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I fell behind in the writing yesterday. I had a 2 extra hours but wrote only 20 pages, which amounts to 3 1/3 pages per hour.
I knew I was going to be behind at the start of the morning. A favourite E.L Doctorow quote of mine describes writing “like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” I started this trip like I started all the others, without an outline and only a few basic ideas in my head. My only problem was that since I didn’t know where I was heading, I didn’t know which way to point the car at the start.
But despite all of this, the writing is going smoothly. It feels more solid than all the scripts that have come before it. At the moment, I am assuming that it is because of continuous practice. I know how a script is put together and this is hitting all the points at all the right times. This script is proving one of the many theories in my head, which is that most scripts will hit their beats in a natural way if they are not forced.
This is my 12th script, written in this unplanned, frenetic style. I know people who do not understand why I do it this way. I don’t know how to explain it to them, except that I have tried outlining and I know that I never enjoyed the writing as much. And if you don’t enjoy your passions, then why chase after them?