Simple Advice

[Banky]

I have started over 6 scripts and gotten about 10 to 20 pages into each one and than gave up.  I always get to a certain point where im like this wont work and it is a dumb concept.  I also always get a new idea for a script while im currently in one.  Does anyone of you know maybe a technique or method i could use to help?  Or if any of you have had this expereince, what you did?

[Pedro]

I have started over 6 scripts and gotten about 10 to 20 pages into each one and than gave up.  I always get to a certain point where im like this wont work and it is a dumb concept.  I also always get a new idea for a script while im currently in one.  Does anyone of you know maybe a technique or method i could use to help?  Or if any of you have had this expereince, what you did?

When you get to the point where it's stupid, keep going with the stupid idea....after awhile, by just working with the same thing, something should open up in your brain and the idea will become better....

i dont know, that's what i did...

[aclockworkjj]

I kinda know what you mean, I will get about that far into something too, and suddenly realize I have just wrote 20 pages of nothing.  Assuming a minute per page, I just have the first 20 minutes of this movie as pure garbage that still isn't progressing anywhere.  So, what do I do?  Try and go back to almost pre stage and establish goals.  Like where the hell is this dude going?  And how can I get him there soley on writing?  Re-determine what I want as key plot events and write loosly based on those.  If a new idea pops into my head and I can practically work it in, sure, why not?  That, and just taking a break too, picking it back up a few days later.  

I feel yer pain though, as sometimes I wanna toss my computer.

[Ghostboy]

You could have writer's block, or you could just be subconsciously telling yourself that your idea isn't too good. Or both. I had the same problem for about two years, and then suddenly I hit some stride and in the past eighteen months I've written seven features. I keep coming up with ideas, and I actually finish them.

Writing is so personal and abstract and aribtrary and instinctive that it's hard to give advice that actually works. I know that for me, it's a struggle...I love it, but I really agonize over what I'm doing all the time. If the agony is enjoyable, then the script will get written.

It is a good idea, however, to keep in practice. The 500 words a day rule that a lot of novelists use has been helpful to me. If you keep writing, you'll eventually get something done.

[Raikus]

I know exactly what you're talking about. I've always had that problem (novels mainly, get to 150-200 pages and then just peter out). I'll get 40-60 pages into a screenplay, know where I'm going with it and then either not have the will to take the next step or (which is most of the time) come up with a new idea for a different screenplay, get all reved up on writing it and start. Then when I'm into that one another idea comes along. I've currently got a script stalled at 47 pages, one at 36, one at 24 and another at 23. I like all the ideas, but I can't seem to bulldoze through to the second and third acts. I've tried to halting all writing but one but know I just don't feel like writing.

So if you find something that works for you, please let me know. Since we're in the same boat, I'd like a way off as well.

[Weak2ndAct]

Dunno if this quite applies, but I read a quote somewhere from Tarantino-- I'm not sure where, so it's paraphrase-time here-- where he described that he used to have the same problem.  He realized that he was more in love with idea of writing a movie rather than the actual story.  It wasn't until he actually had a full, complete story that 'had to be told,' he finally wrote a complete screenplay.

[SoNowThen]

well, i can't write chronologically... what i do is just come up with characters and then stage situations around them. then i figure out what type of movie (I think) I wanna make. i fill tons of index cards up with these little scene ideas, and arrange them until i have a structure.

that way, the whole movie is in front of you before you actually write it. and you can never get stuck in a part because you always know where you're going. it doesn't mean you won't write a ton of shit, or get writers' block, it just helps you always think of narrative and structure and the "big picture". plus, gobs of stuff of course changes, because when you physically put it on paper, you see that some ideas just don't work the way you originally came up with them...


does that help???


btw, ghostboy -- 7 features? You Da Man!

[ono]

Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but, "seven features, Ghostboy?  You da man!"

Anyway, my problem is the same as yours, I guess.  I hit a stride once and got about halfway done with a screenplay, which was great.  Even greater was I churned all that out in a matter of a few days.  That was several months ago, and being distracted with other writing has caused me not to pay as much attention to that particular script as I'd like to.  The software I'm using doesn't help much either; I need Final Draft, which I'm ordering (student discount!), but that's beside the point.  Point being, I hit this wall a lot where I just wanted to work on something else.  I also key a lot of my writing in to what is actually feasible for me to do on my own, and have geared a couple of scripts I'm working on to the small scale so they could be easily made.

