ScriptFaze

The 5 Best Books on Screenwriting

 

Whether you’re mulling over ideas for your very first script—or looking for a better approach to your tenth—reading about screenwriting is a great way to break the mold and improve your skills. The problem is—what to read? As interest in filmmaking has exploded over the past fifteen years, the industry of teaching people HOW to make films has exploded alongside it.. These days, any filmmaking section at Barnes & Nobles includes dozens of books on screenwriting. Still, there are a handful of books that are really worth the read and which I've gone back to repeatedly over the years to gleam new insight. I’m sure there are some great ones not on this list, but at the moment I’m writing this, here are my TOP 5 SCREENWRITING BOOKS, listed in no particular order:

1.    A Story Is A Promise
        by Bill Johnson

First recommended to me by a screenwriting professor, A Story is a Promise delves into the common problems of structure, tone, character and conflict that will make or break ANY successful story—be it in a screenplay, novel, or play. Unlike so many screenwriting books that assault the reader with anecdote and repetition, Bill Johnson’s mostly sparse analysis of what makes a story work is packed full of helpful advice and thoughtful insight into the inner machinations of good drama. First published in a limited run, A Story is a Promise has become the secret-weapon of many a successful writer.

2.    Save The Cat
        by Blake Snyder

Billed as “The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need,” Save The Cat was culled from years of author Blake Synder’s experience writing and selling screenplays in Hollywood. Penned in a laid-back, almost conversation tone, Save The Cat offers simple, straightforward solutions to a medley of common and not-so-common screenwriting challenges that have stumped many a good screenwriter. Focused primarily on the tricks and traps of successful, big-budget Hollywood films, Save the Cat is worth a helluva lot more than the $10.00 (used) price tag it is currently fetching on Amazon. HONESTLY—I wouldn’t recommend delving into a commercial Hollywood script until you’ve read this book.

3.    Write Screenplays That Sell
        by Hal Ackerman

Organized like one of his screenwriting classes at UCLA, Hal Ackerman’s Write Screenplays That Sell moves readers step-by-step through a lesson plan for improving one’s writing and coming out the other side with a screenplay that will, well… Sell. Praised by the best in the business, Write Screenplays That Sell is a bit fat around the edges, but never fails to deliver a one-two punch of professional insight and actionable advice. Based on his years of experience writing scripts and teaching students how to do the same, this book is a great read for screenwriters looking to make the transition from amateur to professional.

4.    Lew Hunter’s Screenwriting 434
        by Lew Hunter

A seminal book on screenwriting, Lew Hunter’s 434 walks its readers through the creation of a full-length feature screenplay, from concept to completed script. Pausing to discuss each and every element of the structure, dialogue, characters and story choices he has made along the way, Hunter teaches by doing, and actually writes an original script over the course of the book. For many writers (including this one), Lew Hunter’s 434 was where their screenwriting journey began. If you read just one book on screenwriting—you won't be disserved by this one.

5.    The Screenwriter’s Bible
        by David Trottier

A bold title indeed—but not that far off from the truth! The Screenwriter’s Bible offers an array of simply-put, helpful advice for newbie screenwriters, but ALSO provides a definitive breakdown of screenwriting FORMAT—something none of the other books on this list do. In the age of high-end screenwriting software, you may ask, who really needs to KNOW the basics of format? Well—you do. To  know your craft is to understand, in part, how screenplays work ON THE PAGE. Even if you never look at it again, a thorough read-through of the formatting sections of this book will make you a savvier writer, and more aware of the options available to you when penning your next script. Buy it online or borrow a friend’s copy—trust me, nearly every screenwriter has one. Amen.
 

Pick Your Partner

Sometimes--it's just more fun with a partner!

Screenwriting by oneself can be an awesome, introspective and hugely rewarding process. When I’m writing a thriller or a drama, I love to get lost in my own thoughts, hammer out those emotional twists and turns and rely on my own instincts to guide the storyline through an intricate roller-coaster of my own choosing. It’s also invigorating to type out the words THE END and to know that the only back that needs slapping is your own. You did it. By yourself. It was person against page, and that one-hundred-and-ten paper stack is physical proof of your victory!

