Does writing full time improve your writing?

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  • Does writing full time improve your writing?

    For those of you who've done the day job/writing balancing act and also may have had the opportunity to write during the day as a main focus-- do you think the latter made a huge difference, a little difference, or no difference in the strength, quality and/or focus of your writing?

  • #2
    Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

    Curious about this myself. To piggyback - I'm wondering if pro's made a quantum leap in their writing when they were able to do it full time.

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    • #3
      Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

      Except for being on an assignment with a deadline, I think I wrote more when I had the day job. I really wanted to get the hell out of that day job, so I spent as much time as possible writing. Now? Well, I'm typing this, right?

      Bill
      Free Script Tips:
      http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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      • #4
        Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

        Originally posted by cvolante View Post
        For those of you who've done the day job/writing balancing act and also may have had the opportunity to write during the day as a main focus-- do you think the latter made a huge difference, a little difference, or no difference in the strength, quality and/or focus of your writing?
        Well, if you actually want to write then even if you have a day job, you find the opportunity, the same way anyone finds the opportunity to do whatever it is that they want to do.

        I think that the more you do anything, if you're going about it the right way, the better you'll get at it, whether you're doing it full time or not -- whether it's making bird houses or playing basketball or writing screenplays.

        The point is, just "doing something" doesn't necessarily result in improvement.

        I remember, a long (long) time ago, I and several other students at NYU Grad Film were in a conference with our camera teacher Beda Batka and he was talking to one of the other students about some technical issue and asked him to come back later to talk to him about and the student replied that he couldn't come back at the time requested because he was going to go out and shoot something for somebody.

        And he remarked something to the effect that it would obviously be a better use of his time to be out shooting something than sitting in a room talking about shooting.

        And Beda told him that his father (that is, Beda's father) had been an avid amateur photographer all of his life, had gone out every weekend for as long as he could remember taking pictures. He'd taken countless thousands of pictures.

        And the pictures he took on the last weekend he went out were just as bad as the very first pictures he ever took. Despite all of his enthusiasm and all of his experience, he never knew and never bothered to learn how to take a picture.

        That's what made him an amateur and not a professional.

        The trick is taking however much or however little time you have to write and not just "writing" the way Beda's father went out and took pictures, but using those hours as if it were a course of study. As if every time you went out on a basketball field, or put brush to canvas, or sat down in front of a computer, you had come there not just to play a game, or paint, or write -- but to take everything that you'd learned up until then, everything that you'd gotten wrong and everything that you'd gotten right -- and do it better this time.

        NMS

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        • #5
          Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

          I write with a partner, and now that he has a busy day job, we only get together to write on weekends. When we wrote every day, I'd live with our characters more constantly, think about what we were writing more between sessions, even having my unconscious solve writing problems in my sleep. But that's the advantage of writing every day, which many do even if they do have a day job.

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          • #6
            Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

            It depends on discipline. I have gotten in the good habit of writing every night at a coffee shop after my 9 to 5. On the occasions when I've had stretches of time off or been in between jobs, I've had lofty goals of writing all day. After three hours, my mind wanders, and it's hard to concentrate.

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            • #7
              Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

              Don't want to all philosophical on you, but what is writing (fiction)?

              I often do my best "writing" when I'm driving my car.

              Later on, when I get a chance, I transfer what I've written (in my mind) to paper or the computer.

              You can write anytime. I've always had a day job. There's been a couple of times over the years that I decided I'd take some vacation and do a writing project. For me that didn't work out so hot.

              With one exception, when I wanted to meet a deadline on a script contest. I stayed home and wrote about twenty-hours a day for five days straight. I got about eighty pages written and finished third in the contest, but that thing wasn't anywhere close to "done". I'm just too stubborn to miss a deadline.

              But with no deadline, I always get more writing done when I'm working a day job.
              "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

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              • #8
                Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                I think the more you write, the better you get. But that doesn't mean the more time you have, the more you write.

                I can have a whole day off and blow it doing nothing. And turn around and take a day I'm running around busy doing meetings or whatever and I sit down for an hour and pound out a few pages.

                So I think it's making the most out of the time you have.
                Quack.

                Writer on a cable drama.

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                • #9
                  Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                  I think consistency is the key. Writing every day for x-amount of time all through the year is bound to make you better. But if you're one of those writers who takes weeks or even months off after each script, your growth will come a lot slower. I never take time off; even a couple days of not writing makes me rusty as hell.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                    Originally posted by StoryWriter View Post
                    Don't want to all philosophical on you, but what is writing (fiction)?

                    I often do my best "writing" when I'm driving my car.
                    This would be brainstorming. If you're not putting words to page, then it isn't writing. Go into a meeting and tell someone you've written an incredible script, but it's all in your head.

                    If that is considered writing, than 90% of Los Angeles are writers. Having the discipline to sit down and put these thoughts into a script, that's writing.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                      Originally posted by nmstevens View Post
                      Well, if you actually want to write then even if you have a day job, you find the opportunity, the same way anyone finds the opportunity to do whatever it is that they want to do.

                      I think that the more you do anything, if you're going about it the right way, the better you'll get at it, whether you're doing it full time or not -- whether it's making bird houses or playing basketball or writing screenplays.

                      The point is, just "doing something" doesn't necessarily result in improvement.

