Writing is hard
I’ve been busy
writing a script, and I have the whole idea mapped out in my head. But for
some reason, my writing doesn’t seem to flow. I struggle to get from one point
to the next. Is this normal? If I go back through the script
again after I’ve jotted down my rough dialogue, will it flow then? Do you do
a quick rough draft before you get into the real writing?
–Bob
Well, are you a good writer? I ask because it sounds like this is your first
screenplay, and there’s every chance you’re a terrible writer. It’s my experience
that most people in Los Angeles feel like they could write a good movie. The
reason why most of them aren’t successful screenwriters is that they’re really
aren’t good writers.
It’s easy to see how they get mislead: If you read a script, you’d think any
monkey could do it. Most monkeys can’t.
I’m not picking on you, honestly. I hope you’re a terrific writer who’s just
realizing how incredibly difficult screenwriting can be. It’s great when the
writing flows, but most of the time, it doesn’t. You work your ass off to get
to the end of a sentence, then start another. You end up deleting scenes that
took you four hours to write, then rewriting entire scripts based on problems
you should have spotted before you even started writing.
It’s not grueling, back-breaking labor like building a road, but it is labor.
It’s exhausting. And while Final Draft might make formatting your script easier,
it’s still just as hard to write.
Often, when I approach a scene, I will do a quick rough draft, by which I
mean all of a scene’s crucial dialogue lines scribbled on the back of an envelope.
It’s mostly just to get the shape of the scene, but it is "real" writing
just as much as the endless tweaking that will inevitably be entailed.
Above all this, I would stress: Don’t wait for flow. It might come; it might not. But it’s your job to keep writing anyway.
January 11th, 2007 at 1:22 am
I think it is concentration that is hard. Also, we think of writing as the creation of a product, not as a process
May 12th, 2007 at 12:03 am
I am rather new to this coming from print media, but I find writing short narratives (as outlines) to be a good starting point. I can adapt them more easily and filter out the crap.
Many times the diffulty of ‘keeping the flow’ is due to losing focus on the concept/story itself and juxtaposing into cool dialogue experiments(unless you’re going for a particular aesthetic-avoid) or descriptions(which will probably be cut).
Also, you might have too much you’re trying to do at once (you’re probably mentally constipated), write moment to moment. If it doesn’t work, cut it later. Get it out..Most of writing is rewriting. It is a duplicitous, soul-warping process. I would usually proof and edit my columns 60+times before I would even turn them in to my editor (And that’s under a thousand word count).
If you are a masochistic bastard, you will enjoy writing.
At times…
I wonder what sins I commited in a former life that I am now obligated to rectify to the universe-at-large. But in a sense, I feel worse if I don’t comply.
The question you have to ask youself is: Do you enjoy the pain? If the answer is yes, then continue and suffer through it. If the answer is no, please treat this like a flowchart for career suitability and make the best choice for your sanity.
How do you like your lemonade, sweet or tart?
February 1st, 2008 at 7:11 am
Could you please tell me what exactly do you mean by a ‘good writer’? What constitutes a good writer? When you ask the person ‘Well, are you a good writer?’, how can he ascertain whether or not he is a good writer? He obviously isn’t going to respond objectively, and will say that he is even if he isn’t. But how does one really know whether they are a good writer or not if they’ve not written anything before (apart from posts on a message board, or email or instant messages)?