But it can also be... Lonely.

Even if you wedged yourself between any number of strangers at a local coffee shop for every word you typed--or asked every friend on Facebook to review your script through a marathon of shared lunches--the biggest drawback to writing alone is that at the end of the day, you’re alone. No one to suffer through the rewrites with. No one to celebrate the minor and major breakthroughs. It’s just you--sitting in front of your printer, slapping your own back. Ouch.

Personally, I’ve never minded the quiet clink of my fingers against the keys, or my own awkward laugh-out-loud at a pun that I just created and no one but myself has ever read. But there is one genre of screenwriting for which I have found it incredibly rewarding (and FUN) to partner-up--and that is COMEDY.

Comedies are all about 'the reaction.' What makes something funny is rarely the way one actor delivers a line or pulls off his or her physical prank--but rather the way that OTHER actors respond. Writing comedies with a partner parallels this back and forth. You may think your script is the funniest thing to hit this planet since David Hasselhoff's "Limbo Dance," but if you can’t get that guy or gall sitting across from you to crack a smile--it ain’t working. Writing with a partner provides a sounding board to double-check your lines and characters, and encourages constant redirection toward the funniest-possible version of your script.

Plus, you’ve got each other’s back! If you write yourself into a corner your partner will be there to pull you out. If the creative juices aren't flowing, there’s someone else to pick up the slack. Writing with a competent partner can be an awesome experience, and one that I have found incredibly helpful in developing my own skills and temperament as a screenwriter.

Plus...

There may also be some practical advantages. Breaking into the movie business is tough, and if you don’t have a manager or agent, getting your scripts onto a producer’s desk can feel daunting. So why not partner up with someone who is FURTHER ALONG WITH HIS OR HER CAREER THAN YOU?

That's right--it's not all about the parallel back-slapping! (Metaphor--killed.) Most writers, even successful ones, are surprisingly open-minded about co-authoring a script if it is with someone they know and like. And if you’ve got a great idea, they may say YES before you’ve finished your pitch… Developing working relationships with industry-folk is the single-best-way of earning your spot in Hollywood, and partnering up with someone who may already have representation and/or relationships with production companies opens up THEIR world to you. Now--if you can’t write, or simply don’t click with a would-be partner, no amount of time locked in a room together is gonna help out your career. But a symbiotic relationship with a writer WHO HAPPENS TO BE MORE SUCCESSFUL can get your foot in that door right beside THEIR foot. And eventually a leg, arm, torso…

Before you know it, the next generation of would-be writers will be asking to co-author their next projects with YOU!

Why Your First Draft Should Suck

It’s a glorious day! You’ve just finished your very first draft of your very first script… Years ago, it was just a dream. And now, here you are—holding it in your hands. Nothing can take away from the excitement, pride, and earned happiness of this once-in-a-lifetime moment. The completion of one’s first screenplay draft IS a glorious moment—but guess what?

You ain’t done yet.

There is no such thing as a great screenplay that hasn’t been rewritten over and over again. You may THINK your first draft is the final stop on the road, but actually it’s just the beginning. The Paul Abbot quote that “writing is rewriting” is not just the truth—it’s the law. And if you think you’ve nailed it in one draft—you’re wrong.

Most screenwriters will complete 15-20 drafts of a script before it’s really done—and for larger movies, numerous OTHER writers will also have a go at rewriting the same script. With each draft, the characters, plot, dialogue subtleties and scene structure will improve—sometimes in small ways, and sometimes in huge. These rewrites are an essential part of the process—and one that writers need to try to relish rather than to loathe.

At present, I’m on my eighth rewrite of a period thriller set in the 1980s, and trust me—I REALLY hope I don’t need to rewrite it again. Every time I rewrite this thing, I HOPE and PRAY that I’ve got it right. Sometimes rewriting can feel like torture. But I gotta say—with every draft I’ve finished, the script has improved. And these improvements have given me the strength to turn around and do other rewrites in the future.

