Here's the thing: why would anyone want to live this life? There are other, easier things to do with your four score and ten: brain surgery, splitting the atom, discovering a cure for aids, that sort of thing.
I don't know about you, but I used to panic when I read serious writers discoursing on their working habits. Always work the same time every day, they said, without fail, on pain of death. Work for the same number of hours. Be strict with yourself.
this used to scare me, because i've developed strange working habits over the last few years, and they're nothing like the above. I mean, I tried the regular hours thing, for many years, and that technique has its place – but here’s how it works for me.
I’ve discovered that there are two types of work involved in writing a screenplay. The second, and arguably the easiest, is the actual writing, the getting down of words onto paper – or screen. It takes time and it takes tenacity and it isn’t always pleasant, but it’s a dawdle compared to the other type of work – the structure!
Now this, to me, is where the real creativity comes in. This is where you will be judged as a competent screenwriter, this is where the value comes in. Because, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people out there who can write sufficiently well to produce a readable script. It’s a thing that can be learned. But there are a lot fewer who can structure a gripping story that will hold an audience enthralled for two hours in a dark room. That, my friends, is where the talent comes in. And it isn’t so easily learned.
But the working habits, yes, the way it is done. I tend to jot down the original idea I had, and leave it for a while. A month, maybe. Work on something else, finish something else off, let the idea fester in the back of my mind. I find it appearing at odd moments, especially when watching other movies – you get that “ooohhhh, that might be something I could use for the * idea”.
After a period of festering, it’s time then to get the outline done. And this is hard. There is no other word for it, it’s hard. To imagine all of that and pin it down sufficiently to write it is hugely difficult – like herding cats, or hugging a giant bouncy castle. If the damn thing would just sit still for a moment, you’d have it.
And here’s the secret that I’ve found works: do it in bursts. Limit yourself to fifteen minutes at a stretch, maximum. No more. Let your subconscious know that the only chance its going to get to play with this idea on any given day is limited to fifteen minutes. Time yourself: sit down, work for the allotted time, then stand up and go do something else. Preferably something physical, and rhythmic (steady, Spence). Painting a wall is particularly good. Tinkering with old cars. Cut the grass. Anything.
After three or four days of this your subconscious will be RARING to get at it – and you’ll find ideas come tumbling out.
Try it – it works.
More nuggets later… Keep writing.
