How to prepare for those *bad* days as a writer?

When it comes to being a writer, probably everyone has moments when you can't stand your own writing. No matter who you are, there are moments when you just lose it and feel that you can't manage to get anything right.

This is especially true when it comes to projects that are demanding and time consuming. When you're dealing with projects that take months to complete, it's almost guaranteed that you'll have moments when everything seems to fall apart. 

So when it comes to these 'meltdown' moments - that might even lead to throwing away your script -  you should be prepared for them. Even though you can't prevent these bad days from happening, you can certainly be prepared for them. 

Below are the most important tips for those who tend to have these really awful days as a writer. Following these simple tips will help you and will likely prevent you from doing anything too stupid during your writing projects.

1) Make sure you have a writing schedule that isn't too tight.

If it's only possible, make sure that you reserve enough time for your writing projects. You should have a writing schedule that allows you to make mistakes and that leaves you enough time to get everything (at least most of the things) figured out.

After all, everyone - no matter how talented or experienced you are - makes mistakes as a writer. No one is able to everything right in their first draft, no matter how hard you might be willing to work on your precious project.

In my case, even though I have a pretty tight writing routine, I try to give myself enough time to figure things out. I reserve at least two days for my articles, at least two weeks for my television scripts and a month / several months for movie / book writing projects.

2) Don't write or read your script when you're too tired.

This point should be fairly obvious, but in reality cannot be emphasized enough. If you're too stressed and tired from other things in life, you shouldn't be forcing yourself to write or read demanding stuff if it looks like things won't go your way.

After all, if you're too tired, there's a good chance that you'll freak out and start 'panic editing' your script - especially during a rewrite phase. In these cases you'll make horrible editing choices, and will make your script worse.

In my case, especially if I have had to speak in front of an audience during the day (I'm an introvert) and have had other exhausting tasks, I try not to write much that day. I try to take it easy and work on something else so that things won't get out of control.

3) Know the difference between big and small mistakes.

Even though no one likes making mistakes, you should be able to differentiate big mistakes from relatively small ones. There's clearly a difference between making a big structural mistake and making a simple typo in your screenplay.

After all, no matter how surprised you might be that missed a tiny typo, there's no point in freaking out over these mistakes. 99% of the time, they don't really lessen the value of your script, even though you might be thinking that at first.

In my case, I have tried not to get too bothered about small mistakes anymore. I know that they are easy to fix and even if I don't manage to notice them, those who read my script later won't care about them that much either.

4) Know how to use writing tools / writing software.

One of the things that I have only learned lately is that writing programs have pretty sophisticated 'undo' buttons. It's possible to go back all the way to your first edit of your current session, which can turn out to be really useful.

After all, there are times when you spend hours rewriting stuff without making your script any better. In these cases simply clicking the 'undo'-button will fairly quickly get you back to your earlier draft and you can take another shot at your project.

In my case, especially with my never ending book project, this undo-button has been a real life saver. It has allowed me go back to an earlier version of a draft / paragraph when I haven't managed to improve my draft during a writing session.

5) Remember to take enough copies of your script.

Furthermore, now that pretty much everyone uses a personal computer, saving and taking copies of your script has never been easier. You don't need to use a typewriter and a printer to get extra copies of your manuscript anymore.

The reason to have multiple copies of your scripts on different platforms is to prevent any 'accidents' from happening. If something happens to your copy of the script - laptop breaks down or you'll have an emotional breakdown - you'll have your backups.

In my case, I have multiple copies of my script on both my desktop and my laptop. I upload drafts of my screenplays to my email account and to my google drive, in case something unexpected would happen to my pc or to myself.

6) Understand that you can't always control everything.

In the end, when you put it all together, it's really important that you know that you can't always control things as a writer. Your mind will sometimes pull all kinds of tricks on you and you can't always rely on your brain to work.

After all, there are days when your brain simply won't agree to co-operate with you - no matter how good things might seem at first. There are going to be days when you won't write good stuff regardless of how 'prepared' you might be.

In that sense, the faster you notice that you need to take a break, the better. The faster you understand that you won't able to get things done that day, the easier it is to walk away from the situation and do something else instead.

'Incredibles 2' was a pretty disappointing movie.

When it comes to watching movies, I don't usually have high expectations for most films that are out there. In most cases I tend to keep my expectations relatively low, so that I wouldn't get too disappointed when I see these movies. 

The only exception to this 'rule' is when we're talking about animated films. In these cases I know that most of the time I'm going to see a fairly solid, well made movie that is going to entertain me and keep me happy. 

So naturally, when I was about to watch an animated film called 'Incredibles 2' last week, I knew there was a good chance that I was going to like it. The movie had gotten great reviews and the first one in the franchise had been pretty okay too.

Unfortunately, when it comes to this second film, I have to say that I did not like it that much. Even though most critics gave the film a positive review (94% at rottentomatoes.com), I had a really hard time enjoying the movie.

The biggest reason that I didn't like 'Incredibles 2' had to do with the film's story. The screenplay for the movie was really weak and didn't warrant its almost two hour running time (2 hours and 5 minutes with credits).

