Archives: olilewington

Sometimes things run smoothly and beautifully and you feel like there’s a little monkey automatically greasing your wheels as you trundle along without having to think about it.

Sometimes you discover that the monkey’s been somewhat lackadaisical in its commitment to keeping the running smooth and things start to crunch and grind and slow you to a halt.

At times like these, it’s important to take a couple of days to pause and reflect on why things feel that way. While the answers may not always be simple, you’re always better to face them head-on than try to ignore them and plough on regardless.

Sooner or later, that monkey’s going to bite you in the butt. Pay attention, take regular stock and be honest with yourself and you’ll be able to get out of the way before it really sinks its teeth in.

For years the iconic sports brand have been telling us to ‘Just Do It‘. It works as a slogan because it’s short, it’s snappy and it’s easy to remember.

It also works because it’s true; the single best way to make anything happen is just to do it.

If you’re sitting around thinking of all the things you ought to be doing, you’ll never get anywhere. If there’s something to be done just get up and get on with it. The sooner you do, the sooner it’ll be done and you can get back to the other tasks on your To Do list ((or just chilling out)).

Even when it comes to big things, although you made need to break them down into smaller, more achievable chunks, you start down the road by simply taking that first step.

Yesterday, after much delay and dilly-dallying, I finally committed myself to attacking the 3 Peaks Challenge later this year. How? I contacted a journalist friend at my local paper and got them to run this piece on me to help me find a trainer.

Not only will I hopefully get some expert supervision and advice, but I’ve also announced the trip to the world in a way that will keep me honest, make me stick to my goals and motivate me to achieve what I’ve set out to do.

Expect more on the 3 Peaks and my journey towards it in the coming weeks. But, right now, what are you doing to “just do” today”?

Writer/Director ((and London Screenwriters’ Festival Hollywood Hookup guest)) John August has put this post up on his blog today (or probably yesterday, US-time) linking through to an original pitch document from Gene Roddenberry for STAR TREK.

The document itself is well worth a read, for insight if nothing else, but JA’s comments and thoughts are equally valuable. More than that, though, he once again shows his generosity in helping writers understand the process by linking through to three similar documents he created for un-produced TV shows.

Not many writers would have the confidence to share what is, essentially, rejected work with a wider audience. JA’s willingness to open his work to writers across the world shows not only his confidence and talent, but perhaps that we all could be a little more open in order to learn more about ourselves and others.

Read his full post here.

My most productive periods tend to be first thing in the morning and late afternoon/early evening ((although I have to say, when I’m writing I’m rather prone to pulling hyper-productive all-nighters)). I suffer terribly – like many people – with a post-lunch/early afternoon slump.

Having battled it, ignored it, slept through it, worked through it and, frequently, failed to do anything with it, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to beat the slump is to embrace it.

Whenever your slump may come, using it wisely is the key to keeping productive all day. My slump is spent catching up on the blogs and websites that I like to read every day, a bit of conversation on Twitter and back-and-forthing on Facebook.

Finding something that’s useful and productive as well as being light on the brain is key to avoiding the loss of two hours of your day to your dip.

This week’s most popular post on the blog was my Pick of the Web featuring Lucy V. Hay and Daniel Martin Eckhart‘s cross-talking posts on what it takes to succeed as a writer. You can read it here.

Today’s Sunday video for your viewing (and educational) pleasure it this fantastic piece by Turnstyle News on Lance Weiler‘s Pandemic 1.0 project that’s been running all week. Watch this video ((you can also see it on Vimeo here)) and learn how transmedia should be done. Spectacular; and makes me even more gutted that I wasn’t at Sundance this year to be able to participate.

Last night I was invited to K’s uncle’s Rotary Club meeting to give an after dinner speech about Cystic Fibrosis and transplant/organ donation ((most of you will be familiar with my own transplant story from my SmileThroughIt journal)).

I have to confess I’ve been so swept up in work the last couple of weeks I hadn’t actually taken any time to prepare what I was going to say. It’s not difficult to tell my story off-the-cuff, but I usually like to have a rough game plan.

What I love about being unprepared, though, is what crops up from the proverbial blue when I’m winging it.

Last night I found myself saying this:

We all learn very early on that life’s not fair.

It’s not fair that anyone should have to go through what I’ve been through; it’s not fair for a 28-year-old to have been to as many friends’ funerals as I have; it’s not fair that a friend of mine has waited 2 years longer than I did for a transplant that still hasn’t come and is on the verge of giving up altogether.

