Career

The craziest thing about my writing life is how insignificant every day seems. There aren't startling revelations, or juicy secrets, or late nights, or missed birthdays, or bare knuckle boxing matches with my publisher, or all-night coke binges to hit deadline. I work, get home, write, eat dinner, spend time with my wife, and go to bed before 10pm; every night.

There is really nothing worth writing home about at all about my "career". It's boring. It's routine. It's stable.

My "career" is built on putting in 1,000 words a day, or five pages a day, or one issue a day, every day; every single day.

My "career" is built on the idea that there is nothing worse that putting a goose egg on the board and not writing anything for a day. That's it, plain and simple.

And yet, doing that (nearly) every day since 2010 (and really back to dark days of 2006 when terrible writing abounded), I've produced 2 fully realized graphic novels, one published book, and three more novels set for editing.

All from taking small bites every day. Sure there are 10,000 word days in there, and cram sessions, and days when I wrote nothing, but they are rare. Mostly it's just small gains every day over a long time.

Most days it's a slog. Most days feel worthless. Most days I want to give up.

Glad I didn't. Because looking back on it, I'm amazed at how much I accomplished one small bite at a time. Onward!

Green Time, Yellow Time, Red Time

In sales, there's a lot of bull you have to deal with during the day. Things that take you away from selling, which is what you're there to do, which is sell. There's administrative BS, there's personal BS, there's all sorts of BS, and most of them are WAY more fun than making a cold call. So I learned early on how to schedule my day. It was something I learned at my first real sales job at AFLAC. It's very simple. You just have to schedule your day into GREEN TIME, YELLOW TIME, and RED TIME.

•  GREEN TIME: The time where you are doing the thing that will make you money. This is actually selling, writing contracts, prospecting, and having appointments.
• YELLOW TIME: The administrative stuff that has to get done but doesn't make you money. These are things like responding to e-mails, filling out paperwork, and doing tech support for your clients.
• RED TIME: These are all the other things in your day. It's calling your mother, making doctor appointments, and singing in the car on your way home.

That's how we do it in sales, and this is how we change it up for writing.

• GREEN TIME: Actual writing. And eventually selling books, meeting with publishers, negotiating contracts, etc.
• YELLOW TIME: Writing e-mails, sending out query letters, meeting with agents and such.
• RED TIME: Everything else.

I suggest you literally schedule your day and color code it so that you know exactly when you plan on doing these thing. At AFLAC we had yellow time from 8-9, green time from 9-4, yellow time from 4-5, and red time after that when we went home.

And by having it blocked out it told me what I should be doing at any moment of the day. So if you know you get home at 5pm, but it takes you an hour to get comfortable and respond to emails before you write, schedule 5-6pm as Yellow time, 6-8pm as Green time, and 8pm onward as red time.

It's really helpful to visualize your day like that for some people to keep you on track. At this point I have it in my brain and it's internalized, but you have to make it a habit before you get there.

Thick Skin

I know you are a fragile creature. Lord knows I've heard it enough from artists, or about artists. We are delicate butterflies. We are timid. We can't take criticism. Our art is our soul. ANNNNND -- that's bullshit.

If you feel that way -- you need to get over it. Because you will be criticized. You will be blasted. Even if 99 people out of 100 love you, that one guy that hated your work will stick with you more than the 99 that adored it.

And I'm certainly not telling you not to take it to heart. I'm not telling you to push it away. I'm not saying that when I get a bad review, even if it's 1% of them, that I don't stew about it for days, weeks even. I still think about my worst reviews.

But what I'm saying is you have to grow a thick skin, because if you can't take criticism then your artistic life is going to suck. You'll never put anything out. You'll never leave your cocoon. And you'll never grow as an artist. And right now you have a lot of growing to do.

I remember when I first started I was having lunch with a writer friend. He'd just read one of my scripts and said "This is okay. Nothing special."

It crushed me. Hearing him say it was like he'd just said the last 18 months of my life were worthless.

Because back in those days it would t me forever to complete a project. And I would craft every word until it was perfect.

And if he only thought it was okay, then my idea of perfect was terrible. And I was a terrible artist for thinking I was good. And that I'd just wasted so much time. Thinking about it now I still have anxiety about it.

