Last week I read the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer and quite enjoyed the wisdom that it had to offer. The basic premise of the book revolves around the fact that we can achieve any goal or change any challenging and difficult thing in our lives through simple, small baby steps forward.
As I poured through the book it got me thinking about how some filmmakers (especially screenwriters) could benefit from this type of mindset. I know from my experiences that sitting down to write a feature length screenplay can sometimes become a painful test of will power and self discipline.
So if you're a writer, instead of sitting down and promising to write 5 pages before you get up...start by just writing for 5 minutes a day.
That's it.
Once you have built up the habit of writing for 5 minutes...then stretch it to just 10 minutes working on your story everyday. Feel no pressure to increase your writing sessions. Just work at your own pace. But I'm sure that as you continue to faithfully work on your story in 5,10 and 15 minute sessions you'll easily build up your writing stamina to 30 minutes to one hour per day.
Next time when the thought of writing your screenplay comes to mind and that small voice tells you that you're too tired or too busy or not feeling inspired. Just walk right over to your computer, turn it on and invest just 5 minutes towards your future film.