Once you’ve set your career on its feet, rewrites will become a normal part of life. When you get notes back from a producer, it’s time for a rewrite. When an actor wants their role to seem bolder or smarter, it’s time for a rewrite. And when the budget runs dry halfway through filming, and the producers can’t afford your helicopter chase scene—you got it—it’s time for a rewrite.

A working writer must rarely embark upon a rewrite all on his or her own. You will get notes, and there will be discussions in which you are able to hash through problems and find clever solutions. If you don’t see eye-to-eye with other people on a project, the process can become frustrating, but it’s also nice to know that you have a team of people who share the responsibility of making the script as good as it can be. Ultimately, it will be you—the writer—who must make other people’s notes work, or abandon them in place of better solutions, but if the process is working, a smart writer will utilize the help and input of producers, directors, and actors rather than fight it off.

New writers, on the other hand, often spend months or years on the first draft of their script in an effort to get it ABSOLUTELY PERFECT on the very first go. This is a process that may work for some, but serves as an impediment for most. Honestly—the best thing I ever did was to learn to ACCEPT the rewrite process. It allowed me to stop worrying about getting everything right on the first pass of a script, and to MOVE QUICKLY toward a completed first draft. After that—I had something. A finished script that I could read over, edit, delete, rearrange—whatever. A finished (albeit imperfect) first draft gives a writer the freedom to explore his script without worrying about a page count. And from this exploration will come changes, adjustments, and additions—all of which will add up to a better film.

So—embrace it! You WILL be rewriting, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes. There will time to make your script perfect—but it does not need to happen RIGHT NOW.

By giving yourself the freedom to screw up, and you’ll ultimately end up with a better project.   

How to Start and Run a Screenwriting Group

One of the best ways for screenwriters to improve their writing is to hear their scripts READ OUT LOUD by people other than themselves. And one of the best ways to make this happen is to start or join a screenwriting GROUP.

Screenwriting groups can be formal or informal, large or small, meet regularly or meet irregularly. There’s no RIGHT way to run a screenwriting group, but let me suggest a method that is tried and true, and forged in the halls of UCLA’s graduate screenwriting program.

Starting in 1980, a screenwriter and screenwriting teacher named Lew Hunter started teaching a series of “434” courses at UCLA in which graduate students took their script ideas from concept to finished first-draft over the length of one-quarter, or about three months. Lew later wrote a book on the writing concepts outlined in this course, and I can’t recommend reading it enough. “Lew Hunter’s Screenwriting 434” is a seminal book on screenwriting, and one that many writers and writing teachers have been influenced by.

I myself was a graduate student at UCLA, and since finishing the program, I’ve participated in several writing groups based on the 434-structure. The problem with a self-run screenwriting group is that it’s NOT a course; writers will drop out, stop writing, or begin to short-change themselves by showing up for meetings without any new pages. The most important choice you’ll make in starting a writing group, therefore, is WHO will be in it. If your purpose in starting a group is to make friends, or to spend more time with the guy you have a crush on—it’s not gonna work out. The people in your group should be SERIOUS WRITERS, and preferably people you already know and who have completed prior screenplays. Ideally, you want 6-8 writers in your group for reasons I’ll get into below.


After you’ve picked you team:

1) Pick a day and time every one or two weeks that everyone can plan to meet, and stress to the group that your meeting should be a PRIORITY. If one person doesn’t show up, everyone in the group will be negatively affected.

2) Decide WHERE you are going to meet. A quiet, professional space is ideal. Avoid coffee shops, or other places where you will be overheard.

3) Choose a certain NUMBER OF PAGES that everyone will commit to bring to the group. If people overwrite or underwrite, that’s OK—but deciding beforehand on a page goal will inspire everyone to write and participate. I recommend 10 pages.

4) Write your pages. If you are starting this group yourself, it’s IMPERATIVE that you complete your pages. If you start to slack off, the whole group will follow.