But as I started showing my work to people little by little, they started saying things that I didn't think of, and they all would say one thing "This doesn't sound like you."

And it was because I was scared to show myself. I was scared to show who I really was. Because if they didn't like this fake me and it hurt me, if they didn't like the real me it would just kill me.

I couldn't take it.

But then I started showing around this small project. This project I knew would never sell. This project I really really cared about. And people started to tell me how much they liked it. How authentic it sounded. And they would keep asking about that project, that project I cared about and loved and nurtured.

"I can hear you when I read this." My one friend said, which to me is the greatest compliment.

And I started thinking that maybe if I wrote more things I cared about, and torpedoed everything I didn't. Maybe I would be happier. And maybe my writing would be better.

But that would mean developing a REALLY, REALLY thick skin. Because these things were really me. They were personal. I bled them.

And when I wrote them, or showed them around. People really responded to them. It affected them in a way my old writing didn't.

And I was able to take the things they said as criticisms and build them into my story. And my next story. And my next story.

And with each criticism I learned about my stuff. I got more confident. I knew where my weaknesses were, and I built them up, maybe not into strengths but certainly not into detriments anymore. I used those parts of my brain I didn't think I needed because they were atrophied.

And I started moving into new mediums. And each time I made sure to involve people early, to get their thoughts. I would show them chapters. And snippets. And see what they thought. And I would incorporate the good and throw away the bad.

And suddenly my thick skin was working to my advantage. Because I wasn't letting the criticisms bounce off me. I was absorbing them. And anticipating them before I got them to change things to make them stronger.

But it takes work. It takes a thick skin. It takes screaming at the world when they don't like your stuff, and taking an hour, or a day, or a week, to reel from a bad review or bad notes. And then to get back to it. And realize those notes -- maybe they weren't so bad after all.

And having an a ha moment from a note you didn't even think about. I remember I had a note about one of my characters not existing for about 45 pages of a movie once. And I thought about where he went, and what he did. And it started to build my idea of a world, and how to make three dimensional characters.

And every bad note I've received has helped me more than the praise. It's made me better. And now I welcome it.

So how can you do this?

• Show your project to people -- FRIENDS, not industry people -- before it's ready. Make sure you've done one or two revisions, but show it early. Get real opinions.
• But please don't expect them to read every revision you've done. They are friends, not slaves. And they have lives.
• Once you finish a couple revisions, and you think it's good, don't hold onto it. Get it into somebody's hands. And hope they are honest with you.
• When you get back notes, especially if they are bad, be pissed off for 24 hours. Don't look at them.
• Then, try to incorporate every single one of those notes without thinking about it. I guarantee at least 25% of them will be worthwhile and another 50% may help you. You'll probably disregard the other 25%.
• Don't get callused. There is a difference between a thick skin and a callused skin. You still have to let things in. Don't block off everything. Feeling the pain or rejection will make the next time easier.

And you just have to keep doing it. We are people are not built to handle criticism well. Like everything else it is a muscle that we train.

That's Expensive

The #1 response freelanchers get to proposals is:

"That's expensive."

To which I would always say:

"You get what you pay for."

Which is true. I've been doing this a long time, and have a lot of special skills that afford me the ability to do things more quickly, and frankly better than most people -- especially those that haven't been doing this very long.

However, since I am older, I also come with expenses that I have to pay, which is why my rates are so high. Things like:

MORTGAGE CAR PAYMENTS UTILITIES GROCERIES EQUIPMENT

Just to name a few. I don't do this for my health. And I would like, just like you, to have money left over to do things that are fun. Yes I have a fun job, but it is a job. A hard job. A job that doesn't come with benefits.

There's no 401k. There's no employer health insurance. There's no supply closet paid for by a company. There's no company wifi. All of that stuff is provided by me.

But there's a more important reason why you hire me instead of somebody else. Because I will return you more money, even though I am more expensive.

Do you think there is a reason people give Stephen King money still and not just Joe Blow? Joe Blow is cheaper -- but he's not going to be reliable. He's not going to get the job done right. And he's not going to help you sell the thing.

I'm all for hiring whatever artist or writer is best for your project. If it's not me, fine. Hire somebody else, but know you're get the trade-offs of not hiring me.

But I'm not too expensive. I know what I'm worth. I know exactly how much I charge and how I got that number. My rates are negotiable to a degree, depending on how much I love a project and how much spare time I have.

