This isn't much of a blog for today. I'm sorry about that.
I am up to page 32 on the screenplay now.
I promised myself one page and it turned into 7. I love when that happens. Don't you?
I also colored my bangs purple which isn't screenplay related, but note worthy.
All that AND I spent some time by the pool with my niece and nephew earlier.
That is a day well spent! How is your writing coming along?
Today I sat down infront of a blank screen, feeling completely non-creative. The muse, once again aluded me. However, I made a choice to forge ahead in it's absence and just write anything. I pulled out the recently completed treatment I'd been brooding over, clicked the MovieMagic Screenwriter icon on my lap top screen and just started writing.
At first I started backing up and changing things as I went, then it hit me..
Just get this first draft out. Just keep going, don't second guess yourself right now... let it flow.
Within minutes I had completed several scenes and wasn't even thinking about it. The lines came to me one after the other in natural progression. As I clicked away and page after page appeared, it hit me, the muse caught up to me.
I am a storyteller, an artist and a creative... so waiting for the mood isn't neccessary. If I sit down and start, it happens almost on auto-pilot.
So WHY is it so hard to make myself sit down and get over those thoughts that seem to defeat my progress:
Do you find that once you sit down and get to work on your script, it's like your creativity just kicks in and takes it from there?
Do you find it difficult to make time for your screenwriting work with all your other obligations?
As an aspiring screenwriter and one of the many people who reads countless books on the topic of screenwriting and the "industry".
I read Save The Cat and then I read it again and then again. Even though there are several bibles out there for format, structure, writing in a certain time-frame or a certain genre, i found Blake Snyder's book the most valuable overall for quickly giving me the BOTTOM LINE on what it's really all about.
I was lucky enought to talk to Blake a few times before he passed away and he was the sweetest person, very encouraging. He took the time to answer my questions and offer some great feedback. He will be missed.
Screenwriting is like wine, people can convolute the enjoyment, creation, process of it, and at the end of the day, wine either tastes good or it doesn't. It sounds funny, but this book brought me back to the core of what I love about screenwriting and made me stop fearing the deux machina and concentrate simply on Saving The Cat!
I recommend the book to anyone looking to write screenplays and to those who just love movies.
What is on your essential reading list?
I was in the middle of organizing some scenes and needed a bit more light. So naturally I flipped the switch to turn on my desk lamp... forgetting that it also controls the fan I have in that room.
WOOSH!
I went from thinking somberly about the motivation on my character to frantically trying to catch his story as it spun around the room in a flurry.I turned off the fan and the little squares of white paper floated to the floor and settled, some face up, some face down... some on the desk, some on the chair, some stuck in the blinds...
I just stood there for a minute and looked at them, in the middle was a card that had landed standing up on it's edge in the carpet... it read "CRASH!"
For a minute I thought about the crash scene and began to back track from that point as I picked up the cards and re-organized them.
THE LIGHT WENT ON! (NOT LITERALLY THIS TIME).
A great idea for that scene just HIT ME... I think this happy accident was the catalyst for an idea that will totally upgrade the entire story.
I have now TACKED the index cards to the wall, they won't get away from me again, but is that really a good thing?
