Stay Motivated—Commit to Your Writing Career

Anyone will tell you breaking into the business is the hardest part. Generally, rookie writers struggle to write on weekends or early mornings before their day job starts. If they don't take classes, or get feedback from reliable sources their learning curve can be steep.

Writing an original spec screenplay during this period can drag on for months. The first draft is one thing. The rewrites can go on, too. And there's no pay for those early efforts. And then there's the constant rejection. What motivates these writers?

Even when screenwriters do sell scripts, they often face ridiculous deadlines and write endless drafts to satisfy producers, directors, and actors. If they don’t satisfy these people, other writers are generally brought in to rework their original vision.

Most working writers at this level make around $50,000-$70,000 for a script. And if they're very lucky, they might sell a script once every three years.  How do they keep going?

The best way to motivate yourself is to decide to stay fully committed to a life-long career as a writer.

Don’t treat writing as a hobby, or you will definitely lose interest. You should look deep into your heart and ask yourself if you’re willing to work the long hours months and years it takes to succeed.

If “life-long” sounds too difficult, decide to commit to writing for 10 years. Doesn’t sound quite as painful, does it? If 5 years sounds better, then set that goal.

If you want to be a professional writer—who sells scripts, or gets plays made, or gets novels published, this better be your top priority. If it’s down on your list, behind creating an internet startup, or becoming a lawyer, or a professional wrestler, it’s probably not going to happen.

You need to make writing the first priority to help you carve out time to write. A lot of great things happen when you make that decision. You don’t have to wonder anymore if you really should spend time writing. It’s obvious. You need to write. Not just once in a while. As often as you can.

Whether or not you realize it, this decision is tied into your need to matter as a person. We all want to leave our mark on the world. We all want to express ourselves in a way that will be remembered. Somewhere in our dreams—we all want to leave some kind of legacy.

Some writers—very lucky writers, realize early that they have something to say.

I say lucky because they already have a vision or an idea that they want to express. Some people get into writing but don’t know what they want to say, they just want to be entertaining. And that’s okay.

Not all films have a message—nor do they need to. On the other hand, I think writers tend to be observers of human behavior. They generally have something to say about it, too. In my case I was clearly interested in the human condition—I loved psychology and graduated with a degree from Stanford.

I also knew I wanted to be funny. As a kid I had memorized comedy routines written and performed by my one-time hero Bill Cosby. When I was a kid, at camp in Boy Scouts, I’d entertain my friends with those hilarious routines. Such a shame what happened.

I was obsessed with comics and funny movies. I started writing short stories, then scripts, and then made short films that were funny. One of those scripts got me into the USC Cinema’s Professional Writing Program. I got some real experience writing screenplays with feedback from veteran screenwriters and Hollywood producers.

At some point (probably around my time at USC) I made a commitment to writing. What else could I do, I was in a writing program. I was writing nonfiction books and screenplays. At some level, I knew that I'd be writing for the rest of my life.

I worked pretty hard trying to write the best, the funniest screenplays I could. Whenever I had free time, I knew I should be writing. When I wasn’t writing, I was reading—The National Lampoon, and studying films like MASH, Lenny, and Play It Again, Sam.

Once I committed to writing, I sought out these people. I wrote with them. We sold screenplays.

I found writing partners. I wrote with lots of funny people. I wrote with my wife, Los Angeles Times Editor, screenwriter, tv writer and animation writer, Rogena Silverman. We sold feature and TV scripts. I wrote with a colleague at USC, Stephen Sustarsic. We were on TV staffs together for about 25 years. I wrote with friends I met on TV staffs, extremely talented writers, Steve Pepoon and Howard Bendetson. Created TV shows with both Steve and Howard.

Once you commit yourself to immersing yourself in your craft, thinking about writing every day and envisioning yourself writing films or working on a TV staff, you’ll be on the right track. Say to yourself, I’ll be writing (in some form or other—novels, films, poetry, whatever) for the rest of my life. Commit to it. Visualize it. Stick to it.

David Silverman, LMFT, treats creative and highly sensitive individuals in private practice in LA. Having experienced the rejection, stress, creative blocks, and career reversals over a long career as a writer in Film and TV, he’s uniquely suited to work with gifted, creative and sensitive clients experiencing anxiety, addiction or depression. For more information, visit www.DavidSilvermanMFT.com.

Image credit: The woman in the window (Greystones), 2016 by markheybo, is licensed under CC By 2.

This article was originally published on PsychCentral and is used with the permission of the author.