Every January, the same ritual plays out. We feel obligated to make New Year’s resolutions for the year to come, putting added pressure and anxiety on our normal day-to-day tasks as life makes it more and more difficult to follow through on the huge and overly-optimistic swings we take.
For screenwriters, the resolutions are always overly-bold. Finish more scripts. Write every day. Get repped. Sell a script. Get hired for a pro writing assignment. Make it all happen in the New Year.
And then, quietly, many of those resolutions fade. Why? Because it’s difficult to finish a lot of scripts. It’s hard to write every single day when you also need to juggle life, work, health, friends, and family.
But it’s not because the goals were too lofty - it’s because the framework you laid out to accomplish those goals wasn’t set.
Resolutions carry a lot of weight. They imply imperfection, pressure, and a kind of all-or-nothing commitment that doesn’t align with how screenwriting careers actually play out. Screenwriters can only control the output they offer. Getting repped, selling scripts, and being hired for pro writing assignments are out of a screenwriter’s control, beyond having amazing screenplays to showcase.
When a resolution begins to fade, the motivation often fades with it. Optimistic momentum becomes guilt and shame. Progress turns into self-criticism.
But screenwriters still need goals, structure, direction, and purpose.
The solution isn’t to abandon the ambition that comes with making resolutions - it’s about replacing rigid resolutions with productive systems, clear intent, and forward-moving habits that keep you working even when the buzz of resolution motivation drips.
With that in mind, here we offer an anti-resolution approach screenwriters can take to focus and spread out their hopes, dreams, and screenwriting aspirations throughout not just the New Year, but through their whole career.
Why Resolutions Fail Screenwriters
Traditional resolutions from screenwriters are outcome-driven.
- Write every day.
- Finish more screenplays.
- Get repped.
- Sell a script.
- Get hired for pro assignments.
These types of resolutions focus on what you want without addressing how you accomplish them. That’s why most screenwriters fail to live up to their declarations of New Year’s resolutions.
A successful screenwriting career isn’t linear. It involves false starts, failure, rejection, rewrites, creative uncertainty, life obligations getting in the way, learning from mistakes made, learning from successes gained, adapting to the needs and wants of the industry, and ever-evolving creative processes.
When you don’t have progress that matches your ideal resolution timelines, resolutions begin to feel like personal failures instead of growth. That type of pressure doesn’t make you more productive - it makes you more prone to avoidance and retreat.
Replace Resolutions with Intent
Intent is very different from making resolutions.
- A resolution says, “This must happen.”
- Intent says, “This is where I’m aiming.”
Intent gives you so much more purpose without turning any minor or major progress into a test of your worth as a screenwriter. When you set different levels of intent, you are creating direction rather than added pressure.
Instead of making concrete resolutions, declare some intent for the year to come:
- “I’m going to see how many scripts I can finish this year compared to last.”
- “I’m going to have a bigger marketing push later in the year for my strongest scripts.”
- “I’m going to learn how to write faster and finish screenplay projects better while doing so.”
Intent works more like a compass than a scoreboard. You’re still moving forward and getting better, but now without the psychological trap of needing to be perfect in your execution (especially with so many elements of success that are out of your control).
Think in Seasons, Not Years
One of the biggest problems with New Year’s resolutions is scale. A year feels massive. Twelve months can feel so abstract as progress becomes more and more difficult to track with so many days, weeks, and months. The next thing you know, you’ve failed to meet the high expectations you’ve put on yourself.
As an alternative anti-resolution approach, try to think in creative seasons. Ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish in the next few days or weeks?”
Forget about big picture swings like selling a script or finally being discovered by the industry. Instead, focus on something specific, achievable, and actionable:
- Write a polish draft for your best script from last year so you can ready it for a marketing push.
- Go into development mode and write down twenty loglines in search of great and compelling concepts for your next script.
- Change your writing process as you begin a new script by challenging yourself to write faster and better at the same time.
- Train yourself to write like a pro by writing under normal contract deadlines (1-2 months to finish a script).
- Take a few weeks to focus on marketing your best and most marketable script by doing cold queries to see if anyone bites.
When you work under shorter timeframes, you can create urgency without overwhelming yourself or setting yourself up for failure.
It’s all about turning ambition into action.
Focus on Output, Not New Identity Goals
When you make resolutions, you’re creating new identity goals that can be hard to live up to.
- “I will be a more disciplined writer who writes every day.”
