Justin Deremo has something to ASK me…
Hello. On a recent post, you mentioned taking the day off from the blog, in part because you really liked or enjoyed what you were writing that day. Which got me thinking…How much of what you create do you truly enjoy or that captures your heart/mind in this way?
Many of us who engage in creative works as a side gig or hobby have a certain luxury in waiting for inspiration to strike, if that makes sense. I would expect that, if one were writing for a living, you might not have that luxury — the work has to be done if one is to bring in the paycheck.
It follows, in my thinking, that if one were writing in this latter way, that one might be more likely at times to produce work that is sufficient for the assignment, but feels to the creator as less inspired. If this is the case (please correct me if my assumptions are misguided), then there are also secondary questions that occur to me. Does writing at times become a grind, and, if so, does this ever threaten to dampen your enjoyment of the profession? How are you able to effectively curb these feelings, where they exist? Is it difficult to compartmentalize real-life events from the task of writing consistently and effectively?
There are always projects that are more enjoyable than others, and times when you just feel more like writing than you do at other times. There are times when you write something that pleases you because it checks off all the boxes and fulfills the needs of the project…but there isn't a whole lot of you in it. Or there isn't a whole lot of new in it but it's still, you feel, well-crafted and likely to please many.
I work with an awareness that (a) writing is all I've ever really wanted to do, (b) there's really nothing else I'm any good at and (c) even the tough/unpleasant jobs are preferable to being in another line of work. Yes, at times something can be difficult but that's the nature of any undertaking in which you can eventually feel a sense of achievement, above and beyond being handed a paycheck.
I may have told this story here but years ago, I was having a new brick patio built in my back yard. It was 105° that day and the guys out there, working on their hands and knees and sweating profusely were being paid five bucks an hour by the contractor I'd hired. While they slaved away, I was sitting here, resenting the hell out of a writing job I'd been entrapped into doing…for something like forty times the bricklayers' hourly compensation.
When I suddenly realized that, I felt like I'd been channeling Ebenezer Scrooge before any of those ghosts dropped by. My brain screamed at me, "What the hell do you have to complain about?" and to atone, I went out and asked the contractor if I could "tip" the workers. He didn't understand why but he said it was okay with him. Since then, if I ever catch myself feeling sorry for me in the middle of a script, I remember those bricklayers and I tell myself to stop whining.
The point is that all upsides come with downsides. I once met someone who'd hit the lottery for something like twenty million dollars. Obviously, there are a lot of upsides to that but the winner ticked off a list of problems: Tax complications, relatives who wanted to "borrow" money, total strangers badgering him to invest in their business schemes, etc. If you're going to accept the upsides of anything, you really need to not whine about whatever downsides are inevitable.
So: "Does writing at times become a grind, and, if so, does this ever threaten to dampen your enjoyment of the profession?" Yes, at times it can feel like actual work but no, it doesn't turn me against my chosen profession. All that really gets dampened in those situations is my enthusiasm for working for that employer or on similar projects.
"How are you able to effectively curb these feelings, where they exist?" Well, it helps that I'm always writing more than one thing at a time. I try not to let anything get down too close to the deadline so I have the option of taking a day or even a few hours off from it if I need that. When the TV script I'm writing gets to be a drag, I put it aside and work on the comic book script for a while. When I go back to the TV script, what I need to do on it is usually a little more obvious. That's when I suddenly become aware that I'm stuck on page 12 because I took a wrong turn on page 9.
And "Is it difficult to compartmentalize real-life events from the task of writing consistently and effectively?" If the real-life events take me physically away from the keyboard, I have a problem…but it's the same problem a baker has when real-life events take him away from his bakery, the same problem anyone can have. If the real-life event is just depressing or distracting, I try to leave that real life for a while and immerse myself into the one where my current assignment takes place. It can be a great way to move your mind off the depressing/distracting thing for a while.
I remember once, I had an impossible deadline that meant staying up all night to write a script. I was just settling down to tackle it when the phone rang and I heard that my father had died. I had to leave the keyboard…had to go take care of my mother and then go to the hospital to sign papers and make decisions. About six hours later, I got back to the keyboard and began writing the script, glad in a way to have the busy work to get my mind off the depressing news.
One thing that I think has helped me is the time I spent working in television, especially non-animated television. Every week or two, there was a moment when ten pages had to be written or completely rewritten in the next hour. There was no time to dither and no time to complain or fret. Once — I think more than once — I was rewriting a script as the actors waited to learn it and then go out and perform it for the live audience that was lined up outside my window while I was rewriting. That's the kind of situation where you don't even stop and think about the pressure. You just write the damned thing.
"How much of what you create do you truly enjoy or that captures your heart/mind in this way?" All of it a little, some of it a lot. I can't give you a more specific number because it fluctuates. Sometimes, I'm excited about something I write because I just know people are going to love it…and then they don't so the pride is diminished. But boy, did it feel good for a while there.
Thanks for the question, Justin. I don't know if anyone will like my answer but I enjoyed writing it. So far.
