Many thanks to those who have sent in their questions about screenwriting. This is the second batch of your questions and my answers. More to come!
Q: I’m always getting writer’s block!
How do I get rid of it?
A: As far as I’m concerned, writer’s
block is nothing more than a form of total, absolute and complete laziness.
Face it, you’re just not willing to sit yourself down, put on your thinking cap
and plumb the depths of your creativity. Sorry to be the one to break it to
you, but that’s what screenwriting is all about. So get used to it.
Do whatever you have to do, but force
yourself into your writing mode every day. Whatever it takes. And believe me,
once you get rolling and ideas are flowing, you’ll wonder what all your
apprehension was about. However, if you still find it near-impossible to park
yourself in front of that keyboard, and/or if you continually have trouble
coming up with ideas, and/or you’d prefer to watch Championship Knitting
on C-SPAN rather than crank out script pages, then this might be the universe
telling you, “Sorry, pal, you’re not a screenwriter.”
"There's no such thing as writer's
block. That was invented by people in California
who couldn't write." - Terry Pratchett
A fellow writer posted the following on
one of the screenwriting boards. I liked what I read (mainly cuz I
wholeheartedly agree with every word of it).
Here it is...
I don't believe in writer's block. Most
of the “serious” writers I've known don't, either. I agree with the one who
says, “It's an indulgence of amateurs. When you've got a contract with a
deadline, you either turn in a manuscript or return your advance. You may find
writing difficult and your results unsatisfying, but you do it anyway, because
that’s what professional writers do: they write.” However…
I do believe in the realization that if
your current work is of poor quality it should be abandoned. (Don’t delete
it—the idea may be worthwhile even if the execution isn’t.)
I believe in inadequate preparation.
I believe in inadequate organization,
too.
I believe in writing yourself into a
corner so tight that you either need to start over or abandon it.
I believe in lost enthusiasm for a
particular work.
I believe in lack of focus, in not
knowing what your story’s really about and why these characters should tell it.
I believe in increasing boredom with an
entire genre that’s become too familiar.
I believe in well-crafted characters
you don’t want to spend time with. (And if you don’t, nobody else will,
either.)
I believe in stories that require a
daunting amount of preliminary research before you can write. (“Sure, that’s
it—a police procedural following a serial killer who’s targeting milliners in
1910 Belgium!”)
I believe in shyness and lack of
confidence that makes seeking expert advice or background hideously difficult
or impossible.
I believe in not knowing how to start,
or where to start, or even if you should start.
I believe in finding the need to learn
basic writing mechanics and screenplay format so boring or off-putting that
you’d rather procrastinate than spend the time it takes (which isn’t much for
format).
I believe in concluding that your whole
concept is stupid, immature, derivative, impractical, embarrassing, too
personal, legally actionable, or any of a host of other fatal flaws.
I believe in realizing that you're not
as good as other people—the ones who ought to know, like teachers and fellow
writers—think you are.
I believe in realizing that you're not
as good as you think you are—or ought to be.
I believe in that “what’s-the-use”
attitude after you learn that your first several screenplays are probably going
to be pretty bad regardless of the blood, sweat, and tears you give them.
I believe in the inability of young
writers to write characters well beyond their own age and, regardless of
research, situations well beyond their experiences—and I believe in the
incredible frustration of being young and bursting with ideas that you
shouldn’t tackle yet.
Now, any of those can stop you dead in
your tracks and keep you stopped. The question then becomes: How can you get
started again?
Give yourself permission to write utter
crap. Lousy ideas, poor grammar and spelling, stilted dialogue…Write it anyway.
Nobody has to see it. Written things can be revised or rewritten to improve
them. The blank pages of the “blocked” remain blank.
Change your writing environment. Try
something radically different. If you write on your computer in a quiet room,
try a spiral notebook in a park or coffee house, or ruled paper on your
grandmother’s dining room table. (Not recommended: your blood on walls.)
Perform writing exercises. Writing
something different may free you.
Move physically. Play a sport, go for a
walk or run, swing on a playground, whatever you like, but get your blood
pumping. When it's racing through your body, the brain gets plenty of
oxygen—and ideas.
Give yourself blocks of unstructured
time when you’re not likely to be sleepy. Find a quiet place, think about your
current writing project, and let your mind wander. Rein it back to the subject
as needed. This can be combined with physical movement—a long walk may be an
idea wellspring!
Play What If…? with what you
see. What if the kid cutting your sandwich suddenly plunged that knife
into the woman at the cash register? What if he merely put caustic
chemicals in the mayonnaise? What if the sandwich and kid are fine, but
you choked, right here at your table? What if you gave half your
sandwich to that lady over there who looks poor? What if she thanked you
for it by giving you something valuable (that she didn't think was worth more
than the sandwich)? What if you sold it and couldn’t find her to give
her any of the money? What if she found you and demanded all of it? What
if...
Write daily, every day, no exceptions,
for a set amount of time. If you can't write, you must remain in your writing
environment for the set amount of time anyway. Your choices are a) write, and
b) don’t write. No games, no internet, no texting, no TV.
Stimulate your mind with new
experiences. If you're a movie fan, see a play or watch a street performance.
Hear live music rather than CDs, or listen to something in a genre you know
nothing about. Eavesdrop on or observe people unlike most of the ones you know.
People-watch (and invent lives for passers-by). Attend a sporting event (any
kind, at any level) where you don't know anyone and watch the crowd rather than
the players.
Upon waking, jot down the surrealistic
snippets of whatever dreams you remember. They don't mean anything, in my
opinion, but the odds are good that they're packed with drama.
Just do it. You don't want to be a self-indulgent
amateur, right?
© 2011 by Maryn Blackburn. Used with permission.
MORE Q & A TO COME--SOON!
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Learn from those who have done it! Interviews with 16
working screenwriters!
