Questions questions

And so the last days of March are upon us. A quarter of the year completed in a blink of an eye. It may not sound alarming or surprising to some but for a jobbing writer, it’s a scary reminder of just how fast time can go that can yield as little or as much success that fate will allow.

BBC Four had an interesting series about Time recently with string theory pioneer Michio Kaku. I only caught snippets of the series because it clashed with something else (Battlestar Galactica probably) but Mr Kaku had an interesting theory as to why ‘time goes so fast’.

It’s because of our daily routine. When we were younger, our childhood seemed endless and time ever-expansive because all our experiences were ‘new’, and so our brain had no compartment to qualify the passage of existence. But as we grow older and settle into our adult routine lives, our brains are able to identify and file our daily experiences into common occurrence, hence days, months and years being gobbled up by grand master Time.

All of this is an existential and grand way of saying: what have I achieved since the heady euphoria of New Year? It’s easy to slip into a routine that may or may not be conducive to a successful screenwriting year. Three months into 2006, it’s time to ask some questions. We all know the answers:

Has a new script been started?
If not, why not?
Has a script been finished?
If not, why not?
Has there been writing every day?
If not, why not?
Has there been a focused effort to research and brainstorm new ideas?
Have any new contacts been made?
Have any courses been attended?
Is there any that could actually be useful?
Has any money been made from writing?
Has any money been made at all?
Is it time to give up?
Is it time to increase the effort?
Is it all a deluded waste of time?
Is there a desire to write a story that has emotional meaning?
Is there enough knowledge, experience and insight into life to support this emotional meaning?
Or is there just a desire to write popcorn films (emotional and popcorn movies not being mutually exclusive of course)?
Has more progress been made since this time last year?
Does the writing show any talent and promise?
Really?
Then, what's next?