5) Meet at the preplanned time, and decide who’s gonna have their script READ OUT LOUD first. The writer cannot participate, but should instead LISTEN CAREFULLY to his script being read. One person should read the “business” (all of the descriptions and transitions) and everyone else should split up the roles between them. Once the group has decided on their parts, read through the entire 10 pages.

6) After the reading, the writer should remain QUIET and take NOTES while everyone else says what they LIKE and DON’T LIKE about the script that was read. It’s important to say both—even if you HATED or LOVED the script. Everyone should be constructive in their notes, and only when the group has completed their feedback should the writer ask questions.

7) Once you’ve completed the first read & feedback session, rotate around the group and do the SAME for every other writer. This is why 6-8 writers is the perfect number for a screenwriting group—there are not SO MANY that your meeting lasts for more than 3 hours, and not SO FEW that their aren’t enough people to read the roles in everyone’s scripts.

8) Wrap up & confirm the NEXT MEETING TIME. This step is important. If it’s not written in people’s schedules, it will be very easy to blow off the next meeting as the date approaches.


Again—there is no perfect way to run a screenwriting group, but the 8 steps above are the best method I’ve found. HEARING your own script read out loud is a great way to improve—but HEARING and READING other people’s scripts will also help you to  recognize new approaches to writing, or bad habits to avoid.

The last step I’d add to this process can only be accomplished with a VERY COMMITTED GROUP. If you’ve found the right people, try to set a FINISH DATE for everyone’s script. Decide beforehand that everyone will wrap up their first drafts in three or four months, then use your weekly or bi-weekly meetings to move toward this goal. Setting a deadline will inspire everyone involved to keep up with their peers in the group, and to cross the finish-line together. And if you can tie in your screenwriting schedule with a program such as Script Frenzy, even better.

 

The REAL Leading Lady

Every year in late February, those who can stand it find a couch to share or a party to crash, and drink their way through the three hours of misery also know as The Academy Awards. Yes—it has perks. The men are hot, the women are hotter, and goddamn it—someone might just surprise this year with their clever mocking of the official script! Thank GOD there are no reality-TV movies, and therefore no reality TV hosts to SABATOGE the Oscars the way they did the Emmys. At least Gil Cates has the good sense to keep hiring back Jon Stewart…

But here’s the thing—the Oscars reinforce the idea that the most important character in a movie is the HERO or HEROINE—the “Best Actor” or the “Best Actress.” This concept of the leading man and leading lady is reinforced in screenwriting classes and books, and the guiding principle in writing screenplays these days is think FIRST about how one’s hero should act and what information he or she should FIND OUT as the screenplay progresses. Once you’ve shaped the hero, the idea goes, all the other characters and character problems can be wrapped around this leading figure.

I suggest another approach.

Yes—the leading lady and/or leading man is important. They will guide your story, and getting them RIGHT on the page is hugely important. There is one person (or group of people), however, who are even MORE important to your screenplay’s success:

The AUDIENCE.

Yes—the VIEWERS. Or in the early stages, your READERS.

In this day of actor-financed movies and Oscar-vehicle screenplays, writers have focused less and less on the AUDIENCE, and more and more on attracting the movie stars that will get their scripts greenlit. And while I see the allure and practicality of this approach, the result has been a batch of recent movies that feel more like high-caliber acting reels than well-rounded films. Just watch Changeling, Seven Pounds, or Revolutionary Road to see what I’m talking about. All of these scripts provide ample room for actors to ACT, but have numerous flaws that could have been avoided had their creators spent more time thinking about the REAL central character of any movie: the people WATCHING it.

When I start into a script, I try to think about the audience AS THOUGH IT WERE A LITERAL CHARACTER. And in the same way that I shape reveals, withhold information, and design emotional highs and lows for my LEADING CHARACTER, I do this first and foremost for the AUDIENCE. The AUDIENCE is the character that matters most, and if writers treat the audience like the LEADING LADY it really is, more attention will be paid to DESIGNING the audience’s experience, and hence increasing their involvement and excitement in the movie.

