Fresh Hell
I just got notes on a project which involve a pretty major restructuring of the story, and I’m dreading doing it. So, I’m trying to remind myself that I like this. I love these characters, and so does everyone who’s read them, so shuffling pieces of plot around is not a big deal.
But god it feels like a big deal.
When I started The Writers Panel back in 2011, nearly every guest quoted Dorothy Parker at some point in the interview:
A small sampling from your favorite writers:
Vince Gilligan (creator of Breaking Bad: “The fun part is having written, past tense.”
Glen Mazzara (showrunner of The Walking Dead): “I avoid writing a lot.”
Chris McKenna (co-writer, Spiderman: No Way Home): “I think writing is fun! I just love gettin’ in there, and painting with my mind! …Come on. It’s a pain.”
Natalie Chaidez (showrunner of The Flight Attendant): “Is this supposed to be fun? Writing?”
Mike Schur (creator of The Good Place): “The result is beautiful when you've written something great. Oh my god, I love that. There's no problem with that. It's getting there that's excruciating.”
Bryan Fuller (creator of Hannibal): “The process is just despairing.”
Ashley Lyle (co-creator of Yellowjackets): “I might hate writing… I have a lot of anxiety about writing, and I love to have written. I feel like I somehow black out every time. At this point, we've we've written, not including pilots, eighteen episodes of television in the past five or six years. And every single time I'm like, how do we do this?”
You get the idea.
I believed these folks for a long time. And I believed it about myself too, that if I were to consider myself a “real writer,” then I had to find the process painful. It was only when I started looking at transcripts of these conversations that I saw that, though my guests were saying that they “hate the process,” they quickly betrayed themselves.
Between the Lines
It was around this time that I started asking what the “fun part” of writing is. Generally, the initial reaction was a stricken look and some variation of “none of it?” But then, most guests found themselves talking about the part they do enjoy.
“First of all, it is fun when you're done. I don't wanna take away that moment. It's fun to have written,” said Moana writer, and Academy Award nominee (!!) for My Year of Dicks, Pamela Ribon. Then she added, “It's really fun when you figure out what you meant to say. When I feel like I have found that language, and I look up and three hours have passed.”
My pal Heath Corson (Animal Kingdom; Scream: The TV Series) was quick to reply with “I don't like writing.” But he immediately amended his statement to say:
Except in those rare moments when a character does say something you didn't have anything to do with; you just took it down. That is so great, and those moments make it worthwhile. And writing that horrible first draft and looking at it the next day and going like, “actually, you know what? There's a lot decent stuff here.” That feels good.
Even Vince Gilligan, so resistant to the actual writing, admits that “the most important thing is being in that writer’s room and breaking story with the six writers. The least fun part, but the most important.”
In this week’s Writers Panel episode, the way that Jay Faerber (Supergirl) talked about his feelings around writing really resonated with me. “When I was younger,” he said, “I leaned a little more towards loving ‘having written’ because I valued speed. I was a fast writer… but almost to my own detriment, because I would blow through things. I’d be like, I’m done. But was it good? I would settle for good enough instead of really being hard on myself.”
Jay continued: “As I mature as a writer, I can appreciate even the hard parts of writing. And that means going slow and doing one more pass, even though you’re sick of it… all of those things you have to embrace. It’s not just about getting to the end of that first draft.”
One Good Scene
So, that’s where I’m at. Embracing “all of those things.” The maybe-boring parts? The parts that feel less like creating something from nothing and more like turning nothing into something?
I’m still not excited about it. Seriously, I thought writing this newsletter would turn me around. It didn’t. I’m not feeling very “accept the process” right now. I have to keep reminding myself that I do like it. I like visiting these funny, real characters. I like breaking story, and even re-breaking it, but it’s also really fucking difficult sometimes.
Here’s something that gives me just a little bit of a buzz, just a little bit of that tingle that maybe makes me want to sit down and accomplish just something.
As I was sifting through episode transcripts, I found this piece of good advice from author Joe Hill (Locke & Key):
Don’t sit down to write a novel. Don’t sit down to write a short story. Don’t sit down to write a comic book. Sit down to write one good scene.
That’s it. That’s the whole day’s job, is just write one scene that people want to read to the end. A novel is a stack of good scenes that connect. A short story is one to three good scenes that connect. A comic book is usually two or maybe three good scenes that connect.
If you can just write a good scene, you’ve done your day’s work.
I can do that. I can (try to) write just one good scene. And I’ll couple this with another piece of wisdom, less quoted from my guests but probably the truest piece of writing advice that has ever existed:
Needed this right now. Thank you!
This was so lovely. I'm sharing this post and your whole newsletter with my writers group. Thank you and good luck on the rewrite!!