The Rule of Hard Work

There are no shortcuts to success. If you want to progress in the world of screenwriting, you're going to have to put your head down and write. However, writing a script is just the basic essential. Now you have to pitch and hustle for work, and start writing a new script (or two). It's an endless and demanding cycle. It's bloody hard, and the constant rejections slice a dagger in your heart at every turn.

We're not really programmed to seek out difficult situations in our lives. The human condition prefers to take the path of least conflict so it's only natural to lean on books, courses, opportunities and technological devices to make our screenwriting lives easier. These sideshows of support are useful, of course. They provide some knowledge and inspiration, and sometimes even lead to work, but don't get sucked into embracing this milieu as the way to live your life.

Whenever people can't access the internet, they wail in anguish that they can't do any work (the recent Blackberry meltdown led to some people 'unable to function' as they couldn't message each other, or update Facebook, or whatever it was they needed to do, and some of these complaints from companies in the City!). This form of reliance on an external influence gives a false sense of importance to your personal working habits; a necessary distraction to maintain a decent display of being busy.

But how busy are you really being? Are you reading (and developing envy) about other people's luck rather than forging your own success through your own hard graft? Spending too much time online ostensibly networking but essentially not working? Or even seeking out blog posts like these to stir the screenwriting muse? If these questions strike a chord, then be brutally honest with yourself in terms of how productive you are with your writing habits and modes of procrastination. Change your routine accordingly. Write. Work. Repeat.

If you examine any person's success, there is one guaranteed element that helped them earn their place at the table: they worked extremely hard. Their sheer focus and grunt effort will far outweigh any slice of luck or favour that may have helped them along the way. Indeed, it's only through proactive endeavour that favours and opportunities arise ('the harder I work, the luckier I get', a fitting quote from Samuel Goldwyn, film producer). So, by all means embrace the technology or opportunities that may help you gain screenwriting success but there is no substitute for constant hard grind - not just to get ahead, but to stay ahead, too.