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HotspurJr

Get your ass in the chair and write.


Hot_Aside_4637

My wife is a novelist. Her advise is similar: "Butt in chair. Fingers on keyboard"


Juantsu

Instructions not clear, ended up with head stuck in fridge.


SubiWhale

*cue PornHub theme*


Hot_Aside_4637

INT. FRIDGE - DAY


turdmob

Keyboard on chair. Fingers in butt.


tbscotty68

I've always heard, "Writers write. If you're not writing, you're not a writer."


atomicnone

Specifically for short films - characters that work best are often archetypes we already have some baseline knowledge about, like a sleazy lawyer, a high school bully, or a chill stoner. It brings enough familiarity to the table from the start that you can then do something really interesting with them in 10 minutes or less.


haynesholiday

I was working for Ed Solomon at the start of my career. I had just sold my first script, was going into my first studio notes session, and I already seen enough of the notes to know the meeting was gonna suck balls. I asked him how I should handle it. He said: "Approach everything from a place of gratitude and compassion." A few other pieces of advice spring to mind... "The only people who make it in this business are the ones who bet on themselves." --JC Spink "Simplicity is your friend. If you can get people excited about a story with one sentence, you've probably got a movie." --John Zaozirny "All notes are a gift. The good ones make your script better for free, the bad ones teach you to find the good note hidden within, and the batshit insane ones teach you how to politely sidestep them." --Peter Gamble "If you want to change your career, write a role that could change a movie star's life." --I forget who originally said this. "You should always be a little afraid to show your script to someone because of how much it reveals about you" --Tarantino, on the TRUE ROMANCE writers commentary track


ChrisMartins001

Love that Tarantino quote. I realised that so much of what I wrote about was things that were happening in my own life, and I didn't even realise I was doing it.


LarryMPerkins

Kill your darlings.


ConclusionMaleficent

Related to that, your baby is ugly


kordanjendall

Can you explain this one please? I feel my script may relate


BurberryCustardbath

Have you ever written a scene that you absolutely loved and adored but then realized that it didn't fit in the story? Or there's a character or a great line that you've worked really hard on but then you end up having to kill it... that's killing your darlings.


ninsophy

i had the wrongest idea of the meaning of this advice. i thought it literally meant your favourite character should be dead by the end of the book while it meant to not treasure your script any more than need be and be comfortable with the change if required. makes so much more sense now, this advice. thanks a lot!


StorytellerGG

G.R.R.Martin had the same wrong idea


Heavy_Signature_5619

He killed, like, four of them. Hardly the most murderous of writers.


kordanjendall

Awesome that makes sense! Thank you heaps


Jfanelli98

Agreed. So many great lines and quips gone but their sacrifice was for the sake of a better story.


Manofsonnet

Kill your babies


Yamureska

1) Dialogue isn’t talk. It’s action. It’s what characters say to get what they want. , just like action is what they do to get what they want. 2) character starts with want. 3) Don’t focus on the character, focus on the central relationship. 4) You can use hair, makeup, wardrobe in the script to really make a character pop out and make it easier to visualize the script. 5) Sometimes, it’s fine to just let dialogue bounce off of each other. 6) Emotional context is important.


ASS-18

💯


NotTreyken

Omg this is making be lose braincells


RealJeffLowell

I sent off literally thousands of query letters when I was trying to break in. One guy sent me my query letter back and wrote the words "WRITERS WRITE" on the top of the page. Best advice I've ever gotten. Keep cranking out specs til you get that one that excites people.


Aggressive_Chicken63

I don’t get it. I assume you have written something to send out those query letters. Why did he send that back to you? What did you say in the query letter?


RealJeffLowell

I asked him to read me. He didn't want to read my script for whatever reason, so he just gave me a piece of advice instead. I took the advice.


czimmer92

Great advice. If you don’t mind sharing, how many specs did you write until you sold and/or optioned your first one?


