4 ms·

A very successful screenwriter that I saw interviewed once said, “my goal is simply to write 10 bad pages every day.”

by jb1991 4y ago

dmitriid 4y ago
Stephen King writes 6 pages a day. Here's him talking about it with George R. R. Martin https://youtu.be/xR7XMkjDGw0 https://youtu.be/xR7XMkjDGw0
- theshrike79 4y ago
  Ahh GRRM, the patron saint of procrastinators :D I just realised that all of the Expanse books (9 + a bunch of novellas) AND the full 6 season TV show were written and released during the time GRRM has tried to write one damn book. And now that the GoT series went down the hill so fast that it's used as an example of something disappearing from the zeitgeist surprisingly fast, people don't even care about the books anymore - because the chance of getting the whole series finished is nearing 0.
  - Thorrez 4y ago
    >And now that the GoT series went down the hill so fast that it's used as an example of something disappearing from the zeitgeist surprisingly fast It looks to me like every season was more popular than the last[1]. Do you mean that just the end of the last season was bad, and it was so bad that people immediately stopped talking about it when it finished? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episodes#Series_overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episod...
    - Narretz 4y ago
      The quality of show declined as soon as the book material ran out but at the same time it was good enough for it to still grow in popularity. But yes, the last season / ending was so badly received that it irreparably damaged the show's legacy.
      - accountofme 4y ago
        Yeah, IIRC the show runners were contracted to do a star wars movie... They wanted to wrap up GoT and move on to that. Sadly, I think their failure to finish GoT properly screwed their star wars movie ambition too.... Edit: spelling
        988747 4y ago
        > Sadly, I think their failure to finish GoT properly screwed their star wars movie ambition too.... Why being sad about it? Seems like a proper punishment.
        accountofme 4y ago
        For them I guess ...
      - jkestner 4y ago
        The quality of the story, yes, but the filmmaking (and each episode _was_ a film by the end) got better. Someday I can hope that they do a writer’s cut, right after Martin’s contracted writer finishes the books. That was a damn good show for the most part.
    - probably_wrong 4y ago
      > Do you mean that just the end of the last season was bad, and it was so bad that people immediately stopped talking about it when it finished? I never watched the show, but the conversations my friends had about its last season match the conclusions of Lindsay Ellis' second video about GOT[1], namely, "yes, the ending has ruined it all". As she puts it: > What is the legacy of GOT going to be? Because there are endings that ruin a story in hindsight. I used to watch and rewatch the earlier seasons of the show. But now, knowing how it ends, knowing what they are building towards, knowing how nihilistic and stupid and mean it ends up being, there is just no enjoyment in the journey even anymore. Even in the very long process of making these two episodes, rewatching old GOT was just an exercise in frustration because you know now that the buildup that they are going towards has little or no payoff. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGr0NRx3TKU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGr0NRx3TKU
    - theshrike79 4y ago
      > Do you mean that just the end of the last season was bad, and it was so bad that people immediately stopped talking about it when it finished? Exactly this. Pretty much no other show has disappeared so completely from the zeitgest after it was over. People are actively not talking about it and aren't recommending it to their friends because of how very very very bad the last 1-2 seasons were. Regular fans without meta knowledge got pissed about the bad and ill-fitting ending to their favourite story. The one that they had watch-parties for and theoretised with their friends between episodes. Even during COVID lockdowns when everyone had watched everything on every streaming platform, no-one bothered to rewatch Game of Thrones. Mega-fans knew the behind the scene things. Like the fact that HBO was literally throwing money at Benioff & Weiss to make two more seasons in order to finish the story according to the original plan they agreed with and GRRM approved. But they wanted to go make a Star Wars trilogy instead so they rushed the ending. Which went so badly that Disney dropped them from the planned SW project. Now they're doing a Three Body Problem TV show for Tencent, because no western studio would hire them.
  - AlwaysRock 4y ago
    To be fair, GRRM has written multiple books during this time period. He's not cranking out .25 pages a day. He's just not writing the book everyone wants him to write.
- slothtrop 4y ago
  Yes, but it's also a 3-4 hour block if memory serves.

