What makes you happy?

I was asked the other day why I continually write scripts and screenplays when it is apparently so difficult to get paid writing work within the film and television industry?

Why do I continue to write script after script when the levels of rejection, competition, cynicism and negativity are so high?

I write scripts, stories, sketches etc because I love it.

It makes me extremely happy when I am in the moment writing. I can get truly lost within doing the thing and lose track of all time.

Whether this is on my own, or whether this is working with writing partners, it is, along with directing movies, to me, the absolute best job in the world.

That is part of the magic of it. The process of doing, the continual honing of my craft. I don't do it for any kind of approval of my own worth by others and I certainly don't do it for the glamour.

Lol, there is no status or glamour in being a scriptwriter. The old Hollywood joke is about the niave actress who fucked the writer.

I write because it makes me happy.

What makes you happy? What do you love? What can you lose yourself in? Because it is that losing yourself in something that is the key.

I'm not talking about mere daydreaming, i'm talking about 'being in the moment of doing'.

That's the same feeling you get when you play a sport intensely and you experience that magical minute of being completely in the moment, of simultaneously losing yourself to the thing, but also being totally aware of everything around you being on a kind of slow warp time.

I also replied that it's difficult, but not impossible.

Despite lots of competition (isn't there loads of competition in everything, even being a plumber or a bricklayer?) I have been paid a few times now, to develop and write feature film scripts.

Against all the odds of having to teach myself to write scripts, of having very few if any contacts, of starting from absolute scratch, i've done paid feature film writing assignments and have taught scriptwriting in London and Malaysia (amongst others) and I will continue to do so.

Of course I don't only write film scripts, I am churning out 'How To' ebooks (which i'm editing as we speak), I copywrite across web, print etc, but mainly I write Movie scripts.

Lol, this post is turning into a pitch and as a writer 'life's a pitch' but the gist of this is, when reading this, ask yourself what makes you happy?

And if you can answer that fundamental question, do more of it.

Regardless of what it is, regardless of whether anybody else thinks that it's the right thing to be doing, or whether they think that you can make money at it, and regardless whether you are actually any good at it (you'll get better the more you do of it).

None of that matters, what matters is finding happiness for yourself and then going from there.