by Peggy BechkoHave you ever just sat around and thought about your writing? I know, I know, you’re busy, you have lots of stuff to write and little time to get it written.
But seriously, sometimes if we just step back a few paces and give ourselves time to evaluate what we’re doing and how we’re doing it, things could flow a lot easier.
I’m not advocating in depth analysis, but rather, taking a deep breath and having a look around.
Syd Field died last Sunday in Beverly Hills. He was 77. You probably already know that if you’re the kind of person most of TVWriter™’s visitors are.
I first heard about yesterday but decided to give myself a day or two to think about Syd and what he’s meant to the screenwriting and by extension the television writing communities.
Confession time: We have no idea if the ideas in the article that follow will help people make the right turns on their road to success, but, hell, we loved the wording of the title. So, without further ado:
by Adam GrantIf you want to achieve a major goal, conventional wisdom says to think positive. Picture yourself delivering the perfect presentation, and absorb the energy of the audience. Envision the ideal job interview, and imagine yourself on cloud nine when you get the offer. Although these strategies sound compelling, it turns out that they often backfire. Many of us are more successful when we focus on the reasons that we’re likely to fail.
In a series of clever studies, the psychologists Julie Norem and Nancy Cantor compared strategic optimists and defensive pessimists. If you’re a strategic optimist, you envision the best possible outcome and then eagerly plan to make it happen. If you’re a defensive pessimist, even if you’ve been successful in the past, you know this time could be different. You start picturing all the things that could go wrong. What if I spill coffee on the interviewer? What if I accidentally deliver the presentation in a foreign language? What if I forget my own name?
We’re always surprised – make that shocked – when publications/websites that specialize in creativity carry articles that state the obvious. Especially when the tone of those articles is one of, well, surprise and shock that this should be the case.
Still, we’re grateful for this restatement of a Basic Truth of the Human Condition and plan to keep it in our file of Ways to Defend Ourself From Dull People Who Want Us to be More Like Them. Cuz the following is, indeed, a very big and wonderful defense of what keeps yours truly alive: Mind Wandering AKA Daydreaming.
by Scott Myers“What no [spouse] of a writer can ever understand is that a writer is working when he’s staring out of the window.”
You’ve been hearing all about it I’m sure. The Pros and the Cons of sitting vs. standing while you work, and there are a lot of them. 
Generally one side says you have more energy, your brain functions better and you feel better if you stand while working.
The other side says, but the heart has to pump harder, you’re asking for more varicose veins and other downers.