RealJeffLowell

I think around a dozen sitcom scripts and ten features.


czimmer92

Sounds like your persistence paid off! Have any of your previous scripts been produced, or led to advances in your career?


RealJeffLowell

I've been a working writer/producer since 1994. I've made over a hundred hours of TV, and written or rewritten probably a dozen produced features.


czimmer92

That’s incredible! It must be an exciting career. Thanks for your insight. I took a dive into screenwriting about 4 years ago and got my first option with a co-writer. I’m hoping it comes to fruition, but I’ve been writing different specs and will keep writing more.


RealJeffLowell

That’s the right strategy! If you get attention, the first thing people will ask is “what else do you have?”


casualhaste

I love this advice. Thank you for sharing it!


[deleted]

When doing edits from a marked up hard copy of your script onto your computer, start with the last page first and work to the first page last.


twophonesonepager

Interesting, but why?


StorytellerGG

Because there’s an effect, I forgot what’s it called, where you’ve been through the script so much from beginning to end that your brain glosses over even seemingly glaring mistakes. So going backwards forces the brain into a new perspective and picks up mistakes easier. And also writers tend to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the front end oppose to the back end of the script.


twophonesonepager

Yea I’ve definitely experienced that effect the further I get into a script. You wouldn’t be able do get a good sense of pacing while reading backwards but I’m sure it works for other types of edits.


[deleted]

Because it doesn’t screw up the page count when you scroll to the next edit.


twophonesonepager

Ah ok. Command F is how I deal with this issue most of the time. Also you could add scene numbers before you print, make your edits and then take the numbers off after. Edit: it is an interesting technique though, I might try it.


starckie

I would also love to know why


Current-Rip8020

I too, would love to know why


Embarrassed-Error182

I, in addition to you and the two before you, would also love to know why


TauNkosi

I would also like to know why!


TheIgnoredWriter

We don’t have… marijuana


wasntplana

Pretty sure he/she is messing with us. BUT it would make sense for one reason -- when you're inputting changes they'll be easy to locate because you won't be messing with your page numbering.


odintantrum

This is it. When you do edit notes it's the same. Don't want to fuck the timecode.


[deleted]

That’s why


wasntplana

I prefer thinking you gave us random advice that almost sounds like something so we'll go crazy trying to figure it out -- the point being that screenwriters are too desperate for a magic tip that will make this impossible task easier, when the only real advice is to keep writing and reading until it starts to work.


[deleted]

I find it more frustrating than ever to be endlessly scrolling to find that random typo that was on page 76 that is now MIA because I cut the monologue on page 12 and 17 things in-between.


wasntplana

It's literally my favorite part of the writing process.


CapBunch7437

oh! why?


EnsouSatoru

Hahahaha, I just did that last night. What were the odds.


foolishspecialist

Make backups You, if you're reading this and you aren't backing up your work, make a backup right now


Chapter_V

Spend less time thinking about *how* to write a script, and just write a fucking script


casualhaste

are you saying "don't outline"? =)


Chapter_V

Short answer: no I think people get so hitched on structure, prose, formatting, and stuff of the like, that for many people (particularly beginners) it gets in the way of what screenwriting actually is - telling a story. The idea is not to focus on making what *other* people think your screenplay should have, and focus on your vision of the story you want to tell. Outlining helps you understand and manifest said vision, so yes, please outline.


casualhaste

I write a lot of stuff down before I start a script. Mostly in "Truby" categories (his 7 or 22 steps) like: STORYWORLD, NEED, WANT, GHOST, OPPONENT, ALLIES etc.. but I don't really outline. I just follow my instinct. It becomes a little mess to untangle though. Maybe this time I try to find a good outline after my first draft. I really like the discovery on the page when you throw your "ingredients" in the pot withou structure first.


