Film Courage: What does a good writing day look like?
Mark Sanderson, Author/Screenwriter: A good writing day looks like, I get up, I’ve had
a successful previous day writing and I’ve left the script at a point where that I feel
that I’ve done my work yesterday so I’m not feeling guilty or bad or like under pressure
and I can just start up again and get my work done in the morning, I mean you know email
and all these other things and then just work and take lunch and then come back and maybe
5:00, 6:00 p.m. wrap out up.
Now that depends on how many pages a day I have to do and as I say, many days are good
solid days and other days are not so good and not every scene is going to be on the
level and then there are other days where it’s magical where you blow through a sequence
and you write two days in one day so you’re ahead of the game, so it varies while you
are in it but it is kind of scary once that starting gun goes off and you look at the
(I always look at the calendar because of my due date and I’ve agreed) and then on
the last assignment we had an interaction for some other reason about another project
with them and I said “Oh by the way, I’m target to turn it in on Monday” and they
said “Oh thanks,” you know?
And they didn’t bug me.
The whole time they are not sniffing around saying “Hey are you…”
You know?
Because they know.
I’m not trying to pat myself on the back but but they know because I’ve worked with
them before and they know they don’t have to be sending that like “How’s it going?”
Email at being antsy.
They just leave me alone which is a great place to be.
So a good writing day is like I said is having a good…like I said if the day was crappy
before, you get up and you do it again.
It’s day after day and it’s amazing what you can accomplish in a month.
I mean people think “Oh, this big ordeal about writing a script you know, it’s going
to take me six months.”
It’s like maybe but if you structure your time properly and I do have the time because
of my job.
You structure you time properly, two pages a day.
You will have something finished and it’s just doing it.
And most people don’t do it, you know that’s the thing.
Film Courage: Why?
Why do you think they don’t do it?
Mark: I don’t know?
A lot of it is fear maybe?
A lot of it is “I’ll get to it tomorrow.”
There’s always something else to do and it’s difficult and so if you’re writing
something that you don’t really care about, why are you going to go back to it and just
be like Oh and if you are not getting paid that another, I don’t want to say great
incentive but when you’re getting paid and you sign a contract, that kicks your butt
into high gear.
That’s what I’m saying when you write in your specs you have to treat it as that.
It’s like a second day job, it is.
And I’m not saying you have to do 10 pages a day but if you do two pages today and like
when I was working at the law firm for two years and at lunch I would write, I would
write by hand but I wanted to not just sit there and be like “Uh?”
So you know, everyday at lunch that was an hour, that’s five hours a week, including
the time at night.
It’s doable if you just plan it out.
Film Courage: So you’re looking at the due date, then you’re looking at how many pages
and then you’re putting sort of a red X on a calendar and you’re basically doing
how many pages a day?
Mark: Well, it depends on what I’m given.
But this last job I worked and I was three a day which was a luxury.
Film Courage: But that’s not normal, right?
The three pages?
Mark: I mean three to five.
The really hard scripts are eight to ten when it’s a short period like a rewrite where
it’s like “We need this in two weeks.”
Whoa!
You hang up the phone and you’re like “Ah…Okay!”
And like this last year, you’re always learning.
I’ve had to become a faster writer, not that I’m a slow writer.
But I would take my time but not as fast as and I knew if I was going to be taking more
jobs I would have to be a faster writer and what?
Would I just do that on my own?
I was forced to do that by challenging myself which I think is very important to always
challenge yourself and many times we don’t challenge ourselves unless we come up against
something that challenges us and so that was a particular job so I accepted the job and
I was like “Oh, wow.
Okay?”
And I knew I could do it.
But at first I didn’t think I could do it.
And so I went back to my old techniques and it’s funny sometimes I forget them and someone
says to me “You know you should buy this book.”
And I go “really?”
And then I go “Oh, you mean my book?”
And they go “Yeah, you’ve forgotten your disciplines.”
And I go “You’re right.”
I mean it’s like “Oh, yeah.
You’re right.”
It’s funny.
Film Courage: Incidentally (just to throw this in there), your book [A SCREENWRITER’S
JOURNEY TO SUCCESS: Tips, tricks and tactics to survive as a working screenwriter in Hollywood]
is now at the Santa Monica library which is where you used to go as a teen?
Mark: Yes, in high school I used to work there as a page which is shelving books.
It was a nice clean job.
And so now how ironic that years later my book is at the library that I used to work
at and I had to go in the other day (they have four copies).
Film Courage: That’s pretty cool!
Mark: It is pretty cool and it’s right next to…there’s John McKee and [John] Truby
and Screenwriting for Dummies and then there’s my book and I’m like “Wow?”
And do a double take and it’s been checked out which since they’ve got it, it’s been
out, people checking it out, so that’s good.
Film Courage: And you came across that by accident?
You just kind of went in there and…?
Mark: Yeah, they have some of my DVD’s of movies that I’ve written and they order
things however and it was cool because it’s nice that people can access it.
It’s the kind of book that is not just a read it one time, you can go back to it many
times I think.
That’s how I wrote it where you can pick it off the shelf and look at the particular
things I’m going through this problem and maybe it would help you with that type of
thing, that’s how I wanted to write it was the fact that it was something you could keep
next to your computer.
And some books you read once and that’s it.
It’s about all these things I’ve been talking about, surviving in the trenches as
a writer or living a writer’s life.