Here are some words of advice from several bestselling authors to motivate and inspire you whenever you're feeling blocked or you can't seem to ditch the writing doldrums...
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In this video, Francis Ford Coppola discusses the creative process and describes the steps he went through to write one of his recent projects. I like how he points out early in the video that he's confident he can make a good film with good cinematography but it all comes down to the writing.
One of the most important points Coppola makes is this: writers can get better with practice. If you learn only one thing from this video, let it be that.
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Earlier this year, Merlin Mann gave a talk at MaxFunCon about creativity and the act of producing creative work. One of his points resonated with me and I want to share it here because it’s so important for writers.
He said:
“How many of you have thought more about the kind of notebook you buy than what you’d like to write as a result of it?”
~ and ~
“We create these mental barriers for ourselves about all the things that just need to change a little bit before we can get started...If I just had this one little thing that was a little bit different, I’d feel so great about starting this project.”
I see this so often with writers. I’ve even been guilty of it a few times myself. How many times have you said to yourself, “If I had that particular software (or gadget, or tool), I’d write”? How many times have you procrastinated about writing and blamed your lack of productivity on the need for the perfect notebook, pen, or other gizmo?
Writing is not about the toys. It’s not about the gadgets or the software. You don’t need that fancy Moleskine notebook. It might make you look hip but it won’t make you a better writer. Writing makes you a better writer.
If you’re always waiting until you have the latest greatest tool before you start writing, you’ll never write. When you make that gadget a requirement for getting the words down on paper, you give yourself a permanent obstacle, because as soon as you acquire your current item of desire, you’ll come across yet another item and the cycle will begin again.
The real problem isn’t your need for the perfect gadget. The real problem goes much deeper than that. It's rooted in fear – fear of failure, fear of success, fear of change, fear your writing sucks and nobody will want to read it.
If you still want that fancy new tool, make it a reward you give yourself after you write, after you complete your first draft or meet a specific goal.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy whatever notebook you feel most comfortable writing in or use tools that help you work more efficiently. It’s much easier to write a screenplay when you’re using software that formats everything for you. Tools and software are not always bad. The problem arises when acquiring such-and-such new toy becomes a hurdle you’ve convinced yourself you need to overcome before you can write.
There's only one thing that will kill this form of procrastination swiftly and mercilessly: Write something every day.
It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. It doesn’t have to be long. You just need to make an honest effort to get some words on paper every single day. If you need help with this, check out my post about how to form a daily writing habit.
When you write something every day, the excuses begin to fall away and eventually all you’re left with is the act of writing. It’s a beautiful thing.
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Many people believe creativity is a trait you're born with. It's a gift. You either have it or you don't.
This is simply not true.
Each of us is creative. It's our natural state of being. As children, we don't hesitate to use our imagination in every aspect of life. We welcome creativity and embrace it as an integral part of who we are.
Unfortunately, too many of us stifle that sense of wonder and suppress our imaginations as we grow into adulthood. Caught up in the daily grind, we forget what it was like to be creative.
Even writers suffer from this problem on occasion. We get into a slump and begin to suspect we're not as creative as we once thought.
Today, I'm going to give you three simple steps for boosting your creativity. Follow these steps and you'll soon discover how easy it is to embrace your creative nature.
Step 1
Give yourself permission to be creative. Turn off the inner voice that says "I'm not a creative person."
This sounds like a simple thing to do, but it's the most challenging step. With creativity, mindset is everything. How you talk to yourself about being creative is nine tenths of the game. Your inner dialogue matters. From now on, make an effort to only allow thoughts that affirm your status as a creative individual.
Recognize creativity in everyday activities. Realize your creative nature is present at all times, not just when you're writing.
Step 2
Respect your muse. When you get an idea, don't immediately dismiss it or tell yourself "This idea stinks. Nobody is going to want to read this." If you tell yourself over and over again that your ideas stink, your muse will decide you don't appreciate its input. It will go into hibernation and the new ideas will stop coming.
Does this mean you have to pursue every story idea that pops into your head? No. It means you accept each idea as something worth considering.
Jot down every idea in your notebook or journal, or create an idea file on your computer and add a few notes about any new ideas that come to mind. I have a Word document named "Story Ideas" on my computer. Whenever I get a new idea, I open the file and add the details. I don't worry about whether the idea seems crazy or not. I can worry about that later when I'm deciding which ideas would make great stories. I also carry a pocket-sized notebook with me at all times for making notes about new story ideas, characters, scenes, or dialogue.
