Keep Working

The great thing about working as a writer (as opposed to being, say, an actor) is you only need a pencil and a piece of paper to work.

Nobody can stop you from writing a novel.

It doesn’t matter where you’re working. You’re a writer.

No one can stop you from banging out a screenplay.

Maybe you’re not being paid, maybe nobody knows who you are, maybe no one will ever read, let alone publish or produce your book or movie.

But you can KEEP WORKING entirely on your own.

I have a closet in my office. In it are thirty-seven screenplays. Seven of them actually brought in money, at least in the form of an option if not an actual sale. That means thirty (six months of work apiece) were technically for naught.

But those scripts let me KEEP WORKING.

With each one, I learned something. On some, I learned a lot.

If you have to take a gig driving for Uber or waiting tables at Hooters, it’s okay.

Keep writing.

Nobody can stop you from getting up at five in the morning and putting in three hours pounding the keys.

Or two hours.

Or one.

When someone asks you what you do for a living, answer, “I’m a writer.”

You are.

Keep writing.