Before you can write for your audience, however, you need to figure out exactly who your audience IS. Just as you’d flesh out the details for the hero of your screenplay, you need to know as much as possible about your audience. Watch other films in your genre, and if possible, analyze the marketing and packaging of these films. Are they targeted to 18 year-old boys, or 55 year-old women? An urban population, or folks in the Midwest? Once you know the demographic of your audience, try to imagine the IDEAL person sitting in that sitting movie theatre. Is it a college-aged male with a middle-class background who just broke up with his girlfriend? Or a 48 year-old single mom who thinks it’s too late to find new love? Getting as specific as possible will help you write to your audience’s emotions, and satisfy their expectations.

Finally—when starting a new screenplay, I suggest you prepare a “knowledge arc” for your audience in the same way that you’d create character arcs for your central cast. Moving scene by scene through your beat sheet, try to be as detailed as possible in deciding what you want your audience to KNOW, what misdirects you want them to BELIEVE, and most important—what EMOTIONS you want them to be feeling. Good screenwriting is all about manipulation—try to get as specific as possible about what you want your desired audience to be THINKING and FEELING at any given moment. When I’m moving through this process, I’ll often end up augmenting my beat sheet once I’ve finished with this knowledge arc—and only then do I start into the actual writing.

So give it a whirl! Some actor-centric movies work beautifully—The Wrestler and older movies like Taxi Driver and Dog Day Afternoon are great examples. But too often, screenplays are written without enough thought paid to the audience’s experience, and it’s a trend that has grown stronger in recent decades. I’m not suggested that writers create weak leading roles--on relegate their heroes to second fiddle. But I do think that the greatest leading characters work BEST when their stories are balanced against the equally-fantastic emotional journeys of their audience.

So—recast your leading lady and leading man! Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet are no longer your first priority. Focus on the audience, and you’ll end up with a script that feels less like a complex monologue, and more like a cohesive movie.

A Writer Writes

The first time I knew I wanted to be a writer was in the last semester of my last year of college. Between the end-of-school excitement, the parties, and the dread over what to do AFTER COLLEGE, I’d totally dropped the ball on my reading and homework assignments. Now, it was the last week of class, and the work was piling up. I had five classes, four of which required 20-25 page research papers—and truly, I had not cracked a book all semester.

Now, any sane person would start to panic. And I admit—I was worried. Since it was the end of the year, there was no time to ask for extensions. Plus—lets face it—I really wanted to be done with my studies.

As I sat down to start my first essay (which was due the next day at 9am), I calmed my breathing, cracked open the first book, and started scanning over the words. This was gonna be tough, and maybe even impossible. But as I read further and started to jot down notes, I felt another emotion begin to overwhelm me—EXCITEMENT. The task that lay before me felt almost undoable—four papers in four days—but there was something about the challenge being so great, and so insurmountable, that I began to relish in the total achievement it would be once I pulled this off. That’s right—I began to enjoy it.

For the next four days, I did not sleep. Literally. Vivarin, coffee and cold showers were my marching buddies, and in one incredible binge of reading, typing, and proof-reading, I managed to finish all four research papers, and hand them in on-time. It was a feat in which I still take pride…

Okay, yeah—sure. Everyone’s got their crazy “I didn’t sleep for a week” college story… I know that. But what made mine special to me was that I realized how much I actually LOVE writing. Not the outcome, not being DONE with the writing—but the work itself. For the last four days of my final week in college, I sweated through a shit-storm of last-minute work, and came out the other side a WRITER.

It would be four more years before I’d finished a screenplay, however. In this time, I produced television, developed a video editing reel, directed some short films and even got myself tangled up in a second-rate graduate program. But through it all, I wrote. In my journal, in letters to friends, in short stories, or for homework assignments, I always enjoyed expressing my thoughts on the page, and increasing, became drawn to writing stories and creating fiction. When in the summer of 2003, I finally sat down and began to bang out a feature screenplay, it was all of this OTHER writing that gave me the confidence to push through until it was finished.

