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Or basically, what motivates you to write and write well? Do you read a lot of pro scripts, scripts on the SS boards (many of you write like pros!), or watch a lot of movies?
Personally, it's a combination of all of these. Currently writing a new feature and I find myself staying up late reading screenplays, stalking the SS boards -- hoping that keeping my mind in a screenwriting zone will somehow translate to the page.
Talent is obviously essentially, but I think the big differentiator is work ethic, tenacity in the face of rejection and the uncontrollable variable of luck if someone is going to make a living out of it.
Joking aside, I'm not really sure what motivates me to write. The daily grind of a 9 to 5 job sucks, sure. But honestly, I'm just lazy. I enjoy writing screenplays. And if someone out there enjoys reading my stories, then that's all the motivation I need to continue writing.
My motivation - self fulfillment and seeing trash have been by two motivations.
I typed Fade Out on my first script on August 1, 2014 at age of 57 after spending 30 years as a government bureaucrat. I wanted to be a writer since my early teens but a marriage at 20 and two kids by the time I was 25 meant I had to pay the bills - ergo, I didn't give writing a shot until after I retired.
I plunged through that first one and when done, just had an overwhelming since of fulfillment. Maybe like a wood worker after carving something or a Potter after they put the glaze on the first vase they crafted. I had something concrete I created all by myself and it just felt rewarding. That feeling keeps me going along with --
Seeing trash.
I'l bet that many of us got into this because we saw so many dreadful movies that we thought - fok, I can do better than that! i.e., the intimidation factor isn't there like it might be for other art forms - take singers for example. The vast majority of them can sing and you don't think - fok, I can do that. Long winded way of saying I get more inspired to return to the keyboard when I see a crap movie then when I see a great one. Hope that makes sense.
Writing is my hobby, my escape from the norm and it is like the best meditation exercise for me. I watch a lot of movies and TV but that isn't to motivate myself, it's because I enjoy watching them. It's the same with writing, I enjoy it.
Now, the morivation I need isn't the writing but the sheer effort in trying to achieve something with the writing. I do find that hard. Entering comps, sending off query letters, networking - all that stuff is hard work, although the networking can sometimes spur my motivation onwards.
One day I want to quit my day job and switch to writing full time. Reminding me of that motivates me.
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