They said it couldn’t be done and so we didn’t do it…
By: Dana Smith
Take it from the working professionals. Blaming writers block is overrated. Hard work is for suckers. Here it is sage advice from many of the hardest working writer-entertainers in show business.
We go to busking great Tim Motley enjoying his summer in Melbourne for this: “I try to sit down with my morning coffee around noon.”
“It usually happens first thing,” Dan Looker explains, “when the previous evening’s alcohol and the morning coffee meet in a front.”
That’s some kind of weather pattern.
The well washed one- veteran British comic- Andre Vincent, “It is thought of in the bath and then never stopped working on.”
Ellen Gavin screenwriter and former theatrical producer at the Brava in San Francisco confides, “I try to write from 9 until 3…” and then cheerfully admits, “I’m supposed to be at my desk now.”
Most writers do their best writing when they are supposed to be writing. It is only when we are actually writing that it is so difficult. One way or another, sooner or later, they do get it down on paper.
Jay Alexander explains, “I send a recording of my show and have a professional transcribe it.” He’s got the idea.
“I’m open to writing,” Lee Ross explains, “I did get up and do an ‘open mic’ the other week and killed.”
This is how the really gifted writers write.
As Karl Saliter explains, “I continually find myself 10,000 miles from the keyboard.” This is pure virtuosity.
Still technique is important. Rob Williams, “I recommend upscale pencils… look for the Palomino Blackwing Series.”
They are impossible to find.
Andre Vincent again, “Notebook is friend, memory is enemy.”
James O’Shea, “I’m not trying to plan anything or know what the story is about.”
They say that we all have a novel in us. Writing it down, printing it out and putting it on a shelf. That is so last century. I hope this clear thing’s up for those of you who might still be thinking about writing something.
