If you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong.

Today's article is for anyone who agrees with the statement, "I hate writing. I love having written."

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Your professional screenwriting career starts with a great script.

A great script starts as a first draft.

But too many writers grind through this process miserably. I have met so many students who do this, and I have even been guilty of it myself. But if your writing practice is painful, you will never find the resilience you need to succeed, and your pages will be boring.

There is a popular quote:

“I hate writing. I love having written.”

That is not a sustainable approach to your craft. The process of writing a screenplay should be intentional and (dare I say it) fun. If you’re not having fun, you will burn out. You will be unhappy. You will prioritize all the other parts of your career besides the actual sitting down and doing the writing (which is the most important part).

Instead of being a writer, you will:

• Seek industry connections.

• Go out for lunch or drinks.

• Tweak your logline indefinitely.

• Send query emails to managers.

• Research competitions to enter.

• Read books about screenwriting.

• Watch movies for research.

• Complain on the Internet about how difficult it is to break in these days.

• Attend networking events and film festivals.

• Search for images to complete your pitch deck.

• Build a sizzle reel that nobody asked for.

To be fair, some of these activities should be part of your creative workflow.

Photo by Richard Bell on Unsplash

You can’t get ahead in this industry without networking, and you do need to invest hundreds of hours into studying the work of masters. But if you focus solely on these activities at the expense of doing the actual writing, you are not being productive.

You are engaging in productive procrastination.

There is a difference, and you need to learn to spot when you are doing it so that you can call yourself out on it. You don’t have to do a lot. You can build a solid foundation for a career on just 30 minutes a day.

But you do have to put in that work.

If you don’t, your career will stall out.

You will jealously watch as other creatives achieve the success that you so desperately crave. You will be disappointed, reading Deadline announcement after Deadline announcement about screenwriters who have sold their scripts and gotten hired while you are stuck spinning your wheels.

You will think to yourself, “That should have been me.”

If only you had finished the screenplay that has been in your head for all these years…

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

It’s not too late to have your most productive writing year ever. You can finish your script and have fun doing it. Here’s how:

If you’re not having fun, try these 3 tactical shifts instead:

This year, I helped 70+ screenwriters find joy in sitting down every day to write.

And I have re-discovered this delight in my own practice too.

Here’s how we did it.

Tactic #1: Build confidence in your mastery of the craft.

Having fun writing comes from confidence.

Confidence comes from competence.

Knowing what you’re doing when you sit down to write comes from taking the time to learn the tools of the craft. Then apply those tools to your script when you sit down to work every day.

The more you learn, the more you can apply.

The more you apply, the more confident you feel.

The more confident you feel, the more excited you will be to learn and work. And the more concepts you master, the more layers you will peel back in this beautiful craft. As you discover all the tools you didn’t realize were available to you, you will regain a sense of wonder and a feeling of mastery.

Forward progress will make you feel unstoppable. But it requires that you take a structured approach to tackling each concept.

Take time to master the craft. Apply what you’ve learned. Repeat.

Tactic #2: Insist on having fun on the page.

If you are bored writing it, your reader will be bored reading it.

Shifting this mindset completely unlocked a level of quality in my own work that I had not experienced previously. And it made writing fun. When writing is fun, you don’t need to force yourself to sit down and do it.

Groundbreaking, I know.

I used to sit down to write a scene, only to find myself going through the motions because I was bored. Maybe I knew I needed to get that information to the audience but I just found myself in a talking head situation. Maybe I was writing a meaningful conversation, but for some reason, it didn’t excite me.

In the past, I would force myself to keep writing and get to the end of what I knew needed to be done. I would chalk the added page count up to a successful day and repeat the process the next day.

What I ended up with was a series of boring pages.

I’m not saying that you should eschew the planning process altogether, but if you are in the middle of writing a scene and you feel bored, stop. Do a check in.

Ask yourself:

• Why am I bored?

• What could make this scene actually fun or exciting for me to write?

You can typically eliminate boredom by:

• Adding stronger opposition.

