Joshua James, whose screenplay Jones Party just received a positive review at Scriptshadow, did an interview today. It's full of great information from a guy in the trenches who works his ass off.

There are a couple of gems that I found myself nodding like crazy to as I read them:


I'd been given the following advice early on, and I should have heeded it but didn't, said advice being: It's better to have no representation than it is to have bad representation or the wrong representation.

I scoffed at this at the time, but now I can see that's indeed true. I should have stopped worrying about agents and focused harder on my work. If you write enough scripts that people love, you'll find the right people to represent you. 


Having been in a similar situation, I could not agree more. I have no regrets about walking away from a situation that didn't work (not a bad manager, just not the right one for me at that time), even if it means I had to start all over with the search.

And then he said this, about making time to write:


You have until the end of your life, but when is that? Fifty years. Ten? A week? Tomorrow? No one knows, right?

My friend Scott Myers has said, "Writing doesn't owe anyone a living" and that's so very true, so if you're doing it, do it because you love it, and try (this is hard) to write like there's no tomorrow. 

I feel guilty if I don't write for a long time.  Even if I'm not typing pages, I'm ALWAYS workshopping something in my head. In the shower, in the car, as I'm trying to fall asleep at night, any down time I have I spend working on my story because I don't want to waste anymore time than I already have.

It's a really good, informative interview, and he also has a great rant about passion that filled me with loving feelings. Check it out.