From Joss Whedon, some great nitty-gritty advice (sprinkled with characteristic Whedon wit) about being prolific, or trying to, or... er... bribing oneself to:
REWARD YOURSELF EARLY AND OFTEN
Whedon has acknowledged the ironic fact that he hasn’t finished Getting Things Done. And he has mentioned eating dessert first. So I must ask, “Is dessert a metaphor?”
“No,” he replies. “No, I’m saying give me cake. Why didn’t you bring cake? Didn’t they explain how these things work?” And then he gets serious, more or less. “I have a reward system. I am the monkey with the pellet and it’s so bad that I write almost everything in restaurants or cafes [so] that when I have an idea, I go and get chocolate." He doesn’t wait to flesh out the idea and then reward himself, he rewards himself simply for having the idea. "I’ll write it down and then get some chocolate. I have the idea, I get my pellet . . . I mean I’m terrible. I don’t put that on the list because that’s not advice. That’s something I’m seeking help for. It’s a vice and it’s different than advice."
Oh, come on, you’re obviously making it work.
“But I could be better. I can make it work better and I’m trying to teach myself more discipline because when you have children and you are an artist, you already have more than fills a day. I would also like to have friends, hobbies, maybe read a book sometime.”
Read the whole article here! It's a good'un.
The man has no shortage of ideas, so my takeaway is that he must have the metabolism of a hummingbird. Or he's exagerating. But probably the former.
See you Sunday! With your stories! About fifth floors, or lack thereof!