- “I will be a more productive screenwriter.”
- “I will be a more successful screenwriter.”
Well…
- What if daily work, friends, and family duties get in the way of writing every single day?
- What if you’re struggling creatively and aren’t as productive as you wanted to be?
- What if you write amazing scripts but Hollywood isn’t biting?
Identity is far too abstract. Controlling your output is more productive and meaningful. Think of it this way:
- Instead of trying to be a better writer, focus on writing better.
- Instead of trying to be a more successful writer, focus on writing more things that increase your odds of becoming more successful.
There’s a difference. Do you see it?
You can’t just decide to be a better writer. You need to focus on the output for that to happen. You need to make mistakes and learn from them. You need to find your triumphs and learn from them. You need to find a process that works best for you to meet those future identity goals.
You can’t just decide to be a more successful writer. You don’t have control over every aspect of that identity. Someone within the industry needs to give you that success. What you do have control of is creating the output necessary to make success a possibility - and your odds of success go up with more output in the form of stacking your deck with excellent screenplays.
Focus on the output.
- Concepts chosen wisely
- Pages written
- Scenes completed
- Finishing under pro-like deadlines
- Allowing some distance after finishing
- Focusing on other projects during that time away
- Returning to a script and reading it cover-to-cover
- Apply rewrites, notes, feedback
Do the work. Learn, grow, and evolve as a screenwriter.
Create a System Instead of Trying to Deliver on a Promise
Again, it’s not what you want to do, accomplish, and become - it’s about how you work towards those things.
When you create a system, you’re developing something that you can always turn to even when motivation fades.
Writing systems could include:
- A consistent writing window
- Focusing on writing sessions over writing time
- Focusing on meeting page goals instead of time goals
Following a system is less about the need for self-discipline and more about participation. When your writing becomes more of a routine instead of this lofty idea of heroic effort to accomplish a life-changing goal, productivity becomes more sustainable.
Messy Progress Is Still Progress
Progress is never linear. Resolutions call for progress to be linear, but the truth is that life will always get in the way. When it does, and you fail to accomplish a resolution you’ve declared, progress and motivation will crumble like a house of cards.
Don’t be afraid to have your progress be messy and non-linear.
- Some weeks you’ll fly
- Other weeks you’ll fail
- Some weeks you’ll stall
- Other weeks your output will be like a flood of creativity
- Some scripts and drafts will click
- Others will fight you
Messy progress is still progress - and it’s progress without the despair and shame because you can easily adapt without tumbling the tower of some big New Year’s declaration.
The anti-resolution mindset allows for imperfection without quitting. You don’t “break your year” because you miss a week. You just progress forward no matter what has come your way.
Deadlines Still Matter
Anti-resolution doesn’t mean anti-deadline. It’s about flexible structure instead of rigid promises you make for yourself.
Let’s face it. If you want to be a pro screenwriter, you’re going to have to create a systematic process that helps you meet deadlines. When you’re writing on spec - under speculation that you’re going to sell the script to someone or use it as a writing sample to get hired for writing assignments - you don’t have those deadlines looming over you. However, you need to learn how to write like a pro if you ever want to become one. So, yes, deadlines still matter.
In the meantime, you can set deadlines that encourage progress, not shame.
Create:
- Draft completion windows
- Submission goals (to contests or industry connections)
- Concept development timelines
If you can learn that deadlines lead to progress not anxiety, you’ll embrace any deadlines that come by way of yourself or anyone else. And it’s not about racing against the calendar. It’s about building consistency.
Focus on Improvement Over Achievement
Resolutions are centered around achievement. But because so much is out of your control beyond your screenplays - even if they are outstanding - the lack of achievement and abundance of rejection that are inevitable for all screenwriters can make it difficult for you to achieve any progress in your eyes.
Instead, make it all about improvement.
- Get better at conjuring more compelling concepts.
- Get better at writing more compelling screenplays.
- Get better at character depth
- Get better writing dialogue
- Get better at writing less scene description
- Get better at writing cleaner format
- Get better at pacing
- Get better at writing fast and completing scripts under pro-like deadlines
- Get better at rewriting
When improvement is the ultimate metric for your year, every session counts. Every writing session will get you closer and closer to your goals, dreams, and aspirations.
Embrace the Anti-Resolution Approach
Start the year with direction, not declarations. Let consistent effort and output - not pressure - guide your growth as a screenwriter.