@SteveHorton I read that from your twitter feed. Great article. Very positive and inspiring. That's just the kind of thing to read at the start of a new year.
I find it difficult to believe that he can write a 20-page script in 3-5 hours, even with all the prewriting.
I write FAST. VERY FAST when I'm really cooking. But 20 pages in 3-5 hours? Either he's not writing full script or it's shorthand for the artist to interpret.
Regardless, I love the work ethic and the PLANNING.
" I find it difficult to believe that he can write a 20-page script in 3-5 hours, even with all the prewriting."
I don't. I write comic scripts at, generally, about a thousand words an hour. And my average script is about four thousand words words long, these days. So it's about four hours of writing,
That's not just hypothetical - on the rare occasion I've had to write a script in a day, that's how long it took.
In Charles' case, he writes full script, and his scripts are actually a little wordier than mine, usually.
The other thing is, in my experience, the second (or third, or fourth...) is generally easier to write and thus faster than the first.
I find that I'm less concerned about character descriptions at that point and "Quinn -- who is tall, athletic, dressed in black except for his red goggles, with pale skin and white hair -- smirks" becomes "Quinn smirks." The same is true with settings, to a lesser extent.
I'm guessing that I write at about the same speed as Justin (or Charles) but I don't think I could sustain that speed for 3-5 hours at one time. I'm like a cheetah, writing in bursts, between sessions where I walk (I'm a pacer), get a cup of coffee, eat a pastry, etc.
I can't do the whole issue at a time thing with any regularity. I don't even think I could do it once a week (if that were the only issue I was doing this week) the mental strain is just too draining.
I can write more without killing myself if it's split between projects. Writing five pages on two different things is generally easier than writing ten of one for me. As far as butt in chair, I found the Pomodoro technique to be helpful - I write for 25 minutes, then walk around and whatever for 5, until I hit two hours or so.
I think the totals are interesting - 1116 pages for this year equals roughly 3 pages for every day of the year or 4.3 if you do a five day working week. Hugely impressive considering he has a day job but not massive (as someone who doesn't write enough at present to be considered a writer I acknowledge the irony of such a sentence) when there's seven deadlines pushing him. Justin wasn't far behind that total with a lot less wfh. I applaud the guy wholeheartedly though, totally envious of that level of organisation and planning which I suck at.
Haven't read anything by him, so I don't have any context to be 'wowed' by the output. To be honest, I heard pretty middling feedback about his books so far, so. . . .
There's something to be said about volume, particularly if that's how you want to build a name quickly, but there's more in that about just having discipline and not fucking about.
Not interested in writing that fast, especially when my process is to thumbnail out the story as a first draft, write a thorough script as a second draft, then lay it out anew from the script, making revisions as needed. Granted, I have the luxury of self-appointed deadlines and am not working (and don't want to write) for the disposable class of monthlies, so my time-consuming process works for me.
Comments
I write FAST. VERY FAST when I'm really cooking. But 20 pages in 3-5 hours? Either he's not writing full script or it's shorthand for the artist to interpret.
Regardless, I love the work ethic and the PLANNING.
I find it difficult to believe that he can write a 20-page script in 3-5 hours, even with all the prewriting."
I don't. I write comic scripts at, generally, about a thousand words an hour. And my average script is about four thousand words words long, these days. So it's about four hours of writing,
That's not just hypothetical - on the rare occasion I've had to write a script in a day, that's how long it took.
In Charles' case, he writes full script, and his scripts are actually a little wordier than mine, usually.
I can write more without killing myself if it's split between projects. Writing five pages on two different things is generally easier than writing ten of one for me. As far as butt in chair, I found the Pomodoro technique to be helpful - I write for 25 minutes, then walk around and whatever for 5, until I hit two hours or so.