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Michael Landon called writing his first Bonanza script ''one of the toughest jobs I ever had''
Landon had plenty to say. Putting it on paper was another story.
For Michael Landon, acting was just the beginning.
While playing Little Joe Cartwright on the hit TV series Bonanza, Landon discovered he had a knack for something else: writing. He would eventually become a successful TV writer and director, but getting started as a writer was anything but easy.
By the time Landon sat down to write his first Bonanza episode, he had already been part of the cast for years. He figured knowing the characters so well would make writing a breeze. He quickly learned otherwise.
"I thought writing would be easy, especially since I knew the characters involved so well — but I was wrong," Landon said in an article for the Shreveport Journal. "I wrote that first script in two days, but it was one of the toughest jobs I ever had."
Landon managed to finish that first draft, but his writing career hit a roadblock soon after.
"For those brief few days, I had one of the most important things any writer needs — discipline!" Landon said. "It was nearly three years before I could discipline myself enough to sit down and write another script."
Coming up with ideas was one thing. Actually putting them on paper was another.
"It’s easy to think up ideas and stories, but very few people can force themselves to sit down at a typewriter or notebook and put that story on paper," Landon said.
Landon eventually became an actor, director and writer, but he had a clear favorite — and it wasn’t acting.
"Now that I earn my living as an actor, director, and writer, I’d have to say that the writing part is the hardest," Landon said. "There are various little ways that an actor or a director can ‘cheat’ his way through a scene — but there’s no way in the world for a writer to speed through what is the blueprint for the whole thing."
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