The first key to writing, though (to quote Finding Forrester, an underrated movie, IMO), is to write.  You've just gotta force yourself to plow through, and if you don't like the idea you're working on, don't force it (that is, move on to something else; I realize using the word "force" twice may confuse some).  I'd say that's a sign that there is something wrong, and it's not that you should delete it, but you should work on something else and rework that section eventually.  Maybe you'll find that after you've added on in other places, the section that you're worried about won't even be essential to the script anymore.

[***beady***]

I wouldn't sit there with your blank pages in front of you and pen poised, I'd go to bed, close the curtains, and day dream. Kinda go through the the plot, the direction in your head like the others said 'think about the character etc..', and then when you got enough background and things to build on in your mind, then go back to writing it all up!

[kotte]

Dunno if this quite applies, but I read a quote somewhere from Tarantino-- I'm not sure where, so it's paraphrase-time here-- where he described that he used to have the same problem.  He realized that he was more in love with idea of writing a movie rather than the actual story.  It wasn't until he actually had a full, complete story that 'had to be told,' he finally wrote a complete screenplay.

I've been having the same problem as you all but this Tarantino paraphrasing just put my problem into words.

Thanks Weak!

[Ghostboy]

I wouldn't sit there with your blank pages in front of you and pen poised, I'd go to bed, close the curtains, and day dream. Kinda go through the the plot, the direction in your head like the others said 'think about the character etc..', and then when you got enough background and things to build on in your mind, then go back to writing it all up!

I do this frequently, and when I don't fall asleep, it works. Sometimes when you're in that half awake, half dreaming state, you'll come up with the most inspired ideas (although sometimes, those inspired ideas turn out to be plain stupid once full consciousness returns).

BTW, of those seven scripts, I only think three and a half of them are  any good. Although I don't think about them as such when writing, a lot of them are probably destined to be nothing more than practice.

[Weak2ndAct]

Goddamn, I love to talk about writing.  Again, this is sort-of-off-topic, but a nice tidbit:
Steal the details from everyone in your life.  You can sit around all day and dream up scenarios and characters (I used to do this, and have a few terrible scripts to show for it-- I call it my 'make shit up phase'), but I've found most success in using people in my own life as models and inspiration.  Not outright-parodies/copies of course, but a little gesture or line from real-life can add a lot of depth.  The shit that flies out of people's mouths is way more insane than things I can come up most of time.  But to get back on topic, adding those touches to unfinished ideas and pages can often give it a life that it never had in the first place.

[metroshane]

Ahh...the bane of all scribes.  The problem we've faced as a group for centuries.  

My problem, which may be yours also, is that I was a perfectionists.  I couldn't get past those first 20 pages until they were perfect...so instead of getting more pages out, I'd simple re-write those same 20 thinking I was doing something good.  wrong.  The best advice I ever got was "don't get it right, get it written".  Which means keep going even with your stupid ideas.    When you are creating, there are no such things as wrong answers.  There are higher percentage choices, but you won't know those unless you give your story a chance to breathe and be itself.  

Also, write first thing in the morning when your mind is really active and excited.  I know it's more romantic to be writing in the middle of the night with a glass of gin, but that's not healthy for your writing...much less for your liver.  Also commit yourself to a certain amount of pages a day.  Start with 5...and they dont' even have to be relavent to your story.  Pick up a newspaper and read a headline...then write a imagine/write a scene that maybe led up to that point.  Insert your characters names.  But you have to be committed to getting words on paper...NOT PERFECT SCRIPTS...because there is no such thing.  The best stories are about mistakes and blunders, so don't be afraid to make a mistake in your writing.  It'll fix itself later.

[nix]

Strangely enough, I think Mike Myers put it best:

"Just write. If it's crappy, you can fix it. You can't fix it if it doesn't exist."

This seems simple, but my gawd is it true. The first script I ever finished was written in three days. When I finished, I thought, "Jesus, I'll have so many scripts written by the time I'm finished with film school". Two and a half years later, I only have a half of one more script written. I spent a lot of that time rewriting. Why? Because the script I wrote in three days sucked ass. I also spent a lot of time, doing what everyone has talked about: writing 30 pages or so and then fizzling out. After about six major and twenty minor rewrites on that first script, it finally doesn't suck ass.

The rule is, just force yourself to write a page a day, hell a half a page. Don't deconstruct it. Just keep going. If, at one time, you had a story burning inside you, it will start to come out.

William Froug said something great, too:

"You'll never get a good idea, if all you're doing is sitting around trying to get a good, idea. Go out. Live. Have sex, take a walk. Then the ideas will start to come.

[Cecil]

ever wonder if the advice some people give about writing is true? maybe they give false info so everyone will fail but them.