Defeat Procrastination & Bring Discipline in your Life as A Screenwriter
Most scripts are always suitable for screenplay contests but when it comes down to production costs they are never made into movies.
By Jen B.
Has your brain ever told you to just relax and take it easy, delay a few tasks because you can do it later on in no time? This temptation to take it easy is called procrastination.
Screenwriters might have faced this similar situation where they trust that they can manage to complete a task and meet a deadline in the nick of time with no trouble, so it is not necessary to stress over it. This fantasy created in the mind of a writer can cost them the quality and creativity of a screenplay. Writing is no easy thing to do. A writer has to put in hours of work to think of creative ideas and find inspiration for new and unique content, the characters and details of the story.
Procrastinating and wasting time can make you bite off more than you can chew.
In the current age that we live in, the age of technology, we have too many options to get distracted by, the biggest one being social media. As a fellow user of social media, I will admit that once you start scrolling, it becomes hard to stop. You can spend hours on your phone whizzing past content without even realizing it.
We human beings are curious by nature. We want to know everything that is going on and do not want to be excluded from anything if we can help it. The world of social media moves at high speeds, new content and drama is up all the time. Due to our fear of missing out, we stick to our phones like glue and try to keep up with everything going on at that time.
Though social media is a huge vacuum that sucks up a majority of our time, it is not the only culprit. TV shows and movies that are available at one click are also part of the problem. The devil that is Netflix, entices you to watch just one more episode, whispering in your ear like a siren ‘One more episode won’t hurt’, making you helplessly fall prey to temptation. This type of environment and behavior can heavily impact the productivity and motivation of a writer.
Being busy with the daily life activities and responsibilities has made it hard to be able to manage a balanced and nutritious diet for ourselves. We have started heavily relying on fast food which makes us become lazy and makes us unhealthy. If your health is affected and your energy levels have deteriorated, both physically and mentally, then you will not have time or the motivation to think about how to write a screenplay and think of creative ideas.
If you are one of those writers who want to bring more discipline and order in their life and find motivation to write their screenplay ideas in a tangible form, then we have some helpful tips to get you out of your unproductive cycle that you are stuck in.
• Motivation and Discipline: Key Factors in Combatting Procrastination
Once you get stuck in a routine of being unproductive and lazy, it gets hard to break out of it easily; it takes a lot of effort and personal willpower to get up and do something productive. In this period of time you need to have determination, believe that you will sit down and think, write or imagine the various elements of a screenplay.
If you want to succeed as a screenwriter than you need to be determined, disciplined and motivated. It may sound easy since writing is what you love, right? But it is not as easy as it seems. As mentioned above, there are way too many distractions in our current world which lead us to procrastinate rather than do something productive. You have to put a conscious effort to create a schedule and bring discipline in your life. Forcing yourself to not get distracted and not using your phone for one more hour, scroll through those memes or watching that one more episode will bring a surprising level of change and order in your life.
In efforts to combat procrastination writers try to raise up their determination levels; allocating time properly and creating a schedule for writing and researching about possible ideas. After you have been successful in getting some discipline in your life, your next step should be to find motivation to write and use that discipline to create new work and content. Think about how to construct the story, the screenplay dialogue and other details of the script.
When you are motivated, you do not just want to write but you need to write because the ideas in your head want to come out in a physical form so that the world can see them as well. You write the best when you are motivated, so whenever motivation hits you, no matter what time, grab a pen or open your laptop and start writing before you forget about those details.
• Setting Yourself Up for Success
Success for a screenwriter can only come if they show determination, discipline and motivation in their work, going all out to ensure that they give out their best. To do all of the physical and mental effort required to achieve all the tasks that you have set out for yourselves, you need to manage yourself and get into the right state of mind. As they say, mind over matter. Make yourself aware of the screenwriting dos and don’ts, research material, brainstorm, visualize and most importantly, WRITE. If you are not in the correct state of mind that is ready to accomplish the objectives set out then you will not be able to it.
There are multiple ways that you can use to prepare yourself for the hard work ahead. You need to find the right time and place to write through the discipline that you will bring in your life. Detaching yourself from the distractions like your phone or TV is necessary to focus. This step will aid you in managing your time and improve it.
The most important thing though is being regular with your routine. You should not make your life just revolve around writing but try to write as much as you can and follow the schedule that you arrange for yourself.
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