Craig Mazin says screenwriting is not a marathon and that if it feels like one, you either have serious flaws in your script or you have no business writing screenplays. I've never heard that analogy but now hearing it challenged, I have to disagree with Craig.
My son is a runner. He delights in getting up at six in the morning, hard work, and steady improvement. What I've learned from him has a lot to do with discipline and diligence but nothing about dreading the run or praying for it to end. Running isn't torture for him, but an exciting event to train for and look forward to week after week.
Perhaps, whether or not writing screenplays is like running a marathon depends entirely on what kind of runner you are. A lazy reluctant one looking only at the finish line has no business running. Naturally all analogies break down some place, but this one has a ring of legitimacy to me. Yeah, that's my boy in the pic. Does he look bored to you?
2 comments:
The thing too is that marathons are what you make of them. If you are a runner who loves to run long distances, then you love marathoning, it's what you were born to. In fact, if you are a marathoner, and you don't love marathons, you should probably do something else.
Same with screenwriting, in which too many writers are looking to make it a sprint. It's not a sprint, it takes a lot of work and education, and if you don't love it, move on to something else.
I go with Scott you have to love what you do. I was in the business world after I got out of school. I hated it. I had always wanted to be a truck driver so I had a opertunity and went for it. Its just like everything else you have to take the good with the bad. Teh main thing is you do what you love cause you are going to be doing it for a long time why not have I fun.
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