Fits and starts?

I tell you, for the first 30 pages I feel like I'm herding turtles into a small hole in a fence. I get on a roll, and suddenly I have 7 turles through the hole and I'm dancing on air. Maybe have a drink to celebrate.

Then, as you say, there are days and maybe weeks where I can't get anything going. I have hundreds of tricks at this point to stoke the fires and help me herd more turtles. These include: journaling my project (a Word document where I whine about the problems, issues, and generally talk about the characters--no one should ever read this garbage, by the way), research topics that come up in the script, read writing books, jump up and down with feathers in my ears...

Sometimes is it works. Sometimes not. When it doesn't, I drink.

And then around the end of the first act (typically around page 30), I don't know what it is exactly, but things suddenly gel, and I'm off and running. Next thing I know, I'm at page 50. Then 80. Then, oh my God, I better watch it, I'm getting close to too many pages.

Happy turtles, easing into the hole. I drink to celebrate.

And then, through some miracle, I get to the end. Stick it in a drawer for a week, then have at the revisions. By far the hardest part of the process (requiring more drinking).

Before you write me off as a horrible drunk, this whole process can take a long time. 6 months. Maybe even a year. So it's not as much drinking as it sounds like. But the important point is, it's a process. Trust it. Don't stress it. Don't force it. Let the turtles go into the holes when they're damn good and ready.

Excited as you may be to get your piece sold, Hollywood can wait. When I worked for New Line, I saw a room filled to the ceiling with spec scripts. Hollywood gets scripts like waves to the shore.

So let your turtles roam free and have fun!

The only problem with letting the "turtles" go in on their own pace is you're basically subjecting yourself to the whim of your muse rather than training it. If you don't train your muse if you ever get put on a deadline you'll still be a slave to your muse rather than it working for you. The deadline will most likely pass and that'll hurt you and your chances at future work.

It's your choice what you do, whether you're a slave to your muse or if you discipline it to show up when it's told.

Here are some things I do.

When my muse isn't cooperating I take a walk. Sometimes I just need to clear my head to think. Music helps a lot, it brings everything to a single focus point, though music without lyrics is best. I try to write at the same time every day. For me it's after the kids go to bed but before my husband does. I get about an hour of quiet to myself. I write whenever I can outside of that time but that is my writing time. You'll have to work out when the best time to write is for you. I love writing in the morning but until all my kids are in school it's not going to happen.

After you set a schedule if you're finding some things are still not coming, try outlining, plotting, whatever method works, just use it. Try several.

Sometimes I find myself stopped because there's a problem with the script that I have already written. Sometimes it's prudent to stop, go back and fix it, and then continue. It depends on how much it is bugging me.

Sometimes I find myself stopped because there's two very different possibilities that I love and I can't decide between them. I first talk to my sound board (my sister) basically anyone you can bounce ideas off. If I still can't decide, I'll write a story outline for each. If I still can't decide I'll write out both completely. If I still can't decide then I'll keep both versions.

When I'm stopped because there is simply too much going on, I'll take a day or two for things to calm down, but will do everything I can to try and write any chance I get. If I take too much time it's just that much easier for the project to drift off to the back burner and possibly never come back off it.

icerose said:

The only problem with letting the "turtles" go in on their own pace is you're basically subjecting yourself to the whim of your muse rather than training it. If you don't train your muse if you ever get put on a deadline you'll still be a slave to your muse rather than it working for you. The deadline will most likely pass and that'll hurt you and your chances at future work.

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Well, you know, I appreciate the criticism of my goofy turtle metaphor, but I think you missed the herding part. That's the whole point.

And since we're being all honest and such, I gotta' say that writing as you describe it sounds like a snore pie with yawn sauce.

Do you write in sequence? I would recommend writing out of sequence if you haven't tried it already. If I am writing and I come to a point at which I don't know what to do next, people tell me I should put it away for a while, but I don't want to do that. It doesn't really work for me, and it feels like procrastination. I just jump ahead to another scene, one I already know how I want to write. I fill in the gaps later.

Verbal said:

Well, you know, I appreciate the criticism of my goofy turtle metaphor, but I think you missed the herding part. That's the whole point.

And since we're being all honest and such, I gotta' say that writing as you describe it sounds like a snore pie with yawn sauce.

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It wasn't an actual criticism of your metaphor I actually quite liked it. But since it was your metaphor I put turtles in quotation marks and transfered it to muse so I could make my point.

That's fine. You can think my writing is any way you want, but I have been on very strict deadlines, my worst one being a full feature in only 9 days. It had to be 9 days as that's when they were meeting the investors and if I didn't have the script there on time I didn't get paid.

