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.

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:

Click here to view the embedded video.

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?

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.

Screenwriters, check out this funny and clever video. It makes fun of almost every movie trailer cliche ever used.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In my quest to become a better writer, I've taken classes, read dozens of how-to books, kept a journal, and joined local and online writing groups. After all this time, I've learned there is one habit that will improve your writing more than any other:

Write every day.

It seems so simple, yet any writer knows it's rarely as easy as it sounds. You come up with excuses -- you don't have enough spare time, the laundry needs to be done, you need to organize the files on your hard drive, you're tired after a long day at work -- and you tell yourself you'll write something tomorrow. And when tomorrow rolls around, you come up with new excuses to justify why you aren't writing.

Believe me, I've been there. I've also discovered the biggest drawback to that mindset: The longer you go without writing, the harder it is to get back to it.

If you don't write regularly, the words dry up. The blank page becomes even more intimidating than it already was. The longer you put off writing, the more your talent and skills will atrophy.

The self-loathing also kicks in and you start hating yourself for not writing. You sink further into a pit of despair and doubt. You're frustrated and maybe even depressed, so you don't feel like writing, which means another day goes by and the frustration and self-loathing grows stronger. This cycle continues, feeding on itself and intensifying, until eventually one of two things happens. You give up altogether and set aside your dream of being a writer, or you sit your ass down and write something.

Here are a few things you can do to ditch the despair and develop a daily writing habit you'll actually stick to:

Stop waiting to feel motivated to write

I used to think I lacked motivation, until I realized motivation isn't some mystical force the universe bestows on those who are worthy. Don't wait around for motivation. It isn't going to arrive on its own. In fact, stop thinking of motivation as a necessary condition for writing.

Instead, think of writing as something you're required to do every day, like eating, sleeping, or brushing your teeth. You don't need to be motivated to do those things. You just accept them as part of your day.

Stop waiting for inspiration

William Faulkner once said, "I write only when I'm inspired. Fortunately I'm inspired at 9 o’clock every morning." It's tough to find a better way to convey that point.

Write something every day, whether you feel creative or not. If you're staring at a blank page and nothing comes to mind, write about how you're staring at a blank page and nothing is coming to mind. Write a description of the room you're sitting in. Write about your plans for the day. Just write something. After you've been writing for a few minutes, the resistance will break down and the words will start to flow.

Find ways to remind yourself to write

Keep the idea of writing always in the forefront of your mind. Stick post-it notes in prominent places -- the bathroom mirror, your computer monitor, the refrigerator door, and anywhere else you're guaranteed to see them. Change your reminders every few weeks. If you don't, they'll become part of the scenery and you'll stop noticing them.

Place a note in your wallet where you'll see it every time you reach for money or your credit card.

Use a site like HassleMe to send yourself automated reminders via email to write something every day.

Work on your self-discipline, but be gentle

Start with something small. Write for five minutes every day, or write one paragraph each day, or write 100 words per day. Create a goal that's easy to meet. Every time you meet your goal, you'll feel like you've accomplished something worthwhile. This will keep you coming back for more.

Build up to one hour per day, or one page per day, or 500 words per day, but do it gradually. Don't push yourself too quickly to set higher goals. Wait until you've met or exceeded your current goal for at least a few weeks or more before you set a new goal.

Don't hate yourself if you don't meet your goals. Forgive yourself and start fresh the next day. Research indicates self-blame is counterproductive and you’ll procrastinate less if you forgive yourself. Remember what I said earlier about self-loathing? It's a vicious cycle, and if you're not careful it can spiral out of control. You can end the cycle by putting the past behind you and focusing on the writing you're going to do today.

Fear of failure is something that keeps many people from writing. They dream of being published but hold back because they're afraid their writing isn't good enough. They worry other people will read it and think it sucks.

Sometimes this fear is enough to stop a writer from sending her manuscript out to agents and publishers. Sometimes it's enough to stop her from writing anything at all.

In my experience, there is only one surefire way to overcome this fear -- give yourself the freedom to fail.

Give yourself permission to suck. In fact, don't just give yourself permission. Expect your first draft to suck. That's why it’s called the first draft -- because it's the first in a planned series of drafts, each hopefully better than the last. Even bestselling authors don't turn out perfect prose on their first try.

One screenwriter I know refers to her first draft as the "vomit draft", nicknamed as such because the process involves spewing forth the words as quickly as possible without letting the messiness of it all slow you down.

Give yourself the freedom to write crappy material. Don't worry about how it sounds. Don't worry about grammar or spelling errors. Don't worry about anything other than the fact that if you don't try, you'll never know. If you don't write, you'll never publish that novel. You'll never sell that screenplay. You'll grow old thinking and wishing about what you could have done.

Turn off your internal editor and just get the words on paper.

This is more difficult than it sounds. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, your internal editor just won't shut up. When that happens, take a five-minute break and have a friendly little chat with it. Tell it you value its opinion, you're grateful for its help, and very soon it will have its time in the spotlight, but at the moment your goal is to give it some words to play with later. The operative word here is "later". Not now, when your only objective is to get through the first draft.

So don't just give yourself permission to write badly. Plan it. Tell yourself, "This draft is going to stink, and that's perfectly fine with me." When your first draft is finished, it probably won't stink nearly as much as you expected it to, but if it really does stink, that's okay. It's a learning experience. Every chapter, scene, and draft is one more step along the path.

If you give yourself the freedom to fail, every page you write will bring you closer to success.

As screenwriters, we're constantly told to "think in film" -- to imagine each scene unfolding in our mind as if it's being played out on the big screen. To complicate that sagely advice, we're also told not to use camera angles or shot descriptions in our scripts.

