Writing a First Draft: Enjoy the Process???

A guest post from Tom Benedek, screenwriter (Cocoon) and co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class:

SCRIPT WRITER CASE STUDY #2:

How to write a script? “Now? Me?”

And enjoy it? “Huh?”

“I need to commit to getting the draft done. Once I am writing pages, I keep the faith until finishing the draft. Sometimes I am reluctant to get started because I dread ending up with less than I dreamed it would be.”

Could this writer ever know what they really have unless they write that first draft?

No.

Work on the outline. For a while. Then start writing pages. Maybe play with the outline a bit along the way. But write the pages. Now.

Because no one knows what those pages will be until they are written. The unconscious tapped during the writing process plays by its own rules. That idea, that logline or outline may be the golden path to something extraordinary.

That is why creative work is exciting. Fun. The ultimate adventure (for screenwriters).

ADVICE FOR CASE STUDY #2:

• Finish an outline that is good enough. Everything doesn’t have to be perfect/measured out.
• Make a writing schedule.
• Sit down with your writing instrument of choice at those times. And write pages — your next script.

SCRIPT WRITER CASE STUDY #3:

“I am so much like Script Writer #2”.

“Personally, I have a lot on my plate right now. But I have had an outline, a beat sheet of sorts and all kinds of notes on my laptop, my desktop, in Dropbox for a couple of years.”

“So I decided that no matter what else is going on in my life, I’m going to write 4 pages a day 5 days a week to see what this thing really is. I see the idea more clearly now, as a genre film. I am not going to lose any of the idiosyncrasies I love, BUT I am going to adhere to the rules of its genre form. So my agent will read it and maybe try to sell it.”

“I didn’t see this project as a genre film for a long time. After percolating it, I finally realized what I was dealing with. And now — no other way to see what I have until I write it. So I have to write pages. Now.”

ADVICE FOR CASE STUDY #3:

• I, Tom Benedek, am Screenwriter #3.
• I have no excuses for not writing this script.
• I will write a first draft now.
• I will enjoy it.

Anything is possible. “Nobody knows anything.” You will never have your breakthrough script unless you write it.

My upcoming Pages I: Writing the First Draft online workshop at Screenwritingmasterclass.com starts next week: September 12. Join me for the next chapter in your creative adventure!

80% of the writers who take the Pages I workshop at Screenwriting Master Class finish a first draft within the 10 week time period of the course. And 90% get to FADE OUT within a few additional weeks.

How is this program so successful? Writers have a structure and weekly due dates to motivate them. There is a combination of expectations and support from fellow writers participating in the workshop. And perhaps most significantly, the instructors — Tom or myself — provide extensive feedback along the way, everything from script page notes to suggestions to moral support.

To learn more about the Pages I: Writing the First Draft online workshop, go here.