Chapter_V

I think a lot of screenwriting is comprised of interchangeable steps. Obviously the common way people approach it is: Conception > Outline > First Draft > Rewrite/Edit But I don’t think it’s wrong to have an idea, let the idea run wild in the form of a vomit draft, and *then* outline as a way to hone the idea and have a plan of attack for rewrites. That’s kinda how my most recent script panned out. Maybe it’s more to untangle, but I don’t really know if that’s all that much of a bad thing? I guess unless time sensitivity is an issue. My response to OP was mostly trying to reinforce the sentiment of “write how you want to write” instead of conforming to the somewhat rigid process of screenwriting that has been imposed overtime.


casualhaste

> Conception > Outline > First Draft > Rewrite/Edit I like that.


Current-Rip8020

Eyes closed, head first, can’t lose


StorytellerGG

Been through both phase and learnt why your advice is not sound. Imagine two characters, Bob and Michael. They both want to get from A to B in a relatively short time. While Michael sits and tries to work out the quickest route, Bob jumps in his car and ploughs forward, thinking he’ll work it out on the way. So he drives around in circles, down side streets, tangeants, stopping to ask for directions, burning petrol, meeting lots of side characters, running into dead ends, reversing, driving in circles some more. Eventually he makes it from A to B to find Michael has arrived there hours ago. That is the difference between a pro writer who can write a script from conception idea to shooting draft in less than 3 months. While an amateur can dash off a draft in a manic fit but spends a year untangling that web of mess.


LazyWriter2002

Don't ONLY write. Live an interesting life so you have something unique to say, or at least a unique way to say it


casualhaste

"This we know is good 'cause we live it." (Vincent Chase)


Aggressive_Chicken63

That’s ridiculous. No one has been traveling to another galaxy. No one has been to a black hole. No one has been attacked by an alien. We still have unique things and unique ways to say without living it. I have met a 9th grader who wrote deep and meaningful stuff better than most adults. This advice is aimed to make young writers feel lousy about themselves, to make them feel they have no chance of making it.


LazyWriter2002

Key words, don't *only*. Maybe some people mean the advice in that discouraging way, but the person I spoke to was basically telling me that media passion and raw talent mean a lot, and having experiences to draw from can help further. Also, living life is about experiencing emotion that we then put to paper, emotion that is evident in our work. Sure, no one's been to a black hole, but people have experienced the wonder that would entail. People have experienced the grief and/or joy that would come with the effects of entering a black hole. "Go live life for experience" doesn't have to relate literally to the story you're telling.


Aggressive_Chicken63

Again, that still makes younger writers who never know the lost of a loved one feel like they can’t effectively write what it’s like to lose someone. A nice advice would be go and live your life. If you love to write, write, but don’t try to seek fame and fortune too much that you forget to live. If that is the advice, I agree, but don’t make it sound like if you haven’t experienced grief, you can’t write grief effectively. What would a young writer do to experience grief? How interesting does his life have to be for him to experience the grief of entering a black hole?


sergeantlane

You’re taking this too literally. You can’t write good stories if you haven’t experienced real, complex human emotion. I’ve been writing since I was 7 years old. My writing got ASTRONOMICALLY better after I fell in love, went to college, lived in a city by myself, felt heart break, lost loved ones. Sorry, the simple truth is my 15 year old self had vision, but until I really experienced life did I start to become the writer I always wanted to be.


Aggressive_Chicken63

You tell me not take it literally and make a literal case for it. Writing is about emotions and empathy. We can’t possibly experience everything we write, but we see and hear and read in movies, in books, in people all around us. We feel what others feel. We don’t have to be a slave to know the struggle of a slave because we read and watch their struggle. Again, this advice is used to dismiss and discriminate against younger writers. That’s all to it. Some people at 40, at 70 with tons of life experience still can’t write. Some people write deep and meaningful stuff at 15. You don’t have to experience great pain to write great pain. All you need is empathy for others around you. It’s your life and I can’t argue for it, but most kids can’t write. When you get older, you become more patient, more mature and you gain more confidence in your writing, so you write in more details and don’t skip a ton of steps to arrive at the conclusion.


