One Piece of (Writing) Advice for 2015

If I can say one thing about writing.

One thing for you to believe in.

One thing to bring into 2015 with you, it’s this:

Don’t do it alone.

Writing is scary and stressful enough.

It’s hard to get the right words out.

It’s painful to create work that you might not feel immediately proud of.

(Wait, you mean it doesn’t happen perfectly right out of the gate?? Uh, hell to the no.)

But writing all alone? Makes it so so so so so so much worse.

Actually, my new belief is that it makes it damn near impossible.

Last week, my writing mentor and coach Ela Thier said that whenever she hasn’t met her writing goals for the week, it’s always due to one simple reason: she’s trying to accomplish them all alone.

I’ve been shrugging this off like the cocky little biatch that I am (I’m the first to admit it) - I write all day, all the time. I write pages and pages of copy for hours and hours each week. I’ve written countless short films, infinite poems, and five feature length screenplays — I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING. #confident

And that’s cool, right?

It’s cool to know what you’re doing. But what’s even cooler is opening your mind up to the possibility that you don’t.

Maybe there is a better way. Maybe the way you’ve been doing things is OK - but maybe you want better than OK. Maybe you don’t want to settle for “cool” when you can light your fucking creativity on fire.

Case in point -

This fall, I made a promise to myself to meet a writing deadline by December 29th - to complete another screenplay. I had managed to squeeze half of it out on my own (with a lot of chocolate and potato chip breaks). But then, I hit a standstill. Life got busy, work got busy, I got stressed. Many weeks went by and no progress was made.

Then, the fear took over. (I hate the fear.)

Then, the “everything else is more important” took over.

Then, the “but you don’t have time for this right now” took over.

I won’t entirely examine the truth (or lack thereof) of these statements.

Let’s just say they’re the bullshit stuff your mind cooks up when you have no good reason not to do something, you’re just resisting the shit out of it.

With 30 pages and 2 days to go, I saw an opportunity to co-work with a very old friend of mine, a super talented filmmaker whose project has been winning awards left and right across the festival circuit in the last year. So I took a leap of faith.

“Oh, you’re writing while you’re in town for the holidays too? Want to meet up and co-work for a couple of days. I have this screenplay I’m trying to finish.”

His response: “Sure!”

Guess what happened? 12 pages in 45 minutes with lots of company, creative energy, and connection.

It was the most painless 12 pages I’ve ever written. This! This...

...is what I call an “upgrade.”

So ask yourself what you want for next year.

Maybe it’s writing, blogging, creating new products and concepts or events for your business.

Maybe you have a non business project you’ve been meaning to commit to  - but there’s *always* a good reason not to.

Whatever it is - declare it.

And then ask yourself how you can get other people involved.

Because that’s the key to your success.

Don’t do it all alone.

Happy New Year.

xo

p.s. I’m always here to help you write copy and blogs that you’re proud of, in good company, if you’re into that. Get in right here.