One of the most important decisions you make as a writer is how to balance your input and output. Or to say it another way, how much time you devote to watching and consuming versus how much time you spend writing and creating.
You probably have friends who watch a lot of TV, movies, or YouTube. They keep up with all the latest shows and anxiously want to discuss all the plot developments. It is obvious they devote lots of time to being a consumer.
Nothing wrong with that, of course… UNLESS you also want to be a successful writer. If you are going to have consistent creative output, you have to devote time to it. You only have so many hours in a day. You don’t have time to watch everything and keep up with all the latest developments in pop culture and entertainment.
This is tough love, but I am here to tell you the truth about the writing life. And the truth is that you are going to have to make a drastic decision about what you’re going to watch. Anytime you commit to watch a new series on Netflix, it’s going to be anywhere from 6-12 hours just for one season. Is it really worth it? You can do an awful lot of writing, networking, reading, or learning in that amount of time.
I don’t have anything against Netflix or entertainment in general. But I am extremely selective about the shows I commit to watching. Generally, I will binge-watch a whole series over a couple of days, but I only do that a couple of times per year, generally with one or two shows over the holidays, and once or twice during the summer when I take vacation.
That may sound extreme, but you have to decide something very important: are you going to be a consumer or a creator? In five years’ time, do you want to have had a successful podcast, written some books, have a blog or newsletter, and made money from these pursuits? Or do you want to be the person who can brag that they kept up with all the different series on Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and every other streaming service?
Will you be a consumer or creator? The choice is yours.
Daily Question: If you want to increase your writing output, what can you cut out of your entertainment time?