And that’s the thing—a writer writes. It’s a common enough saying, but over the years it’s picked up a cynical quality that doesn’t do the phrase justice. Often, people to say “a writer writes” to suggest that if you AREN’T actively writing—if you’re somehow slacking off and not rising at 8am every morning to wedge yourself in front of your laptop—then you’re not a real writer. I reject that in part because some of my biggest writing breakthroughs have come to me as I was staring listlessly at the ceiling, or picking out oranges at Ralphs. Certainly, a writer can’t be writing ALL THE TIME.

But I will say this—whether it’s a few words jotted on a napkin, your musings on the day tucked away in your journal, or the mental energy of pulling apart a favorite poem while stuck in rush hour traffic—all writers are benefited by exercising their craft as often as possible.

We’ve all hit roadblocks while writing scripts, and no one’s ever finished a script (I don’t believe) without going through some rough patches during which EVERYTHING seemed to be sliding off-track. It’s totally okay to take a break from the writing, and to step back. It’s totally NOT okay, however, let this break turn into an extended track of time in which you are NOT WRITING AT ALL.

So, that’s the point of this post—keep writing, whether or not you are working on a script. Write as often as you can, in as many different mediums as you can, and your overall abilities as a writer will continue to improve. Seriously—don’t restrict yourself to screenplays. Give yourselves exercises in which you need to tell a whole story in just one page, or sign up for next year’s NaNoWriMo. Begin a blog, or approach your local newspaper about starting a column. You may put down your script for weeks or even months, but if you spend part of this break doing OTHER FORMS OF WRITING, I promise—you will return to your screenplay a stronger, more capable writer.

If you LOVE writing, then write. Write anything, anywhere. And if you don’t love writing, screenwriting is NOT your ticket to easy riches. Honestly—it is NOT. Find something else that you do love, and put your energies there.

After polishing off four 20+ page papers in that binge writing session during my last week of college, I slept for two days, then awoke with a funny sensation: I wanted to do more writing. Truly. I had never considered making a career out of writing before that experience, but moving forward, I knew it would be a central part of my life.

(and in case you’re wondering, A, A, A-, B+)

(yeah, baby)

Midnight Genius

It happens all the time... 

It’s 11:30 at night, and suddenly it strikes me – the perfect fix to a scene or to a piece of dialogue that I’ve been struggling with for days. I pull out my laptop—or better yet a notebook—and jot wildly before the inspiration leaves me. Then I lean back, and survey my work. It’s witty. It’s funny. It explains while the absent father has returned home TONIGHT, just in time to rescue my hero. “Oh, yes,” I think. “I am good.” All the pieces connect—it’s a perfect twist on an old cliché—original, but familiar at the same time. There’s no other word for it—I have just committed an act of GENIUS.

And then morning comes. Still awash with that feeling of specialness from the night before, I sing my way through a quick shower, then double-step over to Starbucks to review my midnight output. I may even look sideways upon those sorry OTHER writers sitting around me—up so early, working so hard on their mediocre scripts, only to eventually be REJECTED by this hard, hard town. Sucks to be them...

And then I read what I wrote the night before… 

And BOY, does it SUCK.

WOW.

Seriously—I could have written better pages while snake-boarding down Mount McKinley. The lines are horrible. The characters feel totally stiff, and what was I thinking with this description: “She sashays into the room stinking of marmalade.” Good GOD—how on earth had that sounded so clever the night before? I must be the WORST WRITER IN HOLLYWOOD…

Writing On The Bottle (or: The Real-Life Benefits of Getting High)

There’s something totally romantic and awesome about slipping in to your writing “groove” over a dimly-lit desk and a half-drunk bottle of Jack Daniels. This is how REAL writers did it, afterall—right? Think Ernest Hemmingway, Tennessee Williams—Paul Sheldon from Misery. In fact, I don’t know many writers who haven’t given this age-old technique an official whirl. Hit a writer’s block? A little cognac should loosen your brain. Not feeling ‘moody’ enough? Some five-dollar gin should set you on your tracks…

I’ve tried it myself—many times. But I gotta say—for me, it never works. If I’m already a little beaten by the day, alcohol just puts me to sleep. And if I’m full of energy, that sip of Maker’s Mark just makes me want to go out and dance. But maybe I’m just boring. In my world, the best beverage for keeping me focused and imaginative is, er…. Water. Yup. I’ve said it—water. I may be a writing-square, but staying focused on my script (especially when the plot thickens, and every word matters) requires a clear-headedness that only total hydration seems to afford me. It’s my process. So sue me.