                      I remember, a long (long) time ago, I and several other students at NYU Grad Film were in a conference with our camera teacher Beda Batka and he was talking to one of the other students about some technical issue and asked him to come back later to talk to him about and the student replied that he couldn't come back at the time requested because he was going to go out and shoot something for somebody.

                      And he remarked something to the effect that it would obviously be a better use of his time to be out shooting something than sitting in a room talking about shooting.

                      And Beda told him that his father (that is, Beda's father) had been an avid amateur photographer all of his life, had gone out every weekend for as long as he could remember taking pictures. He'd taken countless thousands of pictures.

                      And the pictures he took on the last weekend he went out were just as bad as the very first pictures he ever took. Despite all of his enthusiasm and all of his experience, he never knew and never bothered to learn how to take a picture.

                      That's what made him an amateur and not a professional.

                      The trick is taking however much or however little time you have to write and not just "writing" the way Beda's father went out and took pictures, but using those hours as if it were a course of study. As if every time you went out on a basketball field, or put brush to canvas, or sat down in front of a computer, you had come there not just to play a game, or paint, or write -- but to take everything that you'd learned up until then, everything that you'd gotten wrong and everything that you'd gotten right -- and do it better this time.

                      NMS
                      Damn, this is good. NMS, do you think it's important to spend a significant amount of "writing time" reading (scripts, books, news), rather than writing? That is, for the purpose of self-improvement, if you only have so much time, how important is the consumption of fiction versus the creation of it?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                        Originally posted by UnequalProductions View Post
                        This would be brainstorming. If you're not putting words to page, then it isn't writing. Go into a meeting and tell someone you've written an incredible script, but it's all in your head.

                        If that is considered writing, than 90% of Los Angeles are writers. Having the discipline to sit down and put these thoughts into a script, that's writing.
                        With me, it's not just "brainstorming". I can see the pages in my head. I work out the situations and relationships between the characters, especially the dialogue. And I pick the words I'm going to use.

                        When I get to a piece of paper or the computer -- it's written -- the rest is just dictation. I even know how many pages I wrote before I dictate it.

                        So I'm going to call that writing. I put down hundreds of words of fiction a day and have done so for decades. When 90% of Los Angeles does that, I'll say it's the same thing.

                        I do brainstorming too. Totally different thing. But even if it wasn't, isn't brainstorming part of writing fiction?
                        "I just couldn't live in a world without me."

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                          Originally posted by StoryWriter View Post
                          With me, it's not just "brainstorming". I can see the pages in my head. I work out the situations and relationships between the characters, especially the dialogue. And I pick the words I'm going to use.

                          When I get to a piece of paper or the computer -- it's written -- the rest is just dictation. I even know how many pages I wrote before I dictate it.

                          So I'm going to call that writing. I put down hundreds of words of fiction a day and have done so for decades. When 90% of Los Angeles does that, I'll say it's the same thing.

                          I do brainstorming too. Totally different thing. But even if it wasn't, isn't brainstorming part of writing fiction?
                          Okay. You have scripts in your head. I have dates with actress from Orange is the New Black in my head, but I only count the dates I've actually gone on as happening, and I only count the scripts that are available for me to give someone to read as written.

                          Guess we just have different definitions of reality.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                            Of course you're going to improve like crazy if you get the fulltime writing job - of course depending on the job.

                            Now as a videogame writer, all I do ALL THE TIME is think about story, stakes, character development, etc., and get nonstop feedback AND get to listen to much smarter people talking about all this stuff.

                            How can I not get better than I was when I worked in finance and wrote in my free time?
                            www.JustinSloanAuthor.com

                            http://www.CreativeWritingCareer.com
                            http://www.MilitaryVeteransinCreativeCareers.com

                            Twitter: @JustinMSloan

                            Want a free book?

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                            • #15
                              Re: Does writing full time improve your writing?

                              Yes and no. I had the opportunity to leave my job a few years ago and focus on writing and filmmaking. Yes, my skills have greatly improved. Especially on the directing front.

                              That being said, I was waaaaayyyyyyy off in my idea that having all day to write whenever I want would ramp up my output and put it into overdrive. When I had a day job, I was really able to just buckle down and hammer because I had a finite time to write. That time was usually late at night, after the kids had gone to bed. Now that I have "all day", I still do the main bulk of my writing late at night.

                              My take on that? You can't tell yourself when to be creative. I can't wake up and say, I'm going to be creative between 9 and 10am this morning. My mind is too used to letting ideas marinate all day and then pounding them out that night (stop snickering). Plus, sitting at your computer all day saying, "I need to write. I need to write. I need to write" is not really a recipe for creative success. So I spend my days doing research, reading articles, handling the business side of our loan out/protect our film equipment assets company, social media (a big part of our job), networking, wasting time on the internet, etc...

                              That being said, quitting my day job has allowed me a lot of opportunities I would not have had if I was tied to asking, "Please, please, please can I have a few days off to go do X". I have been able to travel when I want. Took a phenomenal directing class I found at the last moment (shout out to Darin Scott). I had the flexibility to compete in the Industry Insider contest and meet Randall Wallace (most awesome guy ever who still takes an interest in my career). I've been able to make short films. Drop everything for last minute meetings, etc... None of that would have happened if I still worked for the government. So it's not just about churning out pages.

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