Writing a book can be an exhausting process.

When it comes to writing projects that take a lot effort, it's not exactly a secret that making them work isn't usually that easy. In most cases it takes a lot of effort, rewrites and re-evaluations before the quality of the project can be as good as possible. 

After all, the more demanding and the more time consuming your project is, the more difficult it is to make every aspect of the task work. You cannot expect things to work immediately, no matter how good or talented you might be as a writer.

So the reason that I'm writing about this is that I have had some problems in my own book writing project. I think it's pretty clear that it has been an exhausting process to deliver stuff that meets certain quality standards and that is good enough.

In practice, one of the best indicators of this is that I haven't really felt that good about the quality of the book. At no point did I feel completely confident about the overall quality, even though the script had already been proofread and was well received too.

After all, among other things, I felt that the pacing of the story wasn't good enough and that the structure in the book version was lacking. The chapters were too rushed and in some cases clearly didn't have a balanced beginning, middle and end.

Furthermore, even though the story as a whole was well thought out, I felt that there was content in the adaptation (the story is based on my movie script) that perhaps didn't fit in tonally. There were some 'comedic' and 'ironic' scenes that just didn't work.

What made the process so gruelling is that even though I tried my best to rewrite and keep pushing with the project, my rewrites just weren't good enough. I didn't manage to spot all the problems even though the book kept getting somewhat better.

Fortunately, once I managed to take a complete break from the project during the summer (more than two months) this helped to clear my thoughts. This 'lucky' break gave me a chance to think about something else than writing.

Not surprisingly, once I got back to writing, I managed to get things done. I managed to do things like make the book longer (by 25%), give the chapters a better pacing and even kill some of those 'darlings' from the script that didn't work in the book version.

As a whole, all these good things happened because I finally took a long break and managed to give up on some of those stubborn ideas that I was desperately clinging on to. I had finally accepted that certain things in the story needed to be adjusted or changed.

In that sense, when I take a look at this project as a whole, it's pretty clear that writing good stuff is not just about putting in the hard work and putting in the hours. You shouldn't rely too much on your almighty persistence to fix your problems.

After all, even though it's crucial to have a good writing routine and to have a good work ethic, you should remember that simply pushing hard won't always be enough. There are other factors too that affect your success as a writer.

In the end, especially in my case, had I not taken a break from writing three months ago, there's no chance that I would have written something decent. There's no chance that I would have managed to get the book in a shape that is 'good' enough.

After all, even though I did try my best, before the break I was entirely too married to some of my ideas and wasn't able to see the forest for the trees. I wasn't able to understand that the book wasn't finished and that I still needed to make some changes.

In that sense, if your task doesn't seem to go well either, you should try giving yourself a break too. You should try that break, because even though taking it might not be easy, there's a good chance that it works and that it's something that will actually work for you.

Movies that I've managed to see lately.

Even though I've lately been busy doing other things, this week me and my friend found time to watch some films that have been recently released on dvd. We watched some movies after having not seeing anything in the last couple of months.

In order to entertain ourselves, we gave a chance to three recent movies. We watched a Transformers spin-off movie 'Bumblebee', a female 'Superbad' film 'Booksmart' and 'Mary Poppins Returns', a remake of the classic movie from the 60s.

So the first movie that we watched is 'Bumblebee', a Transformers spin-off that had received pretty solid reviews. This was supposed to be a film that gets the series back on track after all those terrible movies in the series.

After all, it's not exactly a secret that every Transformers film after the first one has been more or less completely unwatchable. There hasn't been any real 'story' in these cgi-films that have been all about mindless action and explosions. 

Fortunately, 'Bumblebee' as a spin-off works surprisingly well and doesn't repeat the mistakes of the sequels and works as a stand alone movie.  Instead of taking its audience for granted, it pays attention to its premise and its origins.

Indeed, when I watched the movie with my friend, we couldn't help but to notice that the film does a good job in being 'childlike'. The story is entertaining and pays attention to all those things that can make a script work.

Still, the biggest star in the movie (even though the actors do a good job) is definitely the 'Bumblebee' character itself. As an audience member, you can't help but to find the 'machine' to be likable and you can't help but to feel for it over the course of the film.

In that sense, if you're like me and so many others who gave up on the series a long time ago, 'Bumblebee' is certainly a movie that you should watch. It's well made, entertaining, funny and as a whole, manages to put you on a better mood. 

The second movie that we watched is 'Mary Poppins Returns'. This is a movie that I had wanted to watch for quite some time, because I thought that there was a good chance that watching it would be fun and that the film would lift my spirits.

After all, even though I can't remember much about the original 'Mary Poppins', it was likely that the remake wouldn't disappoint either. Those responsible for the musical would do their best to respect the spirit of the original and make it as good as possible.

So when me and my friend watched the film, it didn't take long before we fell in love with the world of the film and its universe. There's just something special about the story of the flying nanny who comes to help those in need.

After all, over the course of the film I couldn't help but to enjoy how entertaining and immersive everything was. The characters, the action scenes and the musical pieces were great, even though I'm usually not a big fan of musicals.  

Not surprisingly, when it comes to the acting in the film, the cast is also wonderful. Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack and the rest (Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury) are just superb in their roles.

In hindsight, the only real problem with the film has to do with its screenplay that is a tiny bit lacking in certain places. Especially when we reach the third act in the movie, it feels that the story doesn't 'turn' well enough and the drama is a bit too clumsy.

Still, when I think of the movie as a whole, it's clear that this is a fun movie. 'Mary Poppins' is an uplifting movie that I would recommend for everyone who wants to feel like a child again and who doesn't want to take everything in life too seriously. 

The third and the final movie that we watched with my friend is 'Booksmart', a comedy starring Johan Hill's sister Beanie Feldstein. This a film that I thought we needed to watch based on its positive reviews by the movie critics. 

After all, since the movie had a really good rating - a solid 97% fresh on Rottentomatoes.com - we more or less had to give it a chance. Clearly this film had to be at least somewhat watchable and not completely hopeless. 

So when it comes to the movie, 'Booksmart' is pretty much a female version of 'Superbad'. Almost every aspect of the film (story beats, premise  and the overall theme 'desperation') mirrors the 'original' version pretty closely.

Not surprisingly, when you watch the film and its characters, it's difficult not to see Jonah Hill in Feldstein's character. They clearly resemble each other and have many of the same manners and characteristics as actors.

Qualitywise, I managed to like the movie more than my friend did.  The film - even though formulaic and episodic - was funny in places and was better than some of the other female comedies that have been released lately (Ghostbusters, Bridesmaids etc.). 

Still, when it comes the film as a whole, I'm not sure that it is necessarily worth all its critical praise. It isn't in my opinion necessarily any better or different than movies that we've already seen many times ('Superbad', 'Harold & Kumar'). 

In that sense, whether you'll like 'Booksmart' really depends on your taste in movies. There's a chance that you'll like it, but there's also a chance that you don't find it entertaining and that it won't be worth your time.