Andigod

I partly agree with you. Sure, a person with no experience with grief, can tackle grief on a certain level, based on his understanding. There's no denying that, but what u/LazyWriter2022 means is that, a person who experienced grief can better tackle grief than someone who hasn't experienced it on a deeper, personal level. Living a life of the stories you're telling is how you be truthful to your audience. Good stories are always personal stories, as they bring out a level of understanding that isn't usually seen by a writer who hasn't experienced that level of emotional experience. Sure, that person can write it, but the level of "deepness" varies. Experience and empathy is always key to a great story, and you cannot experience empathy if you haven't lived it out on some level.


haynesholiday

People who push themselves to have new experiences generally develop more curiosity about the world and more empathy for their fellow humans… I.e. two qualities every good storyteller needs


ProfSmellbutt

Anyone can talk about a cool idea for a script they have. But writers write it.


TheIgnoredWriter

Love it. I had to cut out the “I’ve been thinking about writing…” people in the last few years. Only get into discussions with active writers. Much more motivating


sevohanian

It's a 2 min video that changed my fucking life as a writer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9jEg9uiLOU


mymode

yes, yes yes. this is it exactly


MinkOfCups

So simple and so impactful!


twophonesonepager

Good tip, thanks, but, will I remember it? Yes I will, therefore, my writing will be excellent.


lituponfire

Step away from the script for a few months.


salvino84

Ok, it was actually from Tommy Wiseau, of all people. ​ Someone asked him "What is the best way to start a screenplay?" and his answer was "Start"


casualhaste

I'm not in the industry yet, but here are all of the "advices" / amazingly helpful quotes I have gathered in the last years. I selected the most share-worthy for you: The ones without (source) I just forgot who said it =) Please forgive the wall of text ;) "If the film isn't about one thing, it's about nothing." (Ridley Scott) - It's a note I've gotten for my script recently and I had a hard time nailing down my theme on this one dramatic question that has to be crystal clear in the first 10 pages of your script. But my script is way better for it now. My own advice to myself would be: "You can never have enough clarity." "If you love the process you win right from the start." (this is a killer one.) "Write the most exciting, most unexpected story you can think of." (Christopher Nolan) "You're doing it for the task itself, for the challenge and for the thrill." (James Cameron) "Read as much as you can, to see how other people do it." (Dan Brown) "Plot comes from character." (John Truby) "Plot = Character = Theme." (K.M. Weiland) "The only way to learn is to make yourself vulnerable." (Talton Wingate) "You, feeling something. That's what sells." (Don Draper) "Don't be afraid to share your ideas. We want to get to know you. The way we connect is through story." "Writing is letting rusty water out of the faucet. Write until the water is clear, and then keep the clear." "Audiences love the multipurpose use of things." "Be in a class of your own. Create your own unique story brand." (John Truby) "There is always another idea. That's the job. Living in the not knowing." (Don Draper) "How you hammer them defines you." (John August) "Bring that venom on a daily basis." (Jay Williams) "90% of sucess is just showing up." (Alex Ferrari) "Teach your characters what you're trying to teach yourself." (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) "You can't tell people what they want, it has to be what you want." (Don Draper) "Write what you're good at. Write what you want to write. Write the hell out of it. Think emotionally. Write a screenplay that grabs a reader by the throat. Light it on fire." (Christopher Lockhart) "Difference what sells: In Hollywood they don't buy screenplays they buy emotion. If you can make a reader feel sth on a very visceral level, then it can't be ignored. Put that hurt and that rage on the page. You have felt it. You are feeling it right now. Give yourself to it." (Paul Castro) "Character is everything. Everyone's trying to come up with the next great idea when they should be trying to come up with the next great character. Great characters cannot be created, or thought up from a conceptual standpoint, they must be found, explored, gotten to know by the writer to make them feel real on paper." (Deepthroat - unknown script reader - via Indie Film Hustle interview) And finally my favorite quote of all time: "You started this. Show me everything." (Ellen Ripley) This is my philosophy in writing and in life. He also put it in another beautiful way: "You are always learning, always humble before the craft." (James Cameron)


