Don't rush

 I can breathe through my nose again. Hooray!  On the wall of my home office I have a whiteboard. It shows project types and due dates. There's a short screenplay listed, as well as a feature screenplay and a novel. In the past I would have blown through each of these writing projects and jumped on another. But one of the things I learned in my year long screenwriting mentorship is "slow down", "don't rush". Do you know there are screenwriters that take years to perfect a script? Novelist that take years to write a novel. It's not that they are bad writers, or inherently slow. They understand that our best work is done at a gradual pace. 

Think about it. Would you want your surgeon to speed through an operation on you,  that he or she knows would take five hours, and complete it in thirty minutes? Of course not. So why do some writers, as I used to be, think that their greatest work can be accomplished at lightning speed? 

Take your time. 

And I get it. I'd love to have sold a screenplay by now. Or have a novel traditionally published. But I also know my best work, my most amazing work, is what I am currently working on. And I am okay with taking my time. 

Please don't rush your process. You may encounter people that push you to turn something in, or to finish your draft. Don't. Use your voice. Say not yet. We owe it to ourselves as writers to give careful consideration to the words and characters and worlds that make up our stories. That kind of weaving takes time. 

Let it.