By that I mean that there simply wasn't much of a story in the movie. The main storyline, in which the mother character becomes a reality star in order to 'save' the heroes and make them legal, was just too weak and didn't go anywhere.

In reality, pretty much all the story beats in the movie were severely lacking. Especially then ones that happened after the film's catalyst - when the family moves in to the producer's house - were genuinely terrible and awful.

For example, the subplot in which the father - 2nd act's 'fun & games' beat - parenting their kids was super tired and even sexist. There was no fun at all in this storyline, which didn't really seem to have any point whatsoever.

The other pretty terrible arc in the movie had to do with the scenes involving their daughter. The subplot with the daughter and her 'boyfriend' felt really half baked and was just badly written (especially the 'Men in Black' stuff).

Still, the weakest part of the movie had to do with the main storyline involving the family mother trying to catch the 'hypnotizer' villain. This was merely a collection of haphazard sequences, where we tried to find out who the bad guy was.

What was especially bad about this storyline was the identity of the villain. The mandatory villain being the producer's sister made so little sense that I more or less wanted to throw random objects at my television screen.

After all, even after the villainess gave a long monologue to the mother about her 'motive' (she hated super heroes), the stuff made no sense at all. It was simply shocking how amateurishly the story arc was written in the film.

In that sense, when you think about the movie as a whole, it's unfortunate that this was the best that the writers of the film were able to do. This was the best that they were able to come up with fourteen years after the first film premiered.

After all, as far as I can remember, the first 'Incredibles' movie was a rather well made animated film. The first one was a solid depiction of a family trying to balance their lives between being a normal family and a family of super heroes.

On the other hand, when it comes to this new movie, 'Incredibles 2' turned out to be a pretty big disappointment. It didn't manage to bring anything new to the table that would have made me care about the film or its characters.

On the contrary, pretty much all this film did was recycle tired ideas that we've all seen before. It put out half-baked story ideas that weren't good enough and that didn't have enough energy to keep us interested in what was going on.

In that sense, if you haven't yet seen 'Incredibles 2' yet, you might not want to see it. At the very least you shouldn't be getting your hopes up and think that this is going to be an awesome movie that is going to keep you entertained.

After all, despite the film's critical praise, there were too many flaws in the film. These flaws, like the movie being too long and the focus being all over the place, were mistakes that were too serious and that at least in my case, prevented me from enjoying the film.

'Bohemian Rhapsody' is a really good movie.

A couple of days ago me and my friend had a chance to watch 'Bohemian Rhapsody', a biographical movie about the band 'Queen' and its singer, Freddie Mercury. We saw the movie after getting tickets to the film's premiere last Saturday.

The reason that we decided to watch the film wasn't actually that obvious. I didn't feel that excited about watching the biopic, since a lot of the movie critics hadn't liked the movie that much (only 59% fresh on Rottentomatoes.com).

Nevertheless, having now seen 'Bohemian Rhapsody', it has to be said that the film was much better than I expected. It was so good that I don't really understand why critics thought that the movie was somehow lacking and wasn't good enough.

After all, critics - for some weird reason - have complained that movie isn't all that great as a whole. The story in the film is supposedly too 'formulaic',  it doesn't show enough of Freddie's 'dark side' and doesn't make him 'gay enough' either.

The biggest problem that I have with these kind of critiques is that they - in my opinion - miss the point of the film completely. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' was not produced so that it could be as dramatic or as serious (depressing) as possible.

In reality, the film was made so that it could be as entertaining as possible and that it could make people feel good about themselves. It wasn't going to be another 'Freddie's got Aids' movie that the critics were hoping for.

So when it comes to the story in the movie, even though the film is genuinely dramatic in parts and depicts Freddie (Rami Malek) as a gay man (or bisexual), that's not all there is to it. The focus is a lot more on the band and how it became so successful.

Indeed, this decision to pay attention to all the characters works really well. The movie concentrating on the group dynamics of the band and their creative process works much better than just focusing on Freddie's private life.

After all, throughout the movie there's a really nice balance between the cast members and it manages to keep the dramatic and the comedic elements balanced. This harmony in the story gives the movie its much needed energy and its uplifting tone.

In that sense, I can't help but to think that had the film been about Freddie and had it been too serious, it probably wouldn't have worked. The filmmakers wouldn't have managed to capture what made the band work so well together.

After all, had the critics had gotten their way, we probably would have gotten a miserable 'art' film instead. We would have gotten a movie about all the bad moments in Freddie Mercury's life, that would have only been liked by the critics.

In the end, thankfully 'Bohemian Rhapsody's' turned out to be as good as it did. We are lucky that we got a film that is so full of positive energy and that didn't take its audience for granted when it comes to entertaining us.

After all, especially when it comes to scenes where the band performs songs (like in 'Live Aid'), those moments were absolutely incredible. The energetic songs fit in perfectly with the rest of the movie and made the film what it is.

In that sense, if you haven't seen the movie yet, you should see it. You should see the film, because even though critics didn't like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' that much, at least in my view, the film was superbly made and managed to exceed all my expectations.