But it's insulting for you to tell me that's too expensive. And it makes you sound like a moron.

Granted, this isn't a beginner level post. But it needed to be said.

The Wall

We all hit it. Whether it's in our job. In our personal life. Or even with being creative. We hit a wall that doesn't allow us to continue -- or so we think. The wall is hard. It's the thing that runners say they get around mile 15-17 of a marathon. It's that moment when you're body gives out, and you want to give up, because it's too hard.

And you have a choice. You can either believe your body, and hit that wall, and not continue. Or you can push through it.

Because on the other side of that wall is a second wind. It's a revived spirit. And it's finishing that race.

I came to this a few months ago, when I stared at the screen and just couldn't go on. I was 45k into my first book of the year. I was tired. My mind was weak. I just wanted to go home and go to bed.

Except that I was at home on the couch. So it wouldn't have been very hard to accomplish that.

But instead, I kept my keys on the keyboard. I kept watching youtube, answering emails, checking blogs, and reading facebook. But every so often I would keep going back and looking at the screen. And eventually, my fingers started typing.

It didn't have to be good. And it didn't have to make that much sense. It just had to keep writing through it.

And I passed 50k that day. And I kept going. Because I pushed through and kept going

The Best

I hear this all the time from writers. I want to be the best and I'm going to write the next American novel. Or my book's going to change the system. Or my thoughts are going to be the best thoughts.

No they're not.

I'm not knocking trying to be the best. You should always try to be the best you that you can be. And do the best that you can do. I was the number one sales person at my company in January. I was not the number one sales person in the world, or in the country, or in the state, or in the city, or even in my town. But I was the best in my company. I wasn't the best the previous nine months, but for that month I was the best.

So let's think for a minute about you wanting to be the best. Objectively, how do you determine the best? Is it the person who sold the most books/tickets? Is it the one that won the Pulitzer/Oscar? Is it the one published or released by the biggest company, or the one that gets the most traction? Is it highest DVD sales upfront, or most Kindle sales over time?

Truth is-- it's all of them. But they are diametrically opposed things. The most commercial project will never will the most prestigious awards. And the most prestigious projects will never be the highest grossing. It's just not how the system works. I don't know why that is, but it just is that way.

And thinking you, little old you, are going to change the system when the greatest writers in history couldn't is very presumptuous of you. Very presumptuous.

So I'm going to let you in on a secret. There are a few ways that you can judge if you are the best. And they are as absolute today as they were when I started.

• Are you doing your BEST work every day?
• Are you TRYING to IMPROVE every day?
• Are you HAPPY with the work you are putting out there?
• Are you for it FOR THE MONEY or FOR THE LOVE?

Now that last question is tricky because sometimes love and money do intersect. Michael Bay happens to LOVE his movies AND make a crap load of money doing them.

I am not Michael Bay. You are not Michael Bay. But I am the best at getting MY THOUGHTS out on paper. Because Nobody else has them but me.

If you judge yourself based on somebody else's life you'll always be miserable because there will ALWAYS be somebody doing something better than you. And there will always be people that hate what you do.

So all you can hope is that you can look yourself in the eyes and say this is my best work. I did this project the best I could do at this moment in time. Could somebody else do it better? Or could I do it better in a year or ten years? Maybe. But this is my BEST work.

If you've done that -- you are the best. Even though right now you suck.

Persistence, Consistency, and Just Showing Up

The three most important things about writing are persistence, consistency, and just showing up. Heck, probably the three most important things about life. Why? Let's talk about them in reverse order: SHOWING UP: I swear to you that this is half the battle. Or more. I'm not even kidding. The more you are present, the more you can be in the face of people, the more comfortable they are with you. The more you become a colleague. The more you become a friend. And people are more likely to trust a friend than somebody that just showed up for the first time.

But there's another reason why showing up is so important. It's because people drop off like flies in this business. There are people that are so gungho about something, they talk about their project with me at a convention or at a meetup. They come around once or twice, and then drop off for a long time, possibly ever. When I finally see them again, they haven't done ANYTHING with their project. It's disheartening. It certainly doesn't make me want to help them.

However, when somebody keeps showing up. They keep making progress. They are going through the motions, and struggling? I want that guy on my team. I will move heaven and earth to help that person.

