Interview (Video): David Magee

Another in an excellent Creative Spark series of videos from Academy Originals, this one with David Magee whose screenwriting credits include Finding Neverland and Life of Pi.

Lots of good insights here:

* David uses color post-it notes on a white board to help him plot a story. “Because I’m using different colors, very quickly you can see which plotlines and characters are getting short shrift. You get a visual sense of the interactions that take place in the story that you don’t get when you just put up white cards.”

* On writer’s block: “I think the biggest problem with writer’s block is a fear of inadequacy, that the result will not match your aspirations.” How does David handle writer’s block? “I have a routine I call ‘yelling at the paper’ where if I can’t figure out what I’m doing, I just start stream-of-conscious complaining about that. I can’t get through this section because I don’t know how to do it because every time I do it, this character, I don’t where this person should go… Oh! It’s because that person shouldn’t be in the scene.” Interestingly I do something similar with my script diary which I talk about here.

* And this: “I think a lot of people could be a lot more creative than they realize if they were willing to believe in themselves and wanted to put in the hours to get it done. You become aware of the gap between the accomplishment of someone who is experienced and your own ability, and you tell yourself ‘I can’t do it,’ rather than telling yourself, ‘I have to keep doing it until I become that good.”

For other Academy Originals videos, go here.

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