• Putting the scene in a more interesting location (that provides stronger opposition).

• Brainstorming more creative visual set pieces. Pick the one that gets you excited (and provides stronger opposition).

• End the scene.

That’s right. There are no rules. If you don’t like a scene, you don’t… have to write it. This is your screenplay! You are God.

Remember, if you don’t like a scene, your audience won’t like a scene. So stop wasting your time and start only writing fun scenes.

Worst case scenario? You delete it later, but you had fun writing it.

And in this short, painful life, shouldn’t we be prioritizing having fun?

Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash

Tactic #3: Make your Writing Session pleasurable.

The experience of sitting down for a Writing Session should be pleasurable before, during, and after you complete it.

Before: Create a little ritual for yourself.

It should last no longer than 10 minutes (otherwise, it’s a form of productive procrastination). This ritual should get you in a creative mood. Make your favorite beverage, listen to a writing playlist, meditate, do a tarot reading for your character.

Whatever it takes to put yourself in the right headspace.

Something that excites, inspires, and motivates you.

During: Can you engage all five senses while you write?

Decorate your space with inspiring art or trinkets. Put on music that soothes or energizes you. Drink your favorite beverage or eat a yummy snack. Use a candle or incense you love. Wear comfortable clothes or socks. Use a pen and paper that feels luxurious, or type on a keyboard that has a satisfying sound and feel.

Writing itself can be a physically enjoyable sensation if you let it.

After: Celebrate!!!

If you only got one page down, that is still worthy of a celebration. Writing should be fun, but that doesn’t mean it’s not hard. It will always be a challenge. The difference is that with your new mindset, you embrace and enjoy the challenge.

And you give yourself well-deserved props for doing the work.

If you’re a former or current athlete, think about “runner’s high.”

You are more likely to stick to a rigorous exercise routine if you enjoy the sensation of your powerful body working hard. If you only care about losing weight or looking bikini ready, you will be discouraged when you won’t see results immediately.

This makes the habit difficult to stick to.

Writing is even harder because unlike working out, the results are not guaranteed.

If you are outcome-oriented, you will find it impossible to stay motivated.

If you only like “having written,” it will be pulling teeth to get you to do the work necessary to finish your draft. And forget about rewriting. Writers who enjoy “having written” hate undoing their work during the rewrite process.

This resistance will prevent you from leveling up your script and transforming it into the best version possible.

The Transformation:

Right now, you are someone who wants to become a professional screenwriter but is:

• Overwhelmed by how long it will take to get there.

• Intimidated by the level of mastery exhibited by currently working professionals.

• Plagued by procrastination, unable to sit down and finish your screenplay.

But in just 12 weeks, I can turn you into someone who:

• Thinks like a professional screenwriter.

• Writes on a daily basis and loves doing it.

• Networks like a real Hollywood insider.

• Has finished the hardest part of your script: The first draft of a screenplay.

I am a professional writer, a script consultant, and a former literary manager.

I have spent years helping writers level up their drafts in tangible ways. This has led to my clients getting jobs on P-Valley, Ginny & Georgia, grown-ish, The Upshaws, Single Drunk Female, Reasonable Doubt, Sweet Magnolias, and more.

During my ten years in literary management, I represented the writers of Alice, Darling (Lionsgate), Hot Frosty (Netflix), Crushed (Tubi), The Santa Summit (Hallmark), and more. I worked with writers on their feature samples, resulting in writing jobs for studios including Wayfarer (It Ends with Us), DreamWorks, Disney, and Mar Vista.

I have put together a curriculum and community that gives you the tools to succeed.

Your instructor Semien Abay will give you the mindset and structure tools that I have refined. You will blow past obstacles that have previously stood in your way.

You just need to commit to showing up and doing the work.

Enrollment is currently open for this class, but it closes next Friday!

If you want to finish the first draft of your screenplay in 12 weeks, click here.

If you have a script and you want to rewrite it into an “undeniable” draft, click here.