No Story Time-Screenwriting When Life Takes Over

I am in the middle of a huge relocation.. yet again... and I am too stressed out to write. Inspiration is not the problem. My brain is actually fried from stress. In fact, just writing this post seems taxing...  and I know it's a mess. I keep thinking that if I can just get past the holidays, the new year is going to be awesome for my writing.

Well, my plan to overcome this in the meantime is to print out the script and read it in hard copy and blue pencil the heck out of it this weekend... that should promote some re-write material...

ugh...  i can't think straight right now.. this sucks...

 

 

Page 72 & A Preview Of My Lolita Costume For Comikaze

So I just completed 72 pages of my current script and I actually could have kept going, but I stopped myself to think about a scene I added and whether or not it affects something earlier in the story. What do you do when you change something and you need to go back and make sure it's laced through the story properly?

I usually make a note on an index card and come back to it, but for some reason this time I felt like I needed to stop and think about the overall impact of the change. So that is where I am right now. A couple more sessions and I will have the first draft.

In other news, I have compiled all the pieces for my Sweet Lolita costume for Comikaze. Now, I know that Stan Lee has nothing to do with Sweet Lolita's or Kawaii, but I just wouldn't make a very good Cat Woman. So I decided to have fun with it. I have always wanted to go all out with a Kawaii Sweet Lolita Look.

What do you think of my choices for the outfit?

 

 

Tricking Myself Into Writing

I just passed page 60 on my current screenplay. That is 60 pages in under 2 months. For me, that is a great pace. I find that by telling myself I only have to write ONE PAGE and then I am free to do other non-productive things, like gaming, television or social media, I actually trick myself into writing much more. 

I click the Movie Magic Screenplay icon, read back a couple of pages and get going on my supposed ONE PAGE, but I never stop at one page. Once I get myself in the zone, it's so fluid that I can't stop till I have exhausted my brain, which isn't easy to do. One page turns into ten naturally.

Overcoming that first objection by telling myself I am only committing to ONE PAGE seems to work for me. Do you have a trick that works for you?

Purple & Page 32

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?

 

 

I'll get started, the muse can meet me later...

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 I really have time for this? 
• I have so many other things I need to be doing.
• I am not in the mood.
• I'll do it later today. 
• It won't hurt to skip today. 
• This can wait.

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?

 

Save the Cat! Drink the Wine!

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?

 

Index Card Explosion - Screenwriting is dangerous!

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?

I will never finish this screenplay!

Do you ever feel like you will just never finish the script you are working on? I have been writing my current action sci-fi script for over a year. If I could devote an uninterupted week to it, I could just knock it out, but then there is the re-write and the re-write of the re-write, right?

I did finish the detailed treatment on a flight back from Japan instead of sleeping, but how often am I going to be trapped on an 8 hour flight with no internet access?

INTERNET IS THE DEVIL!

Although the internet has been a great help to my process; seeking facts, downloading screenplays, interacting with other writers, following scriptchat on twitter... it has also been my worst enemy.

Every time I get in the zone (you know that magical place, right?), an email pops up or my phone buzzes that someone commented on my facebook status and I am off to check it. One hour later, I realize I have been playing on the interwebs and haven't written a single line... YET AGAIN!!!

HELP ME!

How do I get out of this cycle? 

How do you do it?

What are some good tips on staying in the zone?

So mad at myself!!!