CONSISTENCY: On top of being there, being consistent in your work is incredibly important. You should be continually coming out with new work at regular intervals. This will show:

• Agents that you can keep churning out marketable material for them to sell.
• Publishers that you can meet deadlines.
• Readers that you won't abandon them for years.
• Other writers that you mean business.
• Yourself that you are serious.

It takes a long time to be consistently good, but not to be consistent about how much you write. You can start right now building the habit of writing five pages, or 100 words, or a chapter a day. The longer you do that before you become a big shot, the more ingrained in you it will be when it comes time to deliver.

PERSISTENCE: I've talked about it before. This business will eat you up and spit you out. I was actually just talking to a pretty successful writer and editor today. A writer that was published by IDW and won an Eisner. And he told me that his publisher won't even LOOK at his new pitch. Forget publish it, they won't even open it!

Now, he could just given up, but he didn't. Instead he was exhibiting at a comic convention trying to sell his current line-up, not letting it get him down.

And I appreciated that. When you get punched in the gut and keep on standing back up-- people take notice.

That's not everything. Talent is important, but it's talent secondary to those things. I'd rather have a middling talent who can take a punch in stride, delivers on time, and and shows up then the most talented dick in the world.

Of course -- It's best to be the whole package.

How to Appropriately Judge Success

This is one of the hardest problems anybody faces, because no matter how successful you are there's always a next step. It's literally never ending. That's why some of the most successful people are also the most miserable. First it's how to finish a script, then how to get representation, followed by how to get another to read/buy your damn thing, then how do you make the thing... into infinity.

Let me start by showing you the levels of career success:

1. FINISH ONE SCRIPT. Just doing that is a HUGE accomplishment.
2. NOT SUCKING COMPLETELY. See yesterday's post for more on this.
3. HAVING A CATALOG OF SCRIPTS YOU AREN'T EMBARRASSED TO SHOW PEOPLE. This is at least 2-3 scripts. Because anybody who reads your stuff and likes it will immediately ask what else you've got to make sure you're not a one trick pony.
4. GAINING REPRESENTATION. Manager, Agent, Lawyer, Drunk Homeless Man screaming your praises, whatever. Having one person like your stuff enough to stake their reputation on showing it to people is a huge step.
5. OPTIONING A PROJECT. Optioning is basically allowing somebody to shop your project around without paying you a lot -- or anything at all in most cases.
6. SIGNING A PURCHASE/PUBLISHING AGREEMENT. Not having something produced or published, just the agreement. These deals often never lead to anything if my career is any indication.
7. HAVING A PROJECT PRODUCED/PUBLISHED. Bam DOOZLE! It happened. Your thing is out in the mainsteam. You would think this is the end result, right? WRONG!
8. HAVING YOUR PROJECT BE SUCCESSFUL. Actually having your project be successful HAS to be the end result, right? Oh how little you know.
9. BEING HIRED FOR ANOTHER PROJECT. 
10. REPEAT STEP 5-9 OVER AND OVER. FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. 

So no matter where you are on this list, no writer ever feels successful. I'll bet even J.K. Rowling feels like a hack some days. Like when A Casual Vacancy was critically panned, she must've felt like a huge failure. Even though she could dry her eyes with thousand dollar bills, it still sucks. It hits everybody.

Just for reference, I fall right in that stage 6/7 category. And it's really, really hard to get into that category. I have a few small publishers that like my stuff and will publish me assuming my stuff is good. They'll look at whatever I have to say, and that's great! But it's not as good as being at step, 8, or 9, or 10. I don't have Random House knocking down my door or anything like that, but it's a great place to be.

And even though VERY FEW people get to step six, I often still feel like a failure because I'm further along.

And here's the funny thing, when I was at step one I though everything would be perfect if I just got to step two, and @ step three I just KNEW that if I could get to step four my life would be cake. And @ step four I was SURE that by step six I would be on EASY STREET.

Guess what? Never going to happen. You will never be happy until you appreciate how far you've come. And to that end, here are some tips to help you appreciate how far you've come.