So what can you do?

Simple: skip the camera directions and find better ways to convey the same imagery.

Here are some examples:

Let's say you're writing a script about a burglary and you want to open the scene with the image of the burglar's gloved hand. You have two choices: use the camera directions or not. (Hint: Always go with "or not".)

An example of how NOT to write the scene:

Instead, convey the same imagery without the camera directions:

Voila! Same imagery, no camera directions.

Another example of how NOT to write a scene:

What does a slow pan have to do with the story? Absolutely nothing. Remember, it's the story you're concerned with, not the filming of the story. If something isn't integral to the storyline, remove it. If it is integral to your story, find a way to weave those words without referring to camera directions.

As a general rule, the easiest way to convert your script to spec-friendly format is to eliminate any and all filmmaking terminology that falls between FADE IN and FADE OUT. Delete the CUT TOs, strike out the CLOSE UPs and remove the PANs. Avoid using anything other than the required sluglines.

Direct your film by writing in the visual style of shots and camera directions without referring to the shots and camera directions themselves. For a more detailed explanation of how to direct your script by writing your action in a style that automatically flows from shot to shot, also check out the previous article called Using White Space to Hold a Reader's Attention.

Standard disclaimer: Please note, web browsers do not allow for the presentation of a screenplay in its correct format. Excerpts and examples of screenplays found in these articles should not be used as examples of proper screenplay layout. To learn how to properly format your screenplay, David Trottier's The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script is an excellent reference.

At one time or another, every writer searches her heart and mind for a great story idea and comes up short. The muse is silent. The motivation is gone. The driving force that compels her to write just isn't there.

At this point, the writer has two options. One: wallow in self-pity, bemoan the situation and dwell on the lack of creative flow in the hopes that some interesting tidbit of an idea might magically present itself. Or two: take action and find something to get those creative juices flowing again.

While it often seems like the best ideas just appear in the mind — usually popping in at the most inconvenient and untimely moments — those ideas don't manifest themselves out of nothing at all. They come from somewhere, from a place deep within, where all the input your senses have ever received meets in a tangled jungle of sights and sounds and smells, textures and thoughts and emotion. That somewhere, that jungle, is what you as a writer need to learn to tap into at will.

That's where the Idea Generator comes in.

Not a machine but a technique, or combination of techniques, designed to propel you into creative mode.

This entry will deal with the first of those techniques, a simple method that forces your mind to look beyond what your eyes see, to probe your inner jungle to find the deeper story in everything around you. After practicing this technique, you'll find it difficult to look at any object and not see the potential for story.

How it works:

Grab a notebook and a pen and sit in the center of a room. Any room, the bedroom, the living room, it doesn't even have to be your room. A public place will do just as well.

Look around. A writer's greatest asset is the power of observation, and object targeting is a terrific way to hone that ability to a fine point.

Instead of focusing on the room itself, concentrate on what's in the room. What objects do you see? You may see furniture, you may see pictures on the walls, you may see knick-knacks on the shelves. If you're in your own room, each of these items may have special meaning to you. You may know Great Aunt Helen gave you the ceramic dog that sits by the door or that the silver candlesticks on the mantle were a wedding gift and the painting on the wall was a terrific bargain at the local flea market for five dollars, but for now, forget everything you know.

Focus on the objects in the room as if you've never seen them before. Let yourself be drawn to one object in particular. It might be a feature of the room, such as a fireplace, or something as simple as a book or figurine. You may be attracted to it because of its color or shape or simply because it's unique.

Once you've decided on an object, write a brief description of it in your notebook. This should be your initial impression of the object. Remember to look at it as if you are seeing it for the first time.

As an example, I'll write about that ceramic dog. (No, I don't really own a ceramic dog, but for the sake of this exercise I'll pretend I do.)

"Ceramic dalmatian, glass eyes, approximately 12 inches high, somewhat tacky."

Now study the object more intently. If possible, pick it up. Turn it over in your hands. Set it in front of you and walk around it. If your object is a feature of the room, approach and study it from several vantage points.

Make notes about any features that strike you.

My notes:

"Dalmation is hollow, ceramic, has a small chip in the front right paw, a plastic stopper underneath which covers a circular hole cut into the base of the figurine. Glass eyes seem to follow you around the room. Kind of creepy."

Now sit back and imagine the life of your object. How did it come to exist? Where has it been? Who had contact with it prior to it coming into your possession? Who might want or own an object like this? What role can this object play in a story?

These questions alone can provide a wealth of story ideas. How many novels or films can you name that feature an object as the driving force of the story? The Lord of the Rings, The Red Violin, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and countless other stories have been made with an object as the central focus. Characters need something to strive for, a goal, and often that goal is to obtain a specific tangible object rather than a certain emotional state.

Back to the ceramic dalmatian:

I ask myself, what role can this object play in a story? How can I create a story from nothing but a ceramic dog?

Well, let's see...

For starters, my dalmatian needs a home. We'll put him in the home of a rather wealthy couple. (Hey, even the rich don't always have great taste.)

Now that he has a home, how do I make him the central focus of my story?

Maybe he's valuable, an antique, or an exotic import that once belonged to someone famous. In fact, he's so valuable he draws the attention of a thief. Or maybe the dog itself isn't valuable, but, being hollow, he contains something that is...

It might not be great but it's a start, and all stories have to start somewhere. The goal of this technique is to get those creative juices flowing.

Maybe the map to a buried treasure is hidden in the fireplace behind the third brick from the left (an action-adventure). Maybe one of those silver candlesticks was once used as a murder weapon (a mystery/thriller) and maybe it still possesses the spirit of the victim (a horror).

Everything has a story to tell, if you're willing to listen.