My favorite screenwriting teacher in college gave me some very good advice one time. He said that when life gets hard and shitty and it seems like there is no good outcome anywhere on the horizon…real writers, true writers, just keep writing.
Blowhard producer hated you last draft? Keep writing. Studio exec passed on your spec? Write another one. Writing partner who you thought you knew after working together for ten-plus years totally screw you over? Fuck em, and get to work on something else.
Not only is this is a totally simple solution to the age old problem of writer’s angst — in case you haven’t noticed, we’re a pretty obsessive, neurotic lot — but, it actually works. Stewing over slights perceived and otherwise is greatly overrated, my friends. The best way to feel better after getting screwed or rejected or whatever is to write something new. Even if it’s only an angry “fuck-you-letter” that you’ll never send, the simple act of putting words on a page is healing.
And you don’t have to be a screenwriter either, real writers (even real bad writers) just feel better somehow when they write. So, let your pens flow, amigos. And if you’re not ready to make lemonade out all the lemony bullshit that’s been flowing your way lately (sorry, back to myself again) then at the very least, you can write about it. Or not. Hell, write about something completely different.
The important thing is to just keep writing. Ever. Single. Day.
Amen…
Stay-at-home-Yeti 
Write EVERY single day?? Ugh, not sure I could do that… Some days go swell, others go down like WWII, and then others are just bleh and hardly worth mentioning.
I do find that I’ve blogged more, ever since I grabbed the WP app for my smartphone. Now, I can sit in the waiting room at some appt and blog about the runaround I’m getting or the crazy parent sitting across the room from me. LOL
I guess the app can count as motivation, or at least it motivates me to write my observation/rant/rave instead of letting me tell myself, “I’ll write about that tonight” and never getting it done.
How do you get motivated to write, especially when things are chaotic or going so fast around you? Cuz by the time I think about it, the time it takes to write it (usually can’t be done without me sacrificing some sleep for it) — I’m too tired or whatever to write, and I talk myself out of it.
Oh, don’t get me wrong…writing every day is hard to do! And, sadly, sleep is the first thing that goes out the window when I’m trying to find time to write. But, I gotta say, I sleep better after writing — it’s like all the crazy ideas in my head can sleep better too knowing that I released some of them by writing! Ha! –even if it is five or six hours of sleep! 🙂
Yeah, I agree & that is a good point… I too, tend to be able to sleep better once I’ve “brain-dumped” all of the day’s crap somewhere — whether it’s the blog or to Hubby, although if I dumped onto Hubby — that means he has to carry it along with his stress/drama from work & stuff… So yeah, blogging’s beneficial to my sanity and as you said, perhaps to my sleep as well. 😉 Not sure if I can say this is a good thing — but I usually get around 4 to 7 hrs of sleep too. LOL It IS definitely the first thing to get sacrificed when I want to do something for me, or when I need to do some stuff that requires no interference/interruption. Is the less sleep issue a parent thing, or is that a typical society thing nowadays? Hmm…. *I smell a blog post in the making. ;-)*
Blogging every single day has definitely increased my penmanship as well as tons of ideas. I was always writing when I was young but when we are small, we seek attention or feedback all the time. I write now because I’d be a fool to let the amazing stories that I conjure in my head go to waste.
Aha, so, you actually write freehand, huh, Lotus Flower? Wow, that’s keeping it real! Unfortunately, my penmanship has continued to go downhill since I work so much on the computer now…it’s pretty bad, seriously, I can barely sign a birthday card these days! Yikes!
But, thanks for visiting my blog and keep on writing! 🙂