But I have several writer friends in LA who have developed some unique concoctions for motivating their writing juju. Here are a couple of the most fun ones:

 

RED BULL & XANAX

This medley may seem counter-intuitive. Red Bull is an energy drink that will keep your head-spinning and heart-pounding into the wee hours of the morning. Xanax is anti-anxiety drug that calms one’s breathing, and relaxes one’s mood. I’ve never tried this double-whammy myself, but proponents of the Red Bull & Xanax match-up say it keeps you awake while also putting the writer into a relaxed, easy-going mood, which makes it easier to focus and more mellow in the approach of one’s work.

 

Monday Mayhem; Getting Yourself ON SCHEDULE

Semi-professional screenwriters have some crazy schedules…

Some work full-time jobs and squeeze in their writing hours (hour?) after work, or early in the morning. Others have found a way to work part-time, or split their week up into “work” days and “work work” days. And others still live off their savings, their grandparents, or their unemployment checks.

Whatever your situation, every Monday morning presents a question: How on earth am I gonna balance the requirements of life with the time needed to get my script written?


It’s tough. But having an approach – a PLAN – for time allotment can make a huge difference in ticking off those pages.

Some writers that I know are able to set aside a RIGID SET OF HOURS per week – say Monday 8am-9am, Wednesday 7pm-10pm, and Saturday from 10am to noon. During these hours, their phones are turned off, email remains unanswered, and everyday stresses are held forcefully at bay. If this plan works for you and your life, I say go for it. But what doesn’t seem to be accounted for in this plan are the real-life SURPRISES that will undoubtedly upend the well-meaning scenario, and send your writing to the back seat. Family sicknesses—flat tires—obligatory office parties—snow days. Any of these common events will unavoidably bump your writing-slot to the undesirable status of “I’ll make it up later,” and when those I-O-Us start stacking up, it becomes harder and harder to recover from your personal writing deficit. Some people will simply STOP WRITING at this point, essentially breaking under the weight of their broken self-promises.

Don’t let that happen!

Another method used by semi-professional screenwriters is the HOURS PER WEEK plan. Writers who ascribe to this self-motivating scenario take a look at their weekly load, then decide upon a doable number of hours to dedicate to their screenplay PER WEEK. I have friends who even keep a chalkboard or homemade calendar-like-thing in their apartment, then carefully check off the total hours they’ve fulfilled toward their weekly quota.

This method is less set-in-stone than the time-slots plan above, but loans itself toward a scenario in which a crushing backlog of hours can pile up by weeks’ end, and ultimately overwhelm a person’s ability to make up the time. I also know people who set PAGE QUOTAS for themselves instead of an HOURS QUOTA, but the risk here is that you crap-out a bunch of mediocre pages at the last possible minute just to satisfy your own goal, then ultimately have to go back and rewrite all of those pages from scratch…

For me, I’ve found the most useful method to be a balance between the plans above. My weeks fluctuate. I work several part-time jobs, and sometimes take short-term editing jobs, rewrite work, or production jobs to make ends meet.

At the start of each week, I begin by assessing how busy I think I’m gonna be, then decide upon a REALISTIC NUMBER OF HOURS that I can spend writing for THAT SPECIFIC WEEK. Then, I split up the amount of hours between the five, six or seven days that I will have a flexible enough schedule to write, and decide upon a DAILY QUOTA, say 3 hours of writing per day. Each writing-day of that week, I then make sure that hell-or-high-water, I fulfill my preset writing goal.

