Summer Days

The dog days of summer make it easy to avoid writing. I certainly have been. Of course, procrastination is many screenwriters' secret shame, and I admit, I'm a procrastinator, especially when it comes to spec work.

I've never missed a deadline when I'm under contract to deliver, of course. Getting paid is fine motivation.

When you don't have a deal, and your projects have been getting turned down for all those insane reasons that have little to do with quality and are totally out of your control anyway, it's easy to turn to the Olympics or bookkeeping instead of grinding away at a new spec.

But grinding is what it's about. In a way, watching the Olympics has been instrumental. They teach you that you have to grind in order to even get to play. It's a shame not to medal, but if you're not in the game, you don't have a chance at the medal. So those of us who are on the sidelines right now, hungrily watching colleagues work, we have to keep grinding.

I keep a little stickie with a list of my specs-in-progress and specs available to market. At least they stare back at me from the computer screen shaming me into getting back to the grind. I mean, someone's got to do it. If anyone has a good idea for jumpstarting the process when you're being lulled by the good weather into happy procrastination, click on comment.