If I hadn't learned how to be disciplined in my writing and followed only my muse and only wrote when I was inspired, I never would have gotten that writing assignment done, never would have gotten paid, and never would have gotten further assignments from that company.

As for me I find writing very exciting. I love doing it and by having my muse disciplined I have less frustration and get to enjoy it more often rather than less with no alcohol required.

"Some days, you just have to bitch slap the Muse." - T. A.

I think there's a place for understanding and 'respecting' the process. That you can't hurry a funnel, you can't get blood out of a turnip and that a grape knows nothing of being a raisin.

On the other hand - paychecks come with deadlines - so deal with it. Some days you just have to bitch slap the damn Muse. Having a system for doing this is just another tool in your toolbox. Regular times and places to write. Systems for 'unblocking' (walks, paper and pen, sounding boards -whatever) Setting your own deadline - "I'll finish this script in time to enter it in such -and - such competition." These are all tools to help train the wild Muse.

Sure it's important to understand that creativity is a weird thing. But giving it a 'space' to show up is part of feeding that animal. At least meet her half-way and put out some decent bait.


(Okay, done with mangling metaphors this morning - finished with taking a break - now back to the rewrite on my latest script. Conceived over a year ago, started a few months later, languished for almost a year - then pushed from page 15 to 119 in less than a month BECAUSE I MADE TIME AND SPACE and a DEADLINE for it.)

icerose said:

That's fine. You can think my writing is any way you want, but I have been on very strict deadlines, my worst one being a full feature in only 9 days. It had to be 9 days as that's when they were meeting the investors and if I didn't have the script there on time I didn't get paid.

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In 9 days?? Is that after already having an outline and character profiles and such? I can't imagine throwing a polished feature out in such a short amount of time, and I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to deadlines.

Stealth66 said:

In 9 days?? Is that after already having an outline and character profiles and such? I can't imagine throwing a polished feature out in such a short amount of time, and I'm pretty disciplined when it comes to deadlines.

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No, that was "We are looking for an action feature, we were thinking something set in this kind of way, we need it in 9 days."

It was a grueling 9 days but they were so impressed they let me do a series with them that is now on the air.

ExileOn60WallSt. said:

I find myself hot and cold writing this screen play I've kicked around in my head for years. One day 8 pages flows out of me like nothing. Then I go a week without having the will to open the file and look at it. Is this how a lot of you expierienced people work too?

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It's similar to how I write but I think it would be safe to say that every writer has their own "Method" of writing. I can take upwards of 6 months - 1 year or as little as two weeks to finish a script. It might not be polished but at least it's done. It depends on several different factors but when I actually get down to writing I do plan ahead.

I normally try to stay ahead of myself by thinking from both the front end and the back end. Then it's just a matter of figuring out where they connect. While I'm actually writing though I try to think a few scenes ahead.

ExileOn60WallSt. said:

Should it be coming to me easier or more consistently?

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Like I said, all writers have different methods so it's not exactly a standard pace but once you figure out your method you'll notice that things start coming easier. When I first started writing, I felt lucky to get 3-4 pages in one sitting. As my writing ability began to grow, I found it easier to sit down and get 5, 10, 15 plus pages because I found it easier to focus. Making it easier to get more pages in the same amount of time.

I also noticed I began to "lose time" when i was really focused and would end up writing for 3-4 hours at a time, not noticing it. So it varies. Sometimes I struggle to get 5 pages. Sometimes I find it easy get 35 pages.

ExileOn60WallSt. said:

Are there excercizes you do to keep the ideas flowing out your brain and onto the page?

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I'm a very "heady" person. I think things through for days, weeks or even months before I write it. I don't exactly just sit there and let it happen. I try to keep some order to my scenes, so I don't have to think about it but at the same time I won't plan any dialogue or twists (to an extent). I try to let that aspect naturally flow.

I plan my scenes and try to put them in a logical order outside of my writing sessions so when I sit down to write I know exactly where I'm going, what's happening, who needs to be there, etc. etc.

This isn't to say though that I don't follow natural progressions of a story. When I'm writing something, yes I have a plan as to where I want it to go but at the same time if something comes up and takes the story in a completely different direction I try to see where it takes me so I don't miss out on something that might change the story completely.

icerose said:

No, that was "We are looking for an action feature, we were thinking something set in this kind of way, we need it in 9 days."

It was a grueling 9 days but they were so impressed they let me do a series with them that is now on the air.

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That is so awesome. Congrats!

ExileOn60WallSt. said:

You people are the best.

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Thank you!