Step 3
Explore new situations. Eat something you've never eaten before. Visit new places. Listen to music from artists you're never heard of.
Get outside your comfort zone. Do things you wouldn't normally do. Go for a walk in the rain. Try an activity that intimidates you.
Feed your mind. Every new experience will nourish your creative soul.
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The past two weeks have been eye-opening. My mother was admitted to the hospital for emergency surgery. It was a harsh wake-up call and forced me to think about an important detail I sometimes fail to keep in mind:
We're not immortal. We don't live forever. Our dreams have an expiration date.
Read that again. Your dreams have an expiration date.
If you want to be a writer, go after that dream now. Don't wait. Don't put it off until later. There might not be a later. Yes, it's a morbid thought, but it's the truth that comes with being human. We're mortal beings with a finite amount of time to spend on this earth.
How do you want to spend that time?
You can spend it procrastinating, thinking about the day you'll finish your novel, dreaming about your name appearing on the bestseller lists. Or you could spend that time writing. If you spend all your days dreaming and not doing, you'll grow old and look back on your life with regret over the things you never did.
Dreaming is essential, especially for writers, but taking action is just as vital. It's the only way you'll ever turn those dreams into reality.
Here's a little technique to help you along. It takes only a minute or two but it's a great way to jolt yourself into action.
Step 1 – Sit back, close your eyes, and imagine what your life will be like five years from now if you've spent those five years taking action to achieve your dreams. In this scene, you've taken concrete steps toward your goal. You've succeeded at writing and publishing your novel or selling your screenplay. Spend a moment picturing this in vivid detail.
Step 2 – Now, imagine what your life will be like five years from now if you haven't taken those steps, if you haven't taken action toward your goal. Picture it in the same vivid detail. This version of your future stinks, doesn't it? I'm betting it's not nearly as exciting or fulfilling as the future you imagined in Step 1.
That's it. That's all there is to it. You've seen future #1 and future #2. Which future do you want for yourself and what are you going to do to make that future a reality?
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I finally had a chance to see Tales From the Script last night. Every screenwriter should check out this documentary. It features interviews with forty-four screenwriters -- including William Goldman, Frank Darabont, Steven de Souza, and Shane Black -- who discuss the film industry, the development process, and the ups and downs that come with being a writer.
It is at some points discouraging and at other points motivating and inspiring. You'll hear from writers who have penned more than thirty scripts but only sold one or two, and you'll hear from Academy Award winning writers who have sold one screenplay after another.
My favorite part of the film was Kris Young's comment comparing screenwriting to the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan -- thousands of soldiers land on the beach and are mowed down by gunfire, but a few make it through and survive. Yes, it's a dramatic analogy, but if anyone is allowed to be dramatic, shouldn't it be a screenwriter?
I also loved this quote from Dennis Palumbo: "Writers are egomaniacs with low self-esteem."
You can get Tales From the Script through Netflix, and it's also available on DVD through Amazon.com
Here's the trailer:
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It takes being in the right mood to write a powerful scene, and music is the one thing that always puts me in that mood. Not just any music, but music that has already made it onto the big screen.
What better way to put yourself in the perfect mood to imagine vivid and intense scenes than to immerse yourself in a full orchestral film score that sweeps you off your feet?
A great score can add layers of tension, drama, and emotion to a film. Those same tension-inducing effects can impact your writing experience. For me, a few minutes of listening to the right film score is all it takes to trigger my mind to dream up scenes packed with visual imagery.
Whenever you're in doubt about how music can influence the feel of a scene, try muting the sound on your television and watching a few scenes minus the music. The difference can't be missed.
Here's a suggestion for those times when you just can't seem to get into the writing groove: Visit your local music store, Amazon.com, or the iTunes Store and pick up the CD or MP3 version of your favorite film score. Try to choose a film with the same mood or tone as the scenes you intend to write.
Sit back, close your eyes, and let the music wash over you for a while. Don't try to write anything yet. Just listen and imagine. Let your creativity go to work while the rest of you relaxes.
Allow your mind to wander and eventually you'll discover scenes forming there. Let those scenes unfold slowly and gradually as the music plays. Notice the impact the music has on how the scenes play out. The tone, the pacing, even the dialogue or action can be influenced, but more importantly, the visual imagery will be enhanced. From there, it's up to you to put that imagery into words.
