GOAL SETTING & WRITING TIPS

GOALS: Each January, I set writing goals for the year. In 2024, I set a goal to write one script per month. I finished the year with six screenplays and six TV pilots (while holding down a full-time job). As I wrote the scripts, I entered them in contests, mostly via Filmfreeway.com. I ended up winning 14 contests in 2024 and 2025. This would have never happened if I hadn’t set what seemed like an impossible goal. I knew I had to write fast and keep judgment to a minimum. My goal was to finish scripts — not to write great scripts. But I learned while working on each one, so the scripts seemed to get better as I moved along.

TIPS: To keep up with this pace, I had to write a certain number of pages per day. A one-hour TV pilot is 50-60 pages, so if I wrote five or six pages a day, I could finish a script in around 10 days (for me, mainly evenings and weekends), then spend the rest of the month living with the script and editing it. The same principle applies to screenplays, which usually come in at 90-120 pages. But what happened when I wanted to stop after writing three or four pages a day? I kept going, even though I felt written-out, tired, or blank. I told myself “just write anything to make your page count for the day.” What I found was that when I pushed myself beyond what I thought were my limits, I often came up with some of the most memorable parts of the script — maybe because I was able to get out of the way and just let it flow.

Happy writing to all in 2026!