How To Be Prolific: Guidelines For Getting It Done From Joss Whedon

Not sure how this link came my way, especially given the fact it was published in January this year, but I’m always glad to read about Joss Whedon whose film (Toy Story, The Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers, Much Ado About Nothing) and TV (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) credits are impressive to say the least, not to mention having created one of my absolute favorite series Firefly. Plus there’s this: I have no definitive numbers or proof, but the anecdotal evidence I have gathered from teaching college students for several years suggests that Whedon is one of that generation’s cultural and creative heroes.

In this Fastcocreate feature, Whedon offers several guidelines for “getting it done.” Seeing as the observations he provides come from someone who shot Much Ado About Nothing while working on The Avengers leads me to believe a la the old E.F. Hutton ad campaign, “When Joss Whedon talks… people listen.” At least we’d be wise to!

In the article, Whedon provides several ideas about productivity. Here is one of them:

“Micro is about the moment and it’s about having an idea, or having writer’s block and just trying to get through those moments. For me, it boils down to specificity, knowing exactly what I’m trying to accomplish, because if I have three projects, it’s ‘Oh, maybe I’ll work on S.H.I.E.L.D. or maybe I’ll work on this or this.’ You know, it’s so easy to just get nothing done, but you’ve got to rock a little David Allen out to be able to get things done and break your list down into next actions. And this is true of producing and directing but even of writing. It’s like, ‘Okay, today I am going to figure out this action sequence. Today, I am going to watch a shit ton of other action sequences,’ whatever it is, but that would be the other side of it after the specificity of knowing. Don’t just say, ‘Oh, I need to work on that.’ Say, ‘I need to work on this element of that.’

I haven’t worked much in an office environment, but during my stint as a TV producer, I developed a habit of breaking down my daily schedule into action items, very much in line with Whedon’s advice — specific things I could do to move things forward. However he goes on to say something rather surprising:

Whedon advises getting the fun stuff done first. “Some people will disagree, but for me if I’ve written a meaty, delightful, wonderful bunch of scenes and now I have to do the hard, connective, dog’s body work of writing, when I finish the dog’s body work, I’ll have a screenplay that I already love. I used to write chronologically when I started, from beginning to end. Eventually I went, That’s absurd; my heart is in this one scene, therefore I must follow it. Obviously, if you know you have a bunch of stuff to do, I have to lay out this, all this dull stuff, and I feel very uncreative but the clock is ticking. Then you do that and you choose to do that. But I always believe in just have as much fun as you can so that when you’re in the part that you hate there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, that you’re close to finished.”

My Air Force Colonel father would be rolling over in his grave at this thought as he trained me to do the hard stuff first, then you have the easy things on your to-do list waiting for you, amounting to a form of enticement. But Whedon says precisely the opposite: “Absolutely eat dessert first. The thing that you want to do the most, do that.”

In the 80+ interviews I’ve conducted with screenwriters and filmmakers, I’ve heard this approach come up a number of times: Start by writing the scenes you want to write first. Don’t worry about chronological order or how you’re going to pull them all together, rather focus on the story material that will be fun to write, and see where that takes you. I have never done this approach, but for this upcoming script I’m breaking, I’m going resist my military brat upbringing and give the “dessert first” tactic a shot.

There’s yet more reason to listen to Whedon about productivity as he has another ‘small’ movie (like Much Ado About Nothing) coming out and with its own self-distribution model — on Vimeo. From TheWrap:

Joss Whedon will sell “In Your Eyes,” a movie he wrote and executive produced, directly from the movie’s website, joining the growing list of filmmakers who have experimented with self-distribution.

Whedon announced these plans in a video message displayed after the premiere of the movie Sunday night at the Tribeca Film Festival. He was not able to attend since he is in production on the sequel to “The Avengers.”

Brin Hill directed “In Your Eyes,” which stars Zoe Kazan and Michael Stahl-David as Rebecca and Dylan, a bored wife and charismatic ex-con who share an inexplicable connection.

It is the second movie produced by Bellwether Pictures, the production company Whedon founded with his wife Kai Cole to support micro-budget movies. Bellwether’s first film was “Much Ado About Nothing,” Whedon’s adaptation of the Shakespeare play.

Here is Whedon’s video pitch for In Your Eyes:

The official website of In Your Eyes is here.

For the rest of the Fastcocreate article and other insights from Whedon about getting things done, go here.

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