So a month and a half ago, I was sitting there stuck.
No progress on the screenplay.
It was just sitting there.
I had gotten about 90 pages into it but had stalled out -- stuck in limbo for weeks creeping toward months.
Ben (my filmmaking partner, the director of Quality of Life) and I had our weekly phone meeting on Friday of that week. We usually talk about our distribution work, plus his new project. But that day he asked me about IWW.
And I told him I where I was: stuck. No momentum.
His wise and powerful suggestion: just commit to writing five minutes each day. As long as I could do five minutes, my job would be done for the day. And anyone can squeeze in an extra five minutes to do something otherwise unnecessary (ask any smoker).
It changed everything for me. I committed to do it and soon was back on the track. I had the screenplay rough draft (finally!) finished two weeks later. Now I'm in revisions on it, currently still committing to working on it five minutes each day.
The secret is that I usually spend much longer than five minutes (often a half hour or more). But by committing to five minutes, I get started on it -- and getting started is the toughest part. Screenwriting can be very intimidating. Motivation is a bitch. Five minutes is easy though. Motivation doesn't matter as much since it's not a huge commitment. And then once I'm started, I usually put in more time.
But sometimes, I literally only have five minutes. And so on those days, when I just do a quick five, I still feel a sense of accomplishment. And that's key to keeping momentum.
Since I write better and more often when I think of myself as a regular, daily screenwriter.
And five minutes a day is how it happens.