Something needs to happen

As unlikely as it may seem to anyone who's met me, I ran a marathon a few years ago. And I've often thought that running and writing are sort of analogous.

Sometimes it comes smoothly. You feel that everything's working together to give you a momentum that propels you forward, sometimes even giving you time to relax and enjoy what you're doing.

Other times, it feels like each individual step is a crushing effort. You've got no rhythm and no momentum, and it's just a series of awkward, juddering lurches.

Anyway, at the moment, my writing (and my running, for that matter) feels very much like the latter.

For months I've been stalling on a rewrite of a feature script that a couple of people have expressed interest in seeing and which has the potential to be good.

Now it's got to the stage where I'm beginning to resent the script, because it's stopping me from getting on to more recent ideas that are currently exciting me more.

On top of all that, I found out yesterday that a good friend and sometime writing partner probably hasn't got much more than a couple of years to live.

I know it's a bit of a cliché for something like that to act as a call to action, but it's made me realise that I really need to 'detox' my writing routine and increase my productivity.

So, as much as I enjoy writing this blog, it's going to have to go on hold again. (Yeah, I know you've heard it all before).

I'm also going to try and cut out a lot of other (mostly online) distractions and return to the levels of productivity I enjoyed when I was jugging my MA and a full-time job.

I'm going to set myself the deadline of 31 October to knock up a decent third draft of my feature script. I've got it all outlined – I just need to plunge into the cold water and write the pages.

After that, I'm juggling with the notion of giving NaNoWriMo a go, based on a comic script I wrote about 15 years ago, even though we're planning to go to LA for a week in November.

I enjoy screenwriting, but I've been reading more and giving my prose muscles a bit of a workout recently, and fancy giving another form a try.

Hopefully I'll then be able to come back to screenwriting with a new strategy and fresh energy and enthusiasm.

So, thanks (again) to anyone who's been reading this. If you want to keep in touch, please make contact via Twitter (@TomeenMurphy) or FaceBook (www.facebook.com/TomMurphyUK).