A very successful screenwriter that I saw interviewed once said, “my goal is simply to write 10 bad pages every day.”

by jb1991 4y ago

A very successful screenwriter that I saw interviewed once said, “my goal is simply to write 10 bad pages every day.”

Stephen King writes 6 pages a day. Here's him talking about it with George R. R. Martin https://youtu.be/xR7XMkjDGw0 https://youtu.be/xR7XMkjDGw0

theshrike79 4y ago
Ahh GRRM, the patron saint of procrastinators :D I just realised that all of the Expanse books (9 + a bunch of novellas) AND the full 6 season TV show were written and released during the time GRRM has tried to write one damn book. And now that the GoT series went down the hill so fast that it's used as an example of something disappearing from the zeitgeist surprisingly fast, people don't even care about the books anymore - because the chance of getting the whole series finished is nearing 0.
- Thorrez 4y ago
  >And now that the GoT series went down the hill so fast that it's used as an example of something disappearing from the zeitgeist surprisingly fast It looks to me like every season was more popular than the last[1]. Do you mean that just the end of the last season was bad, and it was so bad that people immediately stopped talking about it when it finished? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episodes#Series_overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Game_of_Thrones_episod...
  - Narretz 4y ago
    The quality of show declined as soon as the book material ran out but at the same time it was good enough for it to still grow in popularity. But yes, the last season / ending was so badly received that it irreparably damaged the show's legacy.
    - accountofme 4y ago
      Yeah, IIRC the show runners were contracted to do a star wars movie... They wanted to wrap up GoT and move on to that. Sadly, I think their failure to finish GoT properly screwed their star wars movie ambition too.... Edit: spelling
      - 988747 4y ago
        > Sadly, I think their failure to finish GoT properly screwed their star wars movie ambition too.... Why being sad about it? Seems like a proper punishment.
        accountofme 4y ago
        For them I guess ...
    - jkestner 4y ago
      The quality of the story, yes, but the filmmaking (and each episode _was_ a film by the end) got better. Someday I can hope that they do a writer’s cut, right after Martin’s contracted writer finishes the books. That was a damn good show for the most part.
  - probably_wrong 4y ago
    > Do you mean that just the end of the last season was bad, and it was so bad that people immediately stopped talking about it when it finished? I never watched the show, but the conversations my friends had about its last season match the conclusions of Lindsay Ellis' second video about GOT[1], namely, "yes, the ending has ruined it all". As she puts it: > What is the legacy of GOT going to be? Because there are endings that ruin a story in hindsight. I used to watch and rewatch the earlier seasons of the show. But now, knowing how it ends, knowing what they are building towards, knowing how nihilistic and stupid and mean it ends up being, there is just no enjoyment in the journey even anymore. Even in the very long process of making these two episodes, rewatching old GOT was just an exercise in frustration because you know now that the buildup that they are going towards has little or no payoff. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGr0NRx3TKU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGr0NRx3TKU
  - theshrike79 4y ago
    > Do you mean that just the end of the last season was bad, and it was so bad that people immediately stopped talking about it when it finished? Exactly this. Pretty much no other show has disappeared so completely from the zeitgest after it was over. People are actively not talking about it and aren't recommending it to their friends because of how very very very bad the last 1-2 seasons were. Regular fans without meta knowledge got pissed about the bad and ill-fitting ending to their favourite story. The one that they had watch-parties for and theoretised with their friends between episodes. Even during COVID lockdowns when everyone had watched everything on every streaming platform, no-one bothered to rewatch Game of Thrones. Mega-fans knew the behind the scene things. Like the fact that HBO was literally throwing money at Benioff & Weiss to make two more seasons in order to finish the story according to the original plan they agreed with and GRRM approved. But they wanted to go make a Star Wars trilogy instead so they rushed the ending. Which went so badly that Disney dropped them from the planned SW project. Now they're doing a Three Body Problem TV show for Tencent, because no western studio would hire them.
- AlwaysRock 4y ago
  To be fair, GRRM has written multiple books during this time period. He's not cranking out .25 pages a day. He's just not writing the book everyone wants him to write.
slothtrop 4y ago
Yes, but it's also a 3-4 hour block if memory serves.