by Jenna | Jun 19, 2025 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m responding to two readers in response to their submissions to a recent reader survey I conducted.
Their comments and questions coalesced around balancing writing with the rest of a busy life:
“I am struggling with balancing writing with life. I know what I need to do but similar to dieting, there is bingeing then over-compliance. It’s hard to make the habit work with so much to do.”
“I’ve not written in a LONG time — it feels like life events overwhelm me — I’m just not motivated.”
Especially if writing is an optional endeavor—at least in the sense that we’re writing on spec and not being paid (yet!) to write—it’s not easy to balance with the rest of life. Even professional working writers can find writing swallowing up or at least significantly impacting their personal lives, from what I’ve seen.
In the article, I discuss the challenges these writers are facing and then explore some possible strategies and solutions to consider when dealing with a busy life, a propensity to binge, avoid, or overly comply, and a lack of motivation to write.
Solutions:
1. Structure.
2. Rock bottom minimum writing targets.
3. Not to exceed guidelines.
4. The passion rule.
5. Three big rocks.
Much like a screenplay benefits from a proper structure, so do you as a writer. Structure is a container for a story. A writing practice is a container for your writing. It makes a place for writing to be a part of your life. If you don’t have this kind of structure, or container, you have to struggle daily with the “when” and “if” of writing, rather than it being a given.
Want the full scoop? Get all the details in the full article on Script Mag:
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by Jenna | May 15, 2025 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m responding to two readers in response to their submissions to a recent reader survey I conducted. Their comments and questions coalesced around dealing with distractions from writing:
“I’m struggling most with distractions and interruptions.”
“I am having a hard time writing between family distractions and self-doubt.”
In the article, I focus on distractions in terms of tasks, logistics, and awareness, as well as interruptions and physical challenges, and explore what we can do to corral them and keep them from overtaking our writing:
1. Give tasks a place to live.
2. Create a time to complete tasks.
3. Give logistics their due.
4. Recognize the emotional and mental load you’re carrying.
5. Build protections and resilience around interruptions.
6. Take care of your physical well-being.
7. Cut out the truly unimportant sidetracks.
Drill down into what’s truly important to you and make sure you’re eliminating everything not on that list, so you can focus on what you’re called to do: write.
Want the full scoop? Get all the details in the full article on Script Mag:
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by Jenna | Apr 17, 2025 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m responding to a writer who’s commented about feeling like they’ve stalled around writing.
“I’ve made so much progress with my draft but… I’ve just stalled again, and I have no idea why. I’m just not FEELING it right now. What gives?”
Whew, yes. SO many writers I’ve spoken to recently are feeling similarly. In the article, I unpack some of the possibilities for underlying causes and then brainstorm how to recover from the stall.
Why Writers Stall
1. All the *everything* right now is zapping you.
2. Personal life stuff is getting to you.
3. You’re reacting to a mountain (or an iceberg) in your story.
4. You’ve lost confidence in yourself as a writer.
5. You feel overwhelmed by the quantity of work ahead.
6. Your writing practice has been disrupted and resistance has crept in.
How to Recover From a Stall
1. Write for a little tiny bit, right now.
2. Write morning pages.
3. Write about writing.
4. Rewrite your fears and doubts.
5. Calm your fight or flight response.
6. Carve out a space for just writing.
7. Check your priorities.
8. Reclaim your sense of self as a writer.
9. Use writing as your refuge, if you can.
10. Show up anyway.
Usually, avoiding or stalling is a symptom of something else going on deeper down. Solving it often requires a combination of personal work and finding ways to sneak (or trick ourselves) back into writing.
Want the full scoop? Get all the details in the full article on Script Mag:
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by Jenna | Jan 22, 2025 | Writing Articles
When I first started writing fiction regularly (screenwriting, specifically), our first child was quite young — like 3 ½. I really had to “steal” time to make writing happen, mostly from my own sleep schedule (thankfully he was sleeping by that age so at least I wasn’t sleep deprived anymore and could “afford” it).
I got up every day at 6 a.m. to write for about an hour while my husband played with him and got him ready for the day, then I’d hang out with him for a while and take him to preschool. The rest of the day was for my “day job” (my work as a coach).
Later, during an extremely difficult personal life phase, I wrote a script in 15 minutes a day, often late at night just before bed. It took me about 6 months, but given the adversity I was facing, I was thrilled with the accomplishment.
Despite my progress and success (I was hired to write an original script for a producer-director based on a writing sample), I was longing for longer writing days.
