“Do I have to move to L.A to make it as a screenwriter? Do I have to be tall to play in the NBA? No, but you better outwork everyone else.” ― Brian Koppelman.
Brian Koppelman needs no introduction. As one of the most prominent screenwriters of our time, there is obviously a myriad of things to learn from him. In fact, too many to write in one single post.
Sure, I could write up a list of the 27 tips that you must know about X or Y, but there’s no way I’m doing that.
I’m not gonna add up to the scrollable packageable lists you that we see everyday and which rarely impact anyone who comes across them.
Plus, there is no such thing as a “must-knows” you can break all the rules in the book and still come out on top. The word must is just an “authority” word they throw in there to make you click on their link.
So yeah, I’m not gonna do that.
So what I’m gonna do instead is this: I’m going to take the two most meaningful things I learned from Brian Koppelman, and then I’m going to expand on them a little bit and try to make it count.
Show Up Every Day
Write everyday is undoubtedly one of the most frequent pieces of advice that you’ll hear Koppelman say, and if you’ve been following his 6 seconds screenplay lessons on vine, then you’ll realize just how many times that subject comes up.
Well, they’re not actually lessons but just 6 seconds tips but the point stands nevertheless.
The important thing to notice here is that there is in fact a great reason why this subject is so frequent in all those videos.
For one, writing everyday is what keeps the momentum going.
You see, contrary to bumper-sticker beliefs life is not linear, neither success nor happiness are linear things that last forever and carry on with the same frequency.
Everyone of us had, has and will have all sorts of ups and downs, and there will be plenty of events in life that would probably destabilize your state of mind and productivity levels.
So when that happens, you need to try to maintain the good habits without letting the stones along the road distract you from where you want to be.
Also contrary to many self-help books (and bumper-sticker beliefs) you cannot perform at a 100% level every single day, that’s just unrealistic.
Unless of course you’re the human-cyborg progeny of the terminator and Sarah Connor.
Realistically, there are all kinds of outside factors that you can’t control and that would in one way or another affect your mood or state of mind, or even take time away from you. Time that you’ve planned to dedicate to some important tasks.
The key is not to fight those factors (or avoid to face them) but to come out on top no matter what.
How do you do that? By focusing on the elements that you can control.
In this case what you can control is the fact that you can take the time every day to write a few pages. Every single day.
You don’t feel you can create your best work today?
I doesn’t matter, tomorrow you can do a rewrite, or the day after.
The only thing that matters is to keep the habit going and to preserve the momentum you’ve worked so hard to achieve.
Why is that so important?
Suppose that you decide to break the writing habit because you’re not in the mood, or because you have to deal with some personal situation, or something of the sort.
Now, suppose that your personal situation does not get resolved as quickly as you’ve imagined. Well, in that case the more time you spend not writing, the more your brain gets accustomed to you not writing.
And we all know how much the human brain loves stability. So it would be wise to anticipate that your own brain would probably try to derail you or even act against your self-interest in order to remain in the same situation it has learned to be accustomed to.
"At every moment, when you are trying to improve yourself, there is a war taking place in your brain." ― Neil Strauss
So if you stop writing for a while, the next time you try to pick up the habit again, you’d have to deal with a new inner conflict.
Your brain now has become accustomed to this new version of you, a version where you don’t write everyday, and it’ll fight to keep that version, because it’s easier.
Now all of the sudden, your brain is sending you messages of discomfort every time you try to sit down and write. That’s what have to deal with that now, it’s hard to just slide in the good habits.
Oh, and you’ll also have to deal with laziness and procrastination as well.
So not only you find yourself in a place of stagnation, but you're taking a few steps back.
... To Be Continued