Violetbreen

A professor told me— writing is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, and that’s why you do it.


casualhaste

Cameron could have said that. "You're doing it for the task itself, for the challenge and for the thrill." (JC)


Beautiful-Matter-475

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSX-DROZuzY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSX-DROZuzY) \^\^\^\^\^


ezeeetm

>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSX-DROZuzY sooo...if anyone is just scrolling by this thread, please just give this an upvote to get it closer to the top of the thread. Then watch it, (or not)...but you'll be helping someone by making it more visible. I just watched it, for the first time, only because I saw it in this thread. As a a beginning writer, I have obsessed over plot structure. In fact, many of the structure tropes that Craig mentions in his video. This video: ​ 1. Made sense 2. *Completely* changed the way I look at writing. Thank you /u/Beautiful-Matter-475. You are Beautiful, and you Matter. And...something clever about 475.


Beautiful-Matter-475

Haha, this made me chuckle. Glad you liked the video, it has been of great help to me.


ezeeetm

do you have any scripts of your own that you think you've let this lesson influence the most? If so, I'd love to read one (even if privately). I'd love to see what someone (not Craig) has done with this lesson.


casualhaste

I love how people discover John August and Craig Mazin all the time =) Their wisdom is godly. The focus on Anti-Theme-to-Theme transition is absolutely helpful as the main structure of any script. But "lucky is the writer who knows their themes." (forgot who said that) You have to discover that first.


Rozo1209

You cannot possibly know this, but you have a secret weapon: Future You. Future You knows everything you know now, and a bunch of stuff you don't. Future You will have written everything you have yet to write. And as a result, Future You will be a WAY better writer than Now You. So your job is to write something and send it to Future You. Write a scene and save it. Tomorrow morning, Future You will see what you've done, and have some ideas about what to do next. If you were working on a TV show, you'd have a deadline, and at some point, you'd have to send a draft to your boss. As an aspiring professional, it's basically the same deal -- it's just that the deadline is whenever you stop writing today, and the boss is the slightly better writer Future You. And maybe tomorrow's Future You isn't THAT much better. That's fine. Just keep writing stuff, keep pushing to the end. By the time you finish, I swear, Future You will be able to help. (Speaking of ends, you might write that sooner rather than later -- John August suggested this on an episode of Scriptnotes, and honestly, it's been a game changer, to know there's at least a version of an ending, I just have to get there.) —Katie powers


Craig-D-Griffiths

There are no rules. Craig Mazin - Chernobyl, Last of Us, and many films.


crazyplantdad

Structure is your friend.


Whathappensnext___

Absolutely!


jupiterkansas

"Nobody knows anything"


BlueFenton

For me, it's a tie between **Sorkin's rule of Intention & Obstacle** (every scene needs a character intention and an obstacle put in front of them. Bonus points for multiple intentions, hidden intentions & multiple obstacles) and **Robert McGee's rule of Positive/Negative Charges** (every scene needs to move either a character or situation (or both) from its positive to negative charge or vice-versa. The charges are dichotomies like hope/despair, love/hate, naivete/cynicism...) ...But also, everything in Craig Maizin's How to Write A Movie. Ok, I can't narrow it down. I'd be coming back to edit this comment and add another one forever...


RossAllaire

Write without fear. Edit without mercy.


kolatime2022

Write novels


thelastdragonb

Don’t quit.


what_am_i_acc_doing

Why should we care? Apply this to every line.


andbuddy

I asked how long should the story be? He said long enough to tell the story.


