Reader Question: How to actually sit down and do it?
I received this question via email:
Thanks for you blog- I have found many useful screenwriting goodies on there.
However, I spend too much time reading about writing instead of writing. I find writing my screenplay so painful. Its like pulling teeth and I have to force myself to sit at the computer for small chunks at a time. I am easily distracted and would rather do just about anything other than write. It’s like training a disobedient dog. Nonetheless, this is what I want to do and believe I could be good at- is this normal?
I was wondering if you have any advice on how to actually sit down and do it. How to make yourself embrace the pain and block out the distractions. I have read everything that I could possibly read about how to write and now it is just time to write. I think this is the hardest part- harder than coming up with a good ending, snappy dialogue, or lovable characters- because if you put the time in this stuff should come naturally. The ‘just do it’ approach is easier said than done and I was wondering if you might have any other advice?
First off, I suspect most writers, even professionals, confront this issue more often than they would be willing to admit. My normal advice is to follow Oliver Stone’s edict: “Writing equals butt on chair.” Unfortunately with this lil’ thing called the Internet available to us, it’s far too easy to get distracted on the Web while our butt is still on chair.
There are all sorts of tricks and mind games you can try. I read where Neil Simon would give himself a treat — literally a piece of candy or a snack food item — after writing for a set period of time. One of my Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work, which I posted here, is to stop your writing session just before you finish a scene, so that the next day, you start the session knowing you can write the ending — which you already know — and that can jump-start your writing process into the next scene.
But your query sounds much more existential in nature, something I suspect a mind game or trick won’t resolve. So how about this?
Create a central character with whom you fall in love.
Not necessarily romantic love, but that can work, too. The point is if you have at least one character in your story who you want to spend time with — or better yet need to spend time with — perhaps that could entice you back to the writing.
I sit here, thinking of some fascinating movie characters — Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs, C.C. Baxter from The Apartment, Michael Myers from Halloween, Ripley from Alien, John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, interesting characters in interesting story circumstances. Now imagine if you were tasked to write one of those characters. Wouldn’t it be exciting to spend time with them, see where they took the story, what pearls of wisdom they spouted which you could type out as dialogue? Wouldn’t you want to write them?
If you’re someone who is more drawn to plot than character — and I’m not saying you are — perhaps spend more time digging into your characters. In a perfect world, you’ll find more than one who comes alive and grip your imagination. If that happens, doesn’t it feel like they could lure you to your writing desk?
Another suggestion: Go away for a long weekend to some place secluded. No TV, no Internet, no distractions. Just you and your story. Sure, you’ll fritter away the first few hours, but at some point, because you have made the commitment of time and probably money (to pay for lodgings) and there’s nothing to do, you will, I think, inevitably end up writing. And once you get going — at least this has been my experience — you just lose yourself in the process. I’ve gone away and pounded out over 50 pages of a first draft in a 48 hour period.
But I think I prefer my other piece of advice: Create a character (or characters) that fascinates you, makes you want / need to spend time with them. That emotional connection should do the trick.
GITS readers, do you have any other suggestions?
UPDATE: Not to get all gushy and everything, but I can’t say enough about GITS readers. The question that was emailed to me is a serious issue for, I’m sure, many if not most of us. And the number and variety of responses from you fine people (in comments) is just, well… great. Thanks. And keep the suggestions coming. You’re providing some fantastic ideas I’m sure all of us will be able to use at some time or other.
[Originally posted November 11, 2009]