What do you do to get into the right mood for working on screenplay development? Do you wait for ideas to come to you? Listen to music, watch movies? I have not felt like doing any work on my screenplay ideas lately and I'm starting to get frustrated. So any suggestions would be good.
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Getting Into a Writing Mood
- Thread starter South Side Dreamer
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This is how I am feeling too. Like I am reading the screenwriters bible, and even cant get in the mood to read that. Could it be that im just to excited? lol. I keep telling myself I need to write my story so I know what I am going to write about.
There's no magic bullet here, you just have to make yourself write. Schedule the time to write and treat it as a job that you hope to get recognized for. Wax on, wax off.
What works for me is writing down every thought that may one day become useable in dialogue or as a story idea. I do this no matter when or where, and have for years. Every now and then I go back to these scribblings and read them to become inspired. A lot of times, ideas I have written on separate occasions tend to go together well. One may add a new layer or a different perspective to the other. Or they are sequential parts of the same story.
It is very hard for me to just sit down and say "now I am going to write". Inspiration just hits me when it wants to, not when I want it to. When I really want to force myself to write, I tend to focus on the characters instead of the story. Once I develop the character into a 3-dimensional person, the story usually becomes clear to me.
It is very hard for me to just sit down and say "now I am going to write". Inspiration just hits me when it wants to, not when I want it to. When I really want to force myself to write, I tend to focus on the characters instead of the story. Once I develop the character into a 3-dimensional person, the story usually becomes clear to me.
I find it easier to focus on a small piece at a time, rather than the whole thing.
What am I going to do with this scene? What does he do next? How does she respond to that?
If I try to resolve everything at the same time, I feel overwhelmed and paralysis can st in.
What am I going to do with this scene? What does he do next? How does she respond to that?
If I try to resolve everything at the same time, I feel overwhelmed and paralysis can st in.
I've had issues like this before as well. No matter how many ideas flourish through your head, you'll still have that unnerving propensity to procrastinate. I would just set a time and place to sit down and just force yourself to write the first page. When you finish that, you'll fly through the rest.
Another good motivator is to constantly remind yourself that if you don't write and sell your work, then you're nothing but a useless waste of space who'll be forced to hunker down in a bullshit job. Always focus on the larger goal.
I've had issues like this before as well. No matter how many ideas flourish through your head, you'll still have that unnerving propensity to procrastinate. I would just set a time and place to sit down and just force yourself to write the first page. When you finish that, you'll fly through the rest.
Another good motivator is to constantly remind yourself that if you don't write and sell your work, then you're nothing but a useless waste of space who'll be forced to hunker down in a bullshit job. Always focus on the larger goal.
While I am not a professional writer, as in I do not make it for someone else within a deadline rush, I do write my own ideas, with the hope of filming them.
I think it is easier to sit around if you know there is no boss behind you or your meal doesn't depend on what you write so keep this in mind that it also affects hobbyists.
When I have a concept idea that I think is worth the time to be written down I think of it a lot. I mean a lot. In the bus, in the work breaks, in the subway, at the toilet or when my gf is telling me a long story about her friends etc. While thinking of it I keep small computer files with ideas, connections, good plot twists and everything that could be added to the story and can add a flavor and quality to it.
This is what I call the digesting part of a concept idea. The more you digest it the better it gets at the end, as you already refined it in your mind and on paper many times. You already fixed the errors and added the main good ideas to it.
Next comes the working part, that hard part. I must admit that I don't like this at all, I find it the hardest, as most of you for sure. So I write 5-10 draft pages for example and let it sit for a day. The next day I most of the time rewrite 60% of it. Don't know why, it's just how I work, but I never get it right from the first try. The next day I rewrite 30% of it and so on.
After all the above process I come and clean it and get something that I am extremely please most of the time and that I consider 99% done (as in I have every wording, every dialogue etc exactly as I want it to be).
So I guess that my "secret" would be that I "digest" the idea so much that I explode with desire to write it down. Just like not having sex in a long time
But, this is from a hobbyist, not a pro that needs to eat with what he writes. But note that as a hobbyist you may want the work to define you more, to be perfect while with a job you most of the time want to please someone else and be done with it and go cash in.
I think it is easier to sit around if you know there is no boss behind you or your meal doesn't depend on what you write so keep this in mind that it also affects hobbyists.
When I have a concept idea that I think is worth the time to be written down I think of it a lot. I mean a lot. In the bus, in the work breaks, in the subway, at the toilet or when my gf is telling me a long story about her friends etc. While thinking of it I keep small computer files with ideas, connections, good plot twists and everything that could be added to the story and can add a flavor and quality to it.
This is what I call the digesting part of a concept idea. The more you digest it the better it gets at the end, as you already refined it in your mind and on paper many times. You already fixed the errors and added the main good ideas to it.
Next comes the working part, that hard part. I must admit that I don't like this at all, I find it the hardest, as most of you for sure. So I write 5-10 draft pages for example and let it sit for a day. The next day I most of the time rewrite 60% of it. Don't know why, it's just how I work, but I never get it right from the first try. The next day I rewrite 30% of it and so on.
After all the above process I come and clean it and get something that I am extremely please most of the time and that I consider 99% done (as in I have every wording, every dialogue etc exactly as I want it to be).
So I guess that my "secret" would be that I "digest" the idea so much that I explode with desire to write it down. Just like not having sex in a long time
But, this is from a hobbyist, not a pro that needs to eat with what he writes. But note that as a hobbyist you may want the work to define you more, to be perfect while with a job you most of the time want to please someone else and be done with it and go cash in.
I coffee up, hunker down, and get in the zone. Music can help sometimes, but for the most part I need absolute silence to hear the voices in my head. They usually have a lot to tell me.
i watch something get inspiration then imagine my own movie in my head, its weird the characters come to life as i type so its like i can see everything..
* But I must mention that any ideas, concepts, story kernels, particular settings, characters, etc... hardly ever come to me when I'm at the computer. For the most part, a good idea will strike me on a hike, bike ride, a walk, or usually doing something physical. I find that when my body is actively wandering, my mind can also wander in its own way. Going out for a run is a fantastic way to put the brain on auto pilot.
Two books I read last year that helped my writing process, both worthy reads.
The Story Solution by Eric Edson
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Solution-Actions-Great-Heroes/dp/1615930841
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
http://www.amazon.com/What-About-Running-Vintage-International/dp/0307389839
Edson teaches screenwriting at Cal State Northridge.
Two books I read last year that helped my writing process, both worthy reads.
The Story Solution by Eric Edson
http://www.amazon.com/Story-Solution-Actions-Great-Heroes/dp/1615930841
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
http://www.amazon.com/What-About-Running-Vintage-International/dp/0307389839
Edson teaches screenwriting at Cal State Northridge.
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lol, that's true. It would be embarrassing telling everyone I want to be a writer/director and then I fail. I could never leave the house after that.