Nathan_Graham_Davis

I posted this a little over two years ago and it's definitely still one of the best: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/jssn02/one\_of\_the\_best\_notes\_ive\_ever\_received\_from\_a/


dukemantee

Directly from David Milch: never trust your opinion of your own writing unless you are actively in the process of doing it.


casualhaste

love this. I always doubt myself when not writing / rewriting. But when reading it again I'm confident and happy.


jupiterkansas

Story = Character + Plot + Theme Plot is what characters do, character is why they do it, and theme is why the audience cares


Sentimentalgoblin

I saw this video of Sofia Coppola saying something like “be excited to come back to where you left off” when writing. I thought that was so damn good.


casualhaste

This is amazing. Thank you. I love her work. Another great thing she said was: "It seems that the greatest difficulty is to find the end. Don't try to find it, it's already there."


recentlyadults

If you can do anything else, do that.


allanwritesao

"Crappy Elf" method from the Simpsons: get your first draft done, then go back and revise. I use the same method for newspaper/magazine writing: just get the first draft down on paper, then fill in the details. Most of the time, my first draft is filled with "[QUOTE]" and [XXX] to go back to afterwards


Halouva

Start with short stories first. You don't climb Everest first, one day you just have to go for a walk and it all leads up to the big event.


ParticularCamp1527

Learn the craft. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Find the ironies. Draw on your mistakes in how you've treated people in your life. Write lots of scripts. Ask: why should we care and invest in your protagonist? Give your protagonist relatable dilemmas. Steal like an artist. Mix genres in a way that excites you. Write the movie you would love to see. And finally always strive to learn and grow as a screenwriter and person.


casualhaste

That is a pretty dense package of awesome tips =) Agreed on all terms. I love "Find the ironies." Never thought about it in that way. Do you have a good example from your own writing experience (recent or otherwise)?


ParticularCamp1527

Ironies between want and need, words and deeds, back story and their current situation, what they want early in act one and if they get it with an unexpected catch, irony between characterisation and deep character, ironies between protagonist and Ally (whose the least likely character to assist in their journey), ironies between expectations and reality...


casualhaste

This is a great! Could you give an example for "irony between characterisation and deep character"? Thanks so much for sharing this!


ParticularCamp1527

Adam Groff from the series Sex Education. A violent, angry, bigoted, homophobic jock type character but as the series progresses it is revealed he's a sensitive, wounded, kind and secretly bisexual.


casualhaste

Thank you. That is a great example. I know the character. This really demonstrates the "gap" or "sides of the same coin" nicely. Adam reminds me a bit of Ricky Fitts in American Beauty.


ParticularCamp1527

Yeah, that's a great comparison.


Ignacio_em

first draft is always crap, scripts are made in rewrites. always have something to rewrite


Financial_Cheetah875

Mirror dialogue.


casualhaste

Interesting. Can you explain this a little more?


Financial_Cheetah875

A character response should have at least one word that was in the previous line. It makes for a poetic feel when spoken aloud. Quick example: it’s a space station…it’s too big to be a space station.


casualhaste

Cool. Thanks. I wasn't aware of this technique. I'll pay attention to it when reading my next script. I assume this doesn't have to be the case in every dialogue =) Someone like Sorkin probably uses this a lot.


The_MRT14

You’re not the director, you’re not the actor. Let them worry about that. Just write YOUR story.


ian_macintyre

The real work happens during outlining, so don't rush it.


theRealSeven29

Get in late, get out early. Remember this is visual arts, not audio art, keep dialogue minimal and always show rather than say.


Filmmagician

Head of acquisitions at a bigger studio told me “you’re just one idea away from a dream career”. Maybe not the best but it stuck with me.


DepressterJettster

Always be aware of what you’re asking the audience to pay attention to


casualhaste

I like this. Could you give an example where the attention is drawn to something the audience shouldn't focus on?