And it doesn’t need to be 3 hours straight through. Often times, I’ll write for 1.5 hours in the morning, then go to work or do whatever chores need doing, then re-group and write for another 2 hours that afternoon or evening.

The best part of this plan is that it is highly flexible, but still gives me a structure for putting aside time to write. Sometimes, a day will be especially busy, and I’ll end up writing from 10pm to 1am – and that’s cool. My writing may not be as focused or polished on those days, but at least I am able to think through problems, and get a first-version of scenes down on paper.

Whatever your approach to writing is, I can’t stress enough how important it has been for me to put together SOME KIND OF PLAN, then stick to it. I used to be someone who simply wrote when I felt “the urge” or found myself with a free morning or afternoon. But I gotta say, I just wasn’t getting the work done. Scripts that I could have written in two months were taking six or eight months, and I spent almost as much time re-reading what I’d already done and getting back to speed as I did writing. Ultimately, getting myself on a writing plan made me more productive and more focused, but more important than anything--it also made me a better writer.

So try it out! Honestly, TIME SPENT WRITING is the only real divider between an amateur penman and a bonifide almost-professional. :)

Choose Your Starbucks

Alright, alright… If you’re lucky enough to live in a neighborhood (or other city?) that is chock full of delightful little mom n’ pop cafes, then eschewing the conglomerate coffee chains is your prerogative. I am not that lucky.

In Hollywood, you have two options if you want to be a writer: Stay at home, or head out into the wide world of writer-friendly coffee houses. I’ve always been jealous of people who can lock themselves indoors and type away for hours. That kind of focus and discipline is a beautiful thing. But don’t look down on the rest of us! Coffee-shop writers are not hacks—they’re just adults with undiagnosed ADD.

Occasionally, if I find myself at an especially juicy scene or am just too filthy and unshaved to venture outdoors, I’ll handcuff myself to the chair in my home-office (a.k.a. The Kitchen Table) and put in the time… But it ain’t easy. My overactive brain immediate sets to work finding something—anything—to lift me from that seat, and very quickly EVERYTHING seems imminent and important. That college friend that I haven’t called back in six years? It’s time to reach out and set things right. The neighbor who stole my recycling bin after last garbage day? He may be home now, and I’d better face this confrontation head-on!

The only thing you really need to face head-on is your script. I had a teacher in film school (yes, I went) who used to repeat an obnoxious but true phrase to us at the start of every class. She'd tell us that the FOUR MOST IMPORTANT WORDS in screenwriting are:

APPLY ASS TO CHAIR

It’s hard to deny the truth of that proclamation, but it also raises one very big question:

Which chair?

For me, the awful wooden chairs at Starbucks are the perfect compliment to my bony rear. They keep me upright, never too comfortable, and always focused on the task ahead: writing. Most Starbucks have also developed a symbiotic relationship with laptop-users, and have recently turned around their policy of closing off outlets and removing desks. New Starbucks are now loaded with outlets, and old ones are being retrofitted. I find that as long as you make it through the doors before 10:30 am, nearly every Starbucks will have at least one desirable seating option still available. And then, there are all the BONUSES of a lively social hub that only a writer can fully appreciate. Like FREE DIALOGUE. Anytime you need an injection of REAL PEOPLE TALK, stop typing, lean back, and let it all spill in… Coffee shops are social places, and customers will talk about ANYTHING while enjoying their ten-minute reprieve from real life. It is your JOB to eavesdrop. All writer’s do it, and truly—they’re no better way to discover new characters and speech patterns. I suggest a healthy does of LISTENING IN each and every day.

When it comes right down to it though, I am simply a better writer when I am in an energetic place. Everyone has their own process, but for me, the music, voices, and general chaos of my local Starbucks stir my imagination, and let me focus on the page in front of me.

It a beautiful thing—the coming together of two entities: Writer and Starbucks. When the relationship is successful, life’s problems slip away into that euphoria of focused work and caffeine-inspired creation. And the winner is Y-O-U.