• Realize that very few people in the world ever get to where you are. Even if people you know are more successful, so many, many people failed and couldn't even get to step one that by you even getting there you should throw yourself a party. And every step you are above step one means even LESS people got there.
• Don't judge yourself by your peers. That's NBA Syndrome. They are bitter @ making 800k a year because they can't afford two Bentleys, but that's only because everybody around them is making more than they are. It happens in every industry. If you're any good at your job, you should have people that are better than you which keep pushing you forward and people worse you're trying to pull up to your level.
• Remember that no matter where you are on that path people are envious of your success. People, even if you're at number one, are jealous and impressed you could finish that script. Just don't let it go to your head. Remember, you probably still suck right now.
• Take stock of where you were at this exact date last year. I do this all the time. Every day seems like a slog, but if you put it into perspective in 1-5 year increments it's very easy to see how far you've progressed. And if you haven't progressed, GET ON THAT!!!!
• Make a plan for where you are going in the next year, but only expect to accomplish 33% of your goals. And even though it's corny to say batting 33% will get you in the hall of fame in baseball, you can bet life is way harder than baseball. So if you hit 33% in life, you're doing incredible.
• Set realistic goals. Please don't say you're going to publish two books in a year if you've never even written one before. Even somebody like me who's been at this a long time would be hard pressed to publish two books in a year. Every year my goals become more realistic and my life gets happier because of it. Every year I write a three part resolution. PART ONE is looking at my last year's resolutions and how I did, PART TWO is looking at what I did right, and PART THREE is what I intend to accomplish this year. THIS YEAR, write two books, finally publish something in WIDE print run release, set up stuff to be published in 2015, and attend a con as an exhibitor. That's it. Very realistic.

There's lots more ways, but those are some of the biggest. As always, the first step to being happy is admitting you suck and working to improve every day to suck slightly less.

Happy Writing!

Act Like You Know

I live in LA. And I go to a lot of conferences. On top of that I often drag myself to networking events. And this is the #1 tidbit I've picked up about networking.

If you don't know what's going on in the industry, and at least a passing knowledge of all the releases and projects, you won't last long in conversation with anybody. And if you can't last long in a conversation, you won't make the contact. And without the contact... you get the idea.

So here's a quick tip. If you don't go to many movies or the funds to buy lots of comic books, no problem. If you don't have the time to read every published novel or watch every tv show, that's okay.

NOBODY does. The only people that can are assistants and executives whose sole job it is to find new ideas. For the rest of us, we cheat.

Cheating is easy because all you need is the internet and a Google reader feed. Then, you go to Variety and Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and every other blog site that has any relevance to film, TV, comic books, novels or any other form of media. Click on their RSS feed and get it sent to your Google reader account. Then, spend a few hours every week reading through them voraciously. Anything gets a lot of traction, go out and consume that piece and let the rest go.

It's as easy as that. Now there's no excuse for you not to be savvy next time you meet somebody in the industry. A little knowledge goes a long way, but none will get you nowhere.

I live in LA. And I go to a lot of conferences. On top of that I often drag myself to networking events. And this is the #1 tidbit I've picked up about networking.

If you don't know what's going on in the industry, and at least a passing knowledge of all the releases and projects, you won't last long in conversation with anybody. And if you can't last long in a conversation, you won't make the contact. And without the contact... you get the idea.

So here's a quick tip. If you don't go to many movies or the funds to buy lots of comic books, no problem. If you don't have the time to read every published novel or watch every tv show, that's okay.

NOBODY does. The only people that can are assistants and executives whose sole job it is to find new ideas. For the rest of us, we cheat.

Cheating is easy because all you need is the internet and a Google reader feed. Then, you go to Variety and Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and every other blog site that has any relevance to film, TV, comic books, novels or any other form of media. Click on their RSS feed and get it sent to your Google reader account. Then, spend a few hours every week reading through them voraciously. Anything gets a lot of traction, go out and consume that piece and let the rest go.

It's as easy as that. Now there's no excuse for you not to be savvy next time you meet somebody in the industry. A little knowledge goes a long way, but none will get you nowhere.

I live in LA. And I go to a lot of conferences. On top of that I often drag myself to networking events. And this is the #1 tidbit I've picked up about networking.

If you don't know what's going on in the industry, and at least a passing knowledge of all the releases and projects, you won't last long in conversation with anybody. And if you can't last long in a conversation, you won't make the contact. And without the contact... you get the idea.

