During one very poignant lecture in screenwriting class, the teacher decided to break down how to become a successful writer. It takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a task. Whether it's cooking, the cello, or even writing, putting in that many hours and that much dedication helps to further your knowledge of any task you wish to master.
After hearing this number, I began to calculate exactly how long would it take for me to achieve the Master Ninja status. If I decided to take speed everyday, gave up sleeping, eating, pissing, and shitting, and dedicated every single second of the 24 hours in a day, it would take a little over a year to clock in 10,000 hours. I love sleeping, and my low tolerance for recreational drugs would kill me instead of keep me awake (Advil is strong enough to make me see unicorns), so the whole, up 24 hours thing wouldn't work. If I dedicated 8 hours a day to the 10,000 hours, it would take about 3 and a half years to reach 10,000. My full time job is to be a student, which I might be failing at, but none the less, I don't have 8 hours in a day to allot to writing. After I graduate I plan on the whole writing working day, but as of now, I have to settle for 1 hour a day. Which by my calculations means I will be hitting the 10,000 mark in about 27 years.
Yes, hours each day may fluctuate, 3 hours here, 1 hour there, 13 hours that one day, but the bottom line in order to achieve this Master status, you need to write EVERY SINGLE DAY. A bit of advice that I struggle with at times, but have gotten the hang of recently. Making sure to write every single day will ultimately help you down the road. You'll be able to write faster, better, and longer. Even if it's a shitty scene every single day, some where down the line you'll be able to grab that one piece of genius from the 100 pieces of shit.
In order to keep on track I've decided to employ a progress chart made popular by the legend, the master, the guru of the world, Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld has talked about his "Don't Break the Chain" method. You print out an entire year calendar on a single sheet of paper, or just list 1 to 365. The idea is that each day you accomplish say, writing for an hour, you get to make a cross on the date. By a week or two, you have the makings of a chain. You're compelled not to break this sweet little chain of encouragement so you continue writing for an hour each day. This method doesn't just pertain to writing, but it could be anything in your life that you wish to be active about each and everyday.
The more you write, the better you'll get. Or at least that's what they say. Don't break the chain man. Don't you break that chain.
