# The Creative Mind

I learned something that day. Genuinely. And it's a lesson I want you all to apply to your writing, too.

OK isn’t good enough for me and shouldn’t be for you either. The idea is to send out your best work, and YOU need to be hard enough on yourself to be the ultimate judge of that.

Every decision we had to make for our own careers became a fight, and every fight became a huge question of whether we were going in the same direction.

But the way I see it, all fiction originates as fan fic in one way or another.

This is how I will heal what two years in L.A. have done to me.

... if we’re not doing the thing that makes us tick, are we really living to our potential and sending the right message to those that might be watching and emulating?

And there I was in the fancy office of a multi-million-dollar production house where I acted like a 10-year-old schoolboy sent to the principal’s office.

The more pressure you put on yourself, the less likely you are to write. Instead of setting huge daily/weekly goals, set goals that you can easily accomplish.

Not wanting to turn into a bitter (or incarcerated) adult, and also a seasoned aficionado of sugar, I suffered DEEPLY from bag envy.

You have to actually write a book to get better at writing books.

Stop focusing on all the things you haven't done, and start focusing on the things you have.

How do you trick yourself into believing that you can still do it? That you should keep going even if you know deep down in your soul you’re not going to “win” anymore?

We argue because our art form, screenwriting, is different from so many other types of writing. In screenwriting, form literally follows function.

Say no to life more. This is not the month to live, it’s the month to write.

Oh, how differently this "Thank you" reads from the one earlier—how bitter, how nostalgic. And truly, who can’t feel the dejection in that pitiful send-off "best of luck"?