Screenwriting 101: Caroline Thompson

“I’m not romantic at all about the creative process. More than anything else, I’ve felt like a plow horse — just one foot in front of the other. I do believe that when it’s working really well, it’s not me — it’s coming from someplace else, and I don’t know where that place is. I only do one project at a time… In the morning, I go to my office and write five script pages every day. People think, ‘That’s not very much.” Well, if I write more — if I get into a big blaze and I write 15 pages — my brain’s exhausted, so then I don’t write for four or five days, and my rhythm gets completely thrown off. So I’ve learned over the years that if I do my five pages a day, I have a first draft in about a month.”

— Caroline Thompson (FlimCraft | Screenwriting, P. 172)