If you use this method often enough, you'll discover you have favorite composers just as you have favorite rock bands. Each composer has his or her own sound, and you'll inevitably be drawn to some more than others. One of my favorites is Hans Zimmer, who composed the scores for Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, and too many other films to list here. I've owned the Gladiator soundtrack since it was first released and I still haven't tired of listening to it. I play Trevor Morris' score from season 1 of The Tudors almost as often. There are plenty of other composers worth checking out: James Horner, Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, and John Williams, to name a few.
Another favorite of mine is Justin Durban, a young composer who has created music for several independent films as well as movie trailers and video games. His music has the same rich, evocative quality as Zimmer's, and I predict he'll someday reach the same level of fame and popularity. You can download free MP3 versions of some of Justin's music on his web site.
How about you? What kind of music gets you in the mood to write?
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I don't usually share material I created for a work-in-progress, but I think some writers might find this example useful. It's part of an in-depth character study I wrote while working through Holly Lisle's downloadable "Create a Character" course (which you can get through her web site for under $10). Along with dozens of techniques for creating realistic and compelling characters, the course includes a ton of questions to help you explore below the surface of each character. The questions aren't always easy. Many of them force you to really dig deep for answers.
Some people think this type of character study is overkill. I don't agree. Working through these questions and seriously contemplating the answers has helped me get to know my characters much more deeply.
When you know your characters so well, you never have doubts about how they would act or react in a situation. Everything they do and say flows from the core of who they are, consciously and subconsciously. If you write a scene in which your character does something that isn't true to who he is, you'll instinctively know something is wrong with the scene.
In the character study you'll find here, I included only a tiny subset of the questions covered in the course. You'll probably notice most of the questions focus on one specific area of the character's psyche, but you can see how with just a handful of questions you can gain plenty of insight into your characters. I chose this particular segment because it's a good demonstration of how each facet of your character's personality and background will directly affect his interactions with other characters.
If you find this process of character development valuable, I recommend grabbing a copy of the full course, especially since it's so inexpensive. It's full of practical techniques and it's more useful than an entire shelf full of how-to books about creating characters.
I referred to the character by his initials in this example because at the time this was written I hadn't fully committed to the name I was considering giving him. (Finding the perfect name for your character is half the fun.)
Here's the only backstory you'll need in order to understand my notes:
When he was 16, TK accidentally killed his father, and he's been living with the guilt ever since. Thinking the only thing he's good for is killing people, he takes on a job as a contract killer. He's been doing that job for about a decade before the story opens. (I love to write dark, conflicted characters. This one has been a blast to write.)
These notes are rough, not edited and polished, because most of the time I'm the only person who ever sees this stuff. It's a bit long, so if you'd rather read it in printed format, here's a link to the PDF version.
** TK character study **
What are TK’s compelling needs?
To overcome his guilt for his father’s death.
To be able to trust someone; to find someone he can trust completely (particularly a woman, since the lack of trust is primarily due to his mother’s betrayal).
Does he pursue his compelling needs?
On a deeper level, he recognizes he can’t go through his entire life without ever trusting anyone or ever connecting with anyone, but on the surface he’s jaded, he thinks trusting people (especially women) is just setting yourself up for betrayal later. Other than Liz, his sister, the closest he has come to trusting anyone is Hank (whom he unconsciously sees as a father figure) and Father Murphy (whom he unconsciously treats as his conscience), but even with the two of them he still withholds a huge part of himself.
He doesn’t fully recognize his need to overcome his guilt, so he pursues that need in a backward way. Instead of trying to overcome it, he accepts being a killer as his fate. He figures he should take on the task of killing others so someone else doesn’t have to take on that task, especially since he’s already guilty of one death.
Does he flee his compelling needs?
He flees his need to trust someone. He instead isolates himself, builds psychological walls around himself, shuts down his emotions whenever they try to surface.
He flees his need to overcome his guilt. Instead, he wears the guilt like a mantle (i.e., I’m already guilty of that much so I might as well take on more guilt to spare others from having to do it; it’s my fate, etc.)
Is he more motivated to avoid pain or to achieve pleasure?
He’s more motivated to avoid pain. He avoids forming relationships because he fears the pain of being betrayed. He’s been so successful at walling off his emotions that he’s not even sure he can let go enough to achieve real joy anyway. On a subconscious level, he realizes overcoming his guilt will require facing it, accepting the incident for the accident it really was, accepting himself as being human and as being worthy. Since he doesn’t know how to do that, he accepts the guilt instead of trying to overcome it. He lives with it always in the back of his mind. It underlies the core of who he is, and he’s afraid that without it he won’t know who he really is; i.e., when the guilt is gone, what’s left? Who will remain? What will take its place?