By signing the Organ Donor Register you may not feel like you’ve done very much, but you will have taken a very, very small but very, very important step towards making life that little bit fairer for the people who are waiting [for transplants] and the families who love them, support them and don’t want to lose them when there’s a simple solution.

There’s an old army adage known as the 6 P’s that tells us “Proper Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance”. Yet sometimes – just sometimes – lack of preparation can lead to inspiration, to creativity and to an outcome you’d not considered.

I spoke at the Rotary Club of Harrow because I wanted to help spread the word about how life-transforming organ donation and transplantation can be. I walked away with several pledges to sign up and nearly £300 in donations for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. Sometimes lack of preparation pays off.

(Now, if you haven’t already, go here and sign the Organ Donor Register!)

There are two great articles I want to highlight today, from two Twitter/LSWF buddies of mine.

Daniel Martin Eckhart writes on his blog about what it takes to make it as a screenwriter, his biggest insight (and no doubt point of debate) being:

The two most essential elements for a screenwriters are discipline and stamina. Talent is a distant third.

Daniel Martin Eckhart, Write, write, write.

Lucy V Hay, of Bang2Write fame, then goes a little further in her post, which references Daniel’s, talking about the paradox of the lucky/unlucky writer:

You’ll get no argument from when if you’re of the belief it’s TOTALLY about hard work, first and foremost; I think it’s important to recognise our own success as a writer will come as a direct result of that. However, I also think it’s important to realise it *could* have worked out very differently, despite our best efforts.

Lucy V Hay, write here, write now

What do you think? What makes a writer successful? Luck, timing, talent, hard work? All of the above?

I heard someone yesterday say that the most important thing in starting a project is making the decision to do it. I beg to differ.

We frequently make decisions and resolve to start things that we don’t see through, just see my pair posts about Mondays (Don’t Start on Monday and Why I’m Right). How many times have you heard someone is starting their diet, stopping smoking, beginning a new health kick, but they’re always doing it “next week” or “on Monday”?

Committing to starting a project is the most important step. Once you’ve committed – be it public or private ((although we all know that doing it publicly makes you far more accountable, even if it’s only to your friends)) – you’ve taken the first step towards making it happen.

Don’t sit back and relax in the knowledge that you’ve decided to do something so therefore it will happen; unless you fully commit, it simply won’t.

Just before Christmas, Seth Godin, über-leader of tribes and the man behind the seminal ideavirus revolution, created the website for a new publishing project aiming to launch in early 2011, in association with Amazon.

If you haven’t already, go subscribe to their newsletter and have a look around the site. The Domino Project is, in their own words ((and I emphasise the “their” in that sentence – it’s truly a collaborative effort)), “reinventing what it means to be a publisher”.

These are exciting times for global publishing; when someone with Seth’s ability, influence and forward-thinking partners up with such a global powerhouse as Amazon something exciting is likely to happen, whatever it may eventually be.

If you want to be a part of it, they’re also looking for a Domino Street Team across the world to help them roll out their plans throughout the next 6 months or so. You can read more about the role and the people they’re looking for here or head straight over to the application form and dive right in ((you’ve got until this Friday, 28th Jan 2011)); I already have.

The Domino Project is named after the domino effect—one powerful idea spreads down the line, pushing from person to person. The Project represents a fundamental shift in the way books (and digital media based on books) have always been published. Eventually consisting of a small cadre of stellar authors, this is a publishing house organized around a new distribution channel, one that wasn’t even a fantasy when most publishers began.

The Domino Project, thedominoproject.com

I posted on Friday that you shouldn’t start anything on a Monday because it’s generally a mess of doing things other than those on your To Do’s.

Case in point: today I knew I had all morning taken up with a schools project I’m working on at the moment, then a meeting in MK at 3pm and one immediately afterwards.  I knew I had a couple of hours in the middle, so I’d scheduled some time to make some calls and catch up on the weekend email.

It’s now 8.45pm and I’ve not only haven’t I made any of the calls, answered (or even read in detail) any email and, which is even more of a crime ((in my mind, anyway, INCEPTION-style)), is the fact that I’m only just getting around to my Monday blog post.

So, in an odd sort of way, what I’ve achieved today is prove myself 100% right. Sometimes it’s no fun being right.