So here's a quick tip. If you don't go to many movies or the funds to buy lots of comic books, no problem. If you don't have the time to read every published novel or watch every tv show, that's okay.

NOBODY does. The only people that can are assistants and executives whose sole job it is to find new ideas. For the rest of us, we cheat.

Cheating is easy because all you need is the internet and a Google reader feed. Then, you go to Variety and Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and every other blog site that has any relevance to film, TV, comic books, novels or any other form of media. Click on their RSS feed and get it sent to your Google reader account. Then, spend a few hours every week reading through them voraciously. Anything gets a lot of traction, go out and consume that piece and let the rest go.

It's as easy as that. Now there's no excuse for you not to be savvy next time you meet somebody in the industry. A little knowledge goes a long way, but none will get you nowhere.

How to Tell a Good Idea From a Great One

I once heard a quote from a CEO, I forget who it was, and damn if I can find who to attribute it to on the internet. And since I can't find the exact wording, I'm going to summarize. "My job is to say no to good ideas all day every day so that I can focus on the GREAT ones." See, here's the sticky wicket of being a writer. The longer you go at this the better you become. I recently looked back at my first notebooks and saw how terrible my ideas were when I first started. And even those ideas which were good, I wasn't confident enough I could pull off those ideas adequately.

Now that's I've got a few things under my belt I see the marked improvement in my ideas, and in my execution of those ideas. I feel as though I can pretty much execute any idea that rattles through my brain. And that almost all of those ideas are marketable to some studio/production company. Which presents a problem.

If I can, as I surmise, execute any idea which pops through my head, and more often then not those ideas are marketable, and I have hundreds of new ideas a year, how do I figure out which one to concentrate on at any given time? How do you figure out which one is going to be marketable enough to sell to a broad enough market and keep food on the table?

In my opinion, this is the hardest part about being a writer. The rest of it is putting in the work to make the best product. The rest of it is skill, learned and innate. But this is the marketing piece of it. This is the luck piece of it. If you make the wrong decision here, you could write a spec that doesn't sell and waste months of your life. If you make the right decision, you could make a big deal.

Because of this I often feel pulled in 100 directions, wanting to focus my energy in ten places at once, on five projects. So how do I choose which project to move forward on? It's a combination of several things.

TALKING WITH AN AGENT/MANAGER - Their job is basically to know the marketplace and what sorts of things networks/studios are looking for. I know it's not easy to find one, but even if you have a trusted friend  in the industry they can help you kick around ideas and find something that works. I never really expect my agent to sell anything that I bring to him, but I do expect him to tell me whether he thinks the concept is saleable. And that's invaluable to me.

READ EVERY TRADE YOU CAN - Not just Variety and Hollywood Reporter but Deadline, It's on the Grid, Go into the Story, and any industry blogs that have relevant information on what's selling and whose getting attached to projects. That last bit is very helpful to determine what sorts of stars you're looking at to attach to your project, since so much of selling a script these days is packaging it with star talent.

STAGGER PROJECTS - You should do this anyway regardless if you are having this problem or not, but keep multiple projects going simultaneously in different stages of development.  One should be in pre-writing, another should be in active writing of the rough draft, and the third should be in rewriting.

WRITE A LOT - Sometimes ideas won't work. Either you decide it's not the right project for you, or something gets sold with nearly your same pitch, or you realize you hate doing paranormal romance dramas, or something about the structure doesn't click. So make sure you've got a lot of projects in your hopper, and that if something doesn't work you aren't afraid to abandon it for something that does.

BRAIN DUMP - Something that I find works for me is doing what I call a brain dump. That's when I spend about a month a year writing everything that's in my head. Whether I have an outline for it or not, no matter the genre or format, I just write. This year, I got 8 scripts done in 6 weeks. Now most of them aren't very good, but a couple of them are and I'm going to pursue them to whatever end they have.

The reason I like the brain dump is that it allows you to write crap. It allows you to write stuff you might not otherwise like, and for young writers it really helps you hone your voice and the types of characters you like. It lets you throw out stuff that didn't work because you didn't spend that much time or effort on it, so you don't have that attachment writers tend to feel about their characters. And it teaches you to be quick, which is so important in order to be a professional.

It's really, really hard to do this part. How do you go about shifting through the good ideas to find the great ones?