This post might sound hypocritical given that the last thing I posted here was over 6 months ago, but I assure you that I've written more in the past year than in any previous year of my life. I've now had over 60 Technician articles published since I started working there in February 2013 (Technician is NCSU's student newspaper), plus countless others which I've contributed to as an editor. On top of that I've written short scripts, essays, and a decent amount of fiction. It goes without saying that a significant amount of it has been crap, but you can't develop as a writer without failing first. My screenwriting professor this past semester continually told us that "Writing is about messing up" (though he said it a little more colorfully).
Nevertheless, I can introduce myself to people as a writer because of the intensive amount of work I've put into developing my craft over the last few years. Whether people like my work or not, I consider myself much less amateur than I was in high school because I'm more disciplined now. When I think about my sophomore year in high school taking film and creative writing electives, I was an undisciplined reader and writer guided by my own naïveté. Like most immature fanboys, I had fantasies of publishing a novel by the time I graduated. I figured it would be a big hit, get a movie adaptation almost instantly, and I'd be rich and famous by the time I was in my mid-20s. Haha. While I did get about 40 pages or so into that story, plus various outlines and character sketches, the final product was ultimately a disaster which showcased my ignorance of how the world worked. When I realized that embarking on a project that was on such a massive scale was the worst mistake an amateur could make, I started to lower my expectations and set more realistic goals for myself. Through a combination of this mentality and by applying my work ethic to my writing, I am now the Technician Features Editor. And through Technician, I've been able to connect with a number of writers and filmmakers in the Raleigh area who are way more skilled and experienced than I am. I keep in touch with a lot of them on a regular basis, and I enjoy getting feedback from them on my work.
I'm still lightyears away from where I want to be, but no one can say that I'm not putting the work in. My only regret is that I wish I had been more disciplined when I was younger. All too often, I see people who call themselves writers never produce anything and spend all their free time on Facebook and Twitter. The worst is when they post status updates where they brag about all the cool ideas they have. FYI, every writer gets ideas which never make it to the page. To me, there's no reason to gloat until a work is complete. I wrote a 20 page screenplay for a short film in the span of 4 days last month and didn't post one status about it. Once I finished I sent it to people for feedback, but only when the first draft was complete. There's nothing wrong with showing excerpts to people, but boasting about a project before one word is written is pointless. You have nothing to celebrate until the work is either in progress or complete.
But back to my main point: if you call yourself a writer, then WRITE! It's that simple. Stop making it a hobby which you casually do, and instead make it a craft which you practice on a DAILY basis.
Last summer, I discovered that taking summer classes was an effective way of sucking the life out of me. It didn't help that I was getting my math credits out of the way. I decided that taking an extra year of college was more beneficial for me than enduring another session of summer school. I realized that I need summers to work on projects which I don't have time for during the school year, as well as read what I want to instead of what I'm assigned in lit courses. That said, I don't really mind that I'll be graduating in 2017 instead of 2016. For some reason though a lot of people think I'm older and were asking me if I was a Senior this year. My guess is it's the beard.
This summer however, I attended ConCarolinas in Charlotte back in May. There I attended panels, got my copy of A Game of Thrones autographed by George R.R. Martin himself, and talked with comic book legend Tommy Lee Edwards. It was fanboy paradise. Not only that, but I was inspired to really embrace my creativity and pursue the stories which I was passionate about.
That said, I've accomplished a lot over the last few months by actually utilizing the time on my hands. While I've spent a lot of time writing and editing for Technician and am in the office two nights a week (we run a weekly issue during the summer), I use the day to work on scripts and study comics and films. I also have to keep up with emails and other administrative duties as editing is a management position.
Another factor which has helped my writing lately is being on a consistent schedule. I used to take every chance I could get to sleep in till noon. This habit led to me being mostly unproductive during the summer. Now however, I'm up at 8:00 AM everyday during the week. Since my caregivers leave at 10 and it takes me 2 hours to get ready, I can't sleep past 8. Once I'm up and ready and have eaten breakfast, I then walk my dog, read the paper, spend time in the Word and pray, and then write until lunch. If I'm working on a screenplay, I shoot for 5 pages a day. And since I'm concentrating on shorts at the moment, it's definitely feasible to knock out a script in a week. I even wrote a short comic script in a day earlier this summer. It started just as an exercise I was working on at Barnes & Noble; and by the end of the day I had a concise short. Setting a schedule for myself has helped me conquer writer's block. FYI writer's block is just a term we as humans have invented to excuse ourselves from getting work done. Discipline yourself to the point where you are on a steady writing schedule, and I promise you it will make it much easier to get into "the zone".
You might think that this kind of lifestyle keeps me from having a life. If you assume this, you're wrong. While I do put heavy emphasis on my work, I still make time for friends, family, church, getting out, and of course binge-watching Parks and Rec on Netflix. Yes I'm a nerd, and you might say I spend too much time watching movies and reading comics. Being a true writer requires long hours of intense work in order to develop one's skills. There are no shortcuts. Applying oneself is the only way to become a good writer. If your sole motivation is money, you're qualified to write a screenplay for a Michael Bay or Brett Ratner movie; but I hope you have higher aspirations than that.
Ok, I think I've rambled enough for today. If I can do this, so can you. So stop waiting around for an idea or story to pop into your head. Get your lazy butt off the couch and write!
P.S. here's a list of what I've been watching and reading lately:
MOVIES: anything by Edgar Wright, Sam Raimi, James Gunn, Kevin Smith and Richard Linklater, I also saw Snowpiercer which I would highly recommend
TV SHOWS: The Strain, Arrow (took me some time to get into but it definitely improved over time), Parks and Recreation, House of Cards, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, finished Breaking Bad, looking to start True Detective soon
BOOKS/COMICS: "Different Seasons" by Stephen King, Scott Snyder's Batman, Mark Waid's Daredevil, anything by Mark Millar, Dan Slott's Spider-Man, and Brian Michael Bendis' Guardians of the Galaxy