Who knows about this need?
Liz knows about it. She recognizes what caused it and she sees how it manifests in him. But she doesn’t push him. He believes she's the only person who accepts him for who he really is. She's the only person he has ever fully trusted. But, he isolates himself from her because he's afraid he'll taint her somehow just by being around her, and because he's worried he'll inadvertently put her in danger due to the nature of his work.
His mother doesn’t understand what the guilt has done to him over the years, nor does she understand why he feels betrayed by her. She still blames him for his father’s death and treats TK as if it was he who abandoned her instead of her who threw him out and abandoned him.
Father Murphy and Hank both are aware of the circumstances of TK’s father’s death and what it has done to TK, but they approach it from different directions. Father Murphy treats it as something TK needs to forgive himself for instead of carrying around the guilt for the rest of his life, and Hank sees it as something TK can channel productively into his work.
How did he acquire his job?
Hank recruited TK while TK was living in the church after his mother threw him out. Hank and Father Murphy are old friends.
With whom does he work?
Hank is TK’s handler, but TK works alone. He doesn’t like to work with others (partly because he’s worried he’ll get them hurt or killed, and partly because he doesn’t trust other people enough to rely on them). When he finds himself having to work with Alexandra, it’s unsettling for him because he’s not used to relying on anyone else.
How does his work benefit him?
It gives him a way to feel less guilt about his father’s death because he can convince himself killing people is his fate, his purpose in life. Many of his jobs require killing truly despicable people, and in a way he feels like by killing them himself he’s sparing someone else the task of killing them and therefore sparing someone else the burden of that guilt.
His job also allows him to remain anonymous. It allows him to work on his own. It allows him to continue living without having to form connections to anyone, without having to build long-term relationships with anyone.
What did he learn in order to do his job?
He had to learn how to fight (something he’d already had a head-start on due to having to live on the street for a while as a teenager after his mother threw him out). The year he spent on the street made him into even more of a loner, but it also made him streetwise.
He had to learn how to use weapons, though he usually prefers to work without them. It’s too difficult to get weapons through security in most places nowadays, so he feels it’s better to know how to take someone out without having to rely on a weapon.
He had to refine his people-reading/body language skills and psychology/manipulation skills, which he originally picked up as a kid by watching his father. He has become extremely skilled at reading people.
How does his work extract a price from him?
As long as he continues to kill people and continues to treat murder as a job, he’ll never really be able to fully forgive himself for causing his father’s death. Part of him hopes someday he fails and someone kills him instead, because he thinks that’s what it will really take for justice to be done. And if someone kills him, he’ll finally experience relief from the guilt.
What are his private interests/hobbies?
He enjoys swimming, especially underwater and especially at night with the lights out, because it gives him a chance to feel like he’s floating in a void, with no sense of space or time, no pressures, no responsibilities, no guilt, just dark nothingness stretching in every direction.
His other hobby is photography. The camera is another layer of protection for him, a wall he can put up between himself and other people. It also gives him an excuse to travel. He enjoys going overseas to take photos in dangerous locations, places where he has to push himself harder and harder.
What does he believe his future holds for him?
Probably more of the same. He takes things day-by-day, one day at a time. He’s not sure how much more of a future he has, because nearly all his jobs are dangerous and could result in his death. Right now, he’s focused on his work because he feels like he’s making a difference.
He’d like to think someday he’ll be capable of opening up to someone, trusting someone enough to have a real relationship, etc., though he usually considers that possibility in more of a dreamy “well that would be nice but it’ll never happen” sort of way. He’s afraid he’ll connect with someone and then be betrayed and end up hurt and alone. He doesn’t realize by avoiding relationships and avoiding forming any true connections with anyone, he’s going to end up alone anyway. He has essentially created a self-fulfilling prophecy without realizing it.
What is the best thing happening to him currently?
He’s been assigned to protect Alex and to uncover information about what happened with the murders and the research study. It’s good for him (even though he doesn’t realize it) because it’s forcing him to work closely with someone else, to connect with someone else. In working with her, he’s also able to see her situation (having a father around but not being able to enjoy it because her father has Alzheimer’s) and realizes losing his father was not the end of the world and the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
What is the worst thing happening to him currently?
Liz is missing and he has to hunt down the people who took her before it's too late.
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Screenwriters, check out this funny and clever video. It makes fun of almost every movie trailer cliche ever used.
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