![]() We all have stories that didn’t quite pan out. Eventually, you’ll have a bunch of stuff you want to incorporate into your script. Write things they say without worrying where the dialogue goes. Sit down and write about your characters. Writing outside the script is non-linear writing. Most of us do our prep work and then attempt to write a linear draft. Important question: Is structure easier if your film is literally about building blocks? Photo courtesy Warner Brothers.Īnother thing I like to try when I get bogged down is writing outside the script. This is a great way to tell if one of your sequences is too long or too short. ![]() You can look at your script as nine or ten sequences of set-up/event/response. That means every ten pages something has to be happening. One of the really great things I heard at UCLA film school was this, ‘You should never be more than seven pages away from something important happening.’ Films are getting tighter these days so I might trim that down to five pages. If you’re really stuck try a new way to look at things. Going back and re-examining structure often exposes something I need to change and once I’ve made that change the rest of the draft just falls into place.Īnd remember, there are many ways to look at structure. When I get stuck, it’s very often because something isn’t quite working. Whether you outline completely or not, if you get stuck it’s not a bad idea to go back and make sure you’ve hit all your important structural beats. When you come back to the first one you may find that you have a whole new perspective – or you may have learned something about writing from the other project. If you’ve hit a wall with one story, work on another. Various forces are going to influence what you’re working on and when you work on it. I write a third of one book, then most of another and then finish off another book I started a while ago and then go back to the first. Very often I’m asked how long it takes me to write a book, and honestly, I don’t know. If you’ve taken a break and that doesn’t work, or if you just simply cannot take a break, try writing something else. Matthew Broderick and friends take a break in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Sometimes the best thing a writer can do is not write. Reconnecting with what it means to be a regular human being-you know, the people we write about-is not a bad idea. What this means is that we don’t get a lot of days off. ![]() Most of us need day jobs which means that our writing gets pushed into the hours after work, before work, weekends, holidays, vacations and sometimes even lunch hours. One of the challenges of being a beginning writer is time. You’re having a problem writing that story. No, this is when you’re working on a project and, for some reason, you suddenly stop. This is not exactly the same as writer’s block, that’s a complete stoppage. But no matter how well you’ve chosen your story there may come a time when you get stuck. If you’re not telling a story you love that time is going to be very painful. You’re going to spend a lot of time with it, months, years, decades even. One of the things I tell beginning writers is that you have to love what you’re writing. Even great writers like Lillian Hellman (played by Jane Fonda in Julia) sometimes get stuck. ![]()
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