To Write a Screenplay Maybe You Need To Punch a Time Card

Here are some additional "tricks of the trade" I've been guinea-pigging for two decades now. Again, compare and contrast, season to taste, use whatever works for you and forget whatever doesn't.

If I've had a single stroke of legitimate genius in my twenty-plus years of screenwriting it was this --

Start keeping a time card.

Check out the big brain on me, right? Keepin' it way old-school -- straight out of the 18th Century.

I created a Word Doc called (wait for it) "Time Card", and whenever I sit down to begin writing I type in the Date and my Start Time. Whenever I break for lunch (or any other extended and/or unexpected absence), I put down however long that took. Lastly, after a hard day's work, usually distraught and balled up in the fetal position, I enter my Finishing Time.

Tallying it up is simple math. Total hours spent - break time = actual hours worked on any given day. As a sweet bonus to myself, I also leave a comment about the quality of my work in the margin. Something to the tune of "Great Day", "You're the Boss!" or, conversely (and much more common), "That sucked ass", "You totally shit the bed" or "Quit pretending and get a real job".

Essentially, my time cards look like this (based on a real project!) --

John Jarrell -- Project Name -- Time Card

9/1/14 - 10:50am to 2:30pm (Welcome Back to the Rodeo - 5)

3:30pm to 5:30pm

8:30pm to 9:00pm

9/2/14 - 12:40pm to 3:10pm (5.5 - Who am I? WTF? )

3:40pm to 6:30pm

9/3/14 - 11:45am to 2:30pm (4.5 - Mama told me there'd be shitty days like these)

3:30pm to 5:30pm

7:00pm to 8:00pm

9/4/14 - 2:00pm to 6:00pm (4 - Late Start/Real Life)

9/5/14 - 5:00pm to 9:00pm (4)

9/6/14 - 12:00pm to 6:00pm (5.5 - First Good Day...)

9/7/14 - 1:00pm to 5:30pm (4.5 - Another Good One)

9/8/14 - 12:00pm to 2:30pm (5 - Pick up friend at LAX)

3:30pm to 6:30pm

9/9/14 - Day Off (0 - Pitch at Warners)

9/10/14 - 1:00pm to 3:00pm (3 - Whatever)

4:00pm to 5:00pm

9/11/14 - 1:00pm to 4:25pm (5 - Should have done more)

9:00pm to 11:00pm

9/12/14 - 12:00pm to 2:00pm (5 - Friends stop by, but still killed it!)

3:00pm to 6:30pm

9/12/14 - Day Off (0 - Sunday/Brunch/Fun)

9/13/14 - 3:00pm to 6:00pm (5 - Meeting/Late Start)

8:30pm to 11:15pm

9/14/14 - 12:30pm to 2:30pm (3 - Real-life intrudes)

Lunchtime Proofing

9/15/14 - 12:00pm to 2:00pm (2 - Clusterfuck of calls kills)

Print out thru p.31

9/16/14 - 12:26pm to 4:21pm (5 - Indefinably grueling)

Got in a few late...

Okay, so why have I found this such an amazing innovation in my writing life?

Because the time card never lies.

Committing to keeping a time card forces me to be one-hundred percent honest with myself. About my writing. About how real my effort is. About how real I am.

When you're responsible for entering your own hours -- or lack there of -- there's nobody else to blame or bitch to if you don't like what you see. Visually, zeroes and low totals reinforce the stark truth that getting this script done is squarely on you, and that presently you're not making that happen.

Whenever I notice a run of recent days where I'm sucking wind, being a pussy and only putting in two or three lightweight hours per, I get downright ruthless with myself. After twenty years, I've elevated self-flagellation to performance art; nobody alive can make me feel shittier about my failures as a human being than, well, me. I'll let the guilt and despair and disappointment simmer for a while, then come down hard; cutting loose an avalanche of the purest self-loathing to bury my inner-lazy bastard.

Self-love has clearly never been my strong suit. I'm an obsessive-compulsive tight-ass and beating myself to a pulp is just how I like to roll -- in fact, I'd be lost without using it as my primary motivator. Undeniably, I'm one of those Jerry West/Fear of Failure guys; all whip, no sugar, no fun allowed. But I certainly do NOT recommend this approach to other writers. I can't stress this enough. The emotional and energetic costs are astronomically high, and if I could do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I would definitely seek out a far more balanced approach.

However you ultimately choose to deal with your own lack of effort and imagination is strictly your business -- just be sure to find methods that actually do motivate you when your spirit and resolve dips to its weakest. A writer's recurring "crisis of faith" is an entirely normal and expected part of the writing process.

Time cards can either reassure you, giving you a nice boost when you're totally kicking ass, or they can crucify you, offering fair warning that shit needs to be dialed up, pronto, if you want to succeed. Throughout my time in Hollywood, I've found there's simply no substitute for having the exact amount of energy you're expending down in cold black and white. Whenever I assess a written-in-stone accounting of what I'm not contributing, it paves the way for those "Come to Jesus" pep talks all of us need once in a while to get refocused and back on track.

Right now, perhaps the time card of it all doesn't seem like that big a deal, and I fully understand that it may not work for everybody. That said, give it a shot and try it yourself next project. There's always the possibility that, like with Yours Truly here, this one tool can help maximize your productivity big time.