Long writing days, or not?
Ironically though, pre-kids, long writing days did NOT work well for me, not at all.
If anything, they were abject failures.
Before having kids, I used to set aside every Friday as a full writing day.
And then when Friday would roll around I would do ANYTHING ELSE other than write.
Turns out those long stretches were stopping me from writing, by triggering huge amounts of fear and resistance. I didn’t understand that at the time. (The other challenge was the infrequency, but that’s a story for another time.)
I see this same issue come up around long writing days for my clients and community members too, especially for those who are retired, don’t have a separate day job, or who are trying to set aside big chunks of writing time. They often struggle to write.
Big blocks of writing time can trigger big time resistance.
It turns out those big blocks of writing time — as much as we say and believe we want and need them — can spark proportionate amounts of resistance and “blocking energy.”
Big blocks of time (often) => big blocks of resistance.
This is why writing for smaller increments of time can be hugely beneficial when building or rebuilding a writing practice.
And yet, … and yet!
Those big blocks of time are so satisfying! … when they work.
Especially while I’ve been in creative recovery over the last two years, I’ve found I need to write differently. I can’t and don’t want to “write on command” the way I could and had to when my kids were little.
I need and want those long days.
The magic of making space for “sideways drift.”
I especially need and want time for “sideways drift” built into my writing days, so I can get up and wander, ponder, shower, drift, walk, imagine, brainstorm, explore, and journal as needed. I’m also allowing myself time and space to “find” my way to the page each day. Sometimes this looks like goofing off, but it’s mainly about getting myself into the state I want to be in to write. Sometimes I’m listening to music, tidying up, or taking care of distracting tasks (something I used to avoid). The net effect is that I’m shifting from kid-focused morning time over to Jenna-focused writing time.
This helps me move into a potent, liminal space that opens up story ideas and possibilities unlike anything else.
I also want enough time to get something on the page, too, in addition to the drift space.
In order to have both, I’m back to designing long writing days into my schedule now.
My sideways drift approach to these long days means fear and doubt don’t get triggered the same way any longer. Partly this is because I’m not currently using definitive time, word, or page goals (though they can be useful tools at the right time).
Instead I’m focusing on progress wherever I am in the process with a particular story.
For example, with the script I’m currently working on, I’m in the midst of reverse outlining the story so I can evaluate it for a rewrite. I’ll keep working on that each writing day until it’s complete, then move on to the next step.
Taking the focus off specific goals and putting it on making progress overall takes the pressure off me, and makes more space for that magical sideways drift.
So does setting aside long days to write.
It’s a kind of double magic: long days plus space to get into a liminal flow state.
Bliss.
by Jenna | Apr 19, 2024 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m responding to a question from a reader about managing procrastination.
Dear Jenna, I struggle with procrastination and getting started writing. I want to write, but each day I wrestle with myself to get started. When I do finally get around to writing, I feel so much better. But I hate all the time I’m wasting. What can I do to get myself to work faster?
First, you’re not alone. Many writers struggle with procrastination, if not all, at least at some point in their writing lives.
Procrastination is one of the many ways fear manifests for writers, along with perfectionism, paralysis, self-doubt, negative self-esteem, and more. These are all forms of writing “resistance,” which is an oppositional force artists, writers, creatives, and entrepreneurs face. It works hard to keep us “safe” from taking risks, usually based on past and childhood experiences that have taught us to avoid certain kinds of exposure or self-expression. Procrastination — putting off doing the work — is a way of managing the fear and anxiety we feel.
Unfortunately, procrastination is like a band-aid on top of an infected wound. Because procrastinating doesn’t resolve the underlying anxiety or fear, it simply delays it. If anything, even while procrastinating, we’re still walking around with a (low, sometimes) level of fear and anxiety.
The beautiful thing is that writing is the ultimate cure-all for the fear once we can get ourselves to take the actions and do the work.
In my response, I discuss ten strategies for dealing with procrastination:
- Tell yourself you only have to write for X minutes.
- Find a deadline or goal for your work.
- Reverse-engineer a timeline.
- Give yourself permission to start over.
- Write early or late.
- Focus on showing up.
- “Find” writing.
- Trust your inner voice.
- Focus on how you feel when you’ve written.
- Recognize the underlying fear.
When you’re struggling to write, remind yourself how good you feel when you’re engaged with the purely creative act and process of writing, regardless of the outcome or result.
Want the full scoop? Get all the details in the full article on Script Mag:
