creative. In order to maximize the times you are creative, you have to find a space, a routine, and a reasonable goal. In other words, do not wake up and say, “Oh no, I have to go to the Barnes and Noble and write 80 pages today or I am a failure.” Guess what, no one’s making you go to a book store, you won’t write 80 pages today, and you’re not a failure.  

I personally write best with a few cups of coffee, a healthy meal, something disgusting and sugary, with my chores done, and my dog nearby. I am not a coffee shop writer nor am I a subway writer (although I’ve had much more success writing on long trains upstate or down south).

I feel successful if I’ve written 3-10 pages in a day for a feature or written 1 sketch. If I’m in a bad mood or don’t feel well or am lucky enough to have a date that night, it’s okay. The common belief is either inspiration strikes or you must work 9-5 to be a writer. The truth is, both are inaccurate. You have to facilitate space, routine, and goals for writing, but you are not an office worker. Unless you’re one of the few lucky enough to be staffed to TV, you’re probably juggling multiple jobs, schools, responsibilities, and screenplays at once. You’re more likely to be too hard on yourself.

Set goals, but make them reasonable.

Be neither the tortoise nor the hare. Be a human.  

Write every day if you can, every week if you can’t.

Don’t let it go more than a week or the mountain will just grow taller.

For Practice:

A)   Write a to-do list with each project you are working on.

B)   Go about your normal work, writing, school, and personal life for 7 days.

C)   After 7 days, note how much you did on your to-do list. If you did too little, write another to-do list with more reasonable goals. If you did too much, write another to-do list with more ambition. Repeat every week with consideration for your personal and financial life.

Remember to have a life. If you can’t even have your own life, what life can you write? This doesn’t mean go be Jordan Belfort.  Just get out of the Barnes and Noble. 

Ben Cohen is a Brooklyn-based comedy filmmaker and Screenwriting Instructor at the New York Film Academy. He studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Theater. He co-wrote and directed the “Godamsterdam” web-series and wrote and directed the short film, “Is It Because of My Penis?” He performs improv and sketch in New York with indie groups, “Diddler on the Roof” and “2 Single Guys.”