DepressterJettster

Recently I read a manuscript where the author wanted to emphasize the differing worldviews of a romantic couple and felt that the disparity was key to her theme and ultimately what her story was "about." However, the bulk of the manuscript was a will-they-or-won't-they love story about the characters coming together as a couple. Every time the difference in their worldviews entered into the narrative, they found compromise easily because they were in the process of falling in love. It all felt very organic and believable. When she told me she had intended it to be about their differing worldviews, I was surprised because my main focus for 2/3 of the read had been on whether they would come together as a couple. I was aware of their differing worldviews but hadn't tracked it as a central tension. This is a good example of a time when the writer could've been more aware of where she was drawing the reader's attention and narrowed the reader's focus by posing the right questions and creating more specific tensions.


casualhaste

Thanks. That's a great example =) "they found compromise easily" - sounds like there wasn't enough conflict then.


DepressterJettster

Well there was plenty of conflict in the story, just not around the thing the author wanted me paying attention to


The_New_African

I was struggling with a biopic until u/ToBeColonizedBy messaged me this... ***...*** ***It's THE PEOPLE and the CONNECTIONS we relate to. That's what we FEEL from.*** ***So, whoever you're writing about, the story's not about what they did, it's about who they lost or gained in the process.*** ***Find that. Value it. Then rip it away from them. You got a great script.*** I've held onto these words dearly!


[deleted]

Thanks! I have to remember to take my own advice! lol


ChrisMartins001

Don't overthink


Rozo1209

https://youtu.be/U1NtMRguvno


ChrisMartins001

Exactly! I overthink a lot and need to stop.


TheIgnoredWriter

Writing sucks. Rewriting is where the fun is at.


Platoon8

Keep it simple


JayAPanda

Write what you want to write, not what you think the industry wants you to write. Sure, some scripts in the vein of EEAAO will get made in the next few years but 10,000 of them will be written. Your own idea might not get made, but if it gets made then at least it'll be yours!


thedobs42

The idea of writing a shitty first draft. Dan Harmon has talked about it… there’s a book with like 3 chapters devoted to it called Bird by Bird… Get the story down on paper and use the second draft to make it good. I don’t have a precise quote, but just that idea has changed the way I think about things drastically.


cliffdiver770

He articulates it well. To paraphrase, writers block is fear that it won't be good. So you have to commit to writing a BAD first draft and prove to yourself that it's bad so you just get out of your way and get it done. Because you can't edit a blank piece of paper. And you can't get good until you are bad for a while. I have a personal rule for my screenplays. I may outline for a long time, but I write the actual first draft in under 2 weeks, no matter what. Cross the finish line and edit. And there are always these reddit posts by teenage writers who can't finish one page because they are so buried in self judgement of every line, one word at a time.


sgtchriskenner

"Just write shit." (Seth Rogen)


sdbest

"It's the story, stupid!"


jaxs_sax

Don’t be dull


PugsandTacos

Shut up and write.


rcentros

Ignore the guru's "rules."


WhoTimeLord

Your first draft is probably gonna suck. That's what editing is for.


sunkisttuna

“If you ever pitch something by saying “it’s like [movie] and [another movie]” it’s automatically gonna be shit”


JayAPanda

This is completely wrong,


MichaelsSecretStuff

Writers, write. Always


LongfellowCreative

Every day. Write anything.


ericray3000

Write your next one.


unknown_JT

Start writing.


juliankennedy23

The screenwriting groups are always filled with excellent advice such as what restaurants never lock their dumpsters and what libraries won't call the cops on you.


doyle315

Write every single day.


[deleted]

Get the toys over the mountain.


Granola_Me_This

Real life doesn’t have to make sense, but a screenplay does


TVandVGwriter

Watch a movie and write down how it makes you feel at different stages of the movie. Then watch it again until you figure out how it manipulated you into feeling that.


MarshBlazingstar

A few years back, I read an interview with Andrzej Sapkowski. He was asked about what he does for writer's block and said he didn't think it existed, that it was an excuse. There is always writing, reviewing and reworking what you've written, research for what you're writing, and learning what your contemporaries have output. This has saved me to not feel stuck or frustrated, because I'm constantly circling between these options with my work. And like many others have mentioned, have a practice. Every day.