My writing is feeling very mechanical...

[DoubleIT]

I don’t know how else to describe this, it just seems like the creative side of my brain isn’t really turned on when im writing and it’s more mechanical of a process. This is the most preplanning I have done on a script ever. I just started writing it two days ago and I've been researching, outlining and thinking about it since Christmas and now that its time to write its not coming out in a creative way really. This sort of happened before when i did more work ahead of time than i had. The problem is if i dont do all this work before hand I dont finish the script because I come across a major problem with the idea/logic etc. its a double edged sword and I am not sure what to do. Any suggestions? I know for one I have to just power through it, keep writing and get into the zone... i guess that’s what it really is, I am not getting into the zone.

[dpaterso]

If it's any consolation, that's exactly where I am, all the time.

I truly wish I knew what the solution is. I'd sell it to you.

I have to work on more than one project at a time -- three seems to be the ideal number for me, sometimes four -- and jump back and forth between them each time the concrete starts to harden around my feet.

-Derek
My Web Page - naked women, bestial sex, and whopping big lies. (http://hometown.aol.co.uk/DPaterson57)
Take the critiques you get with a grain of salt. Invariably, some of the critics will be kooks, bitter curmudgeons, or complete fools. ~odocoileus

[Mac H.]

I find that writing exercises based on the current scene often work.

For example, just pretend that your main hero is now a 16 year old girl and write the dialog from THAT point of view. It's stupid but it seems to get it past the internal 'it must be right' censor.

The main trick is to get the ones and zeros down onto the virtual paper.

Good luck,

Mac.

[clockwork]

Scriptwriting is as much a technical exercise as a creative one. I often get hung up on logic and plot details at the planning stage but once I have them down, I can't write the script fast enough. If you feel you have a developed idea and it just needs writing, you're in a very enviable position - many writers won't even get that far.

You have to find a way to fall in love with your project and get excited about writing it. If you don't have that passion during the writing, it won't come across on the page.
You have to identify the power that your original idea had over you and utilise it so that you can steamroll through the bad times and remember why you started in the first place. As I said, the only time I get disillusioned is when I haven't done the planning and get bogged down in the plot. But if it all works, I find actually writing the script is one of the most enjoyable things I can do. It's exhausting and lonely and thankless but so extraordinarily cathartic.

I think it’s because writing is so child-like (I don't mean simple, I mean in the emotional, inner-self way) because it relies so heavily on your imagination. Creating characters and coming up with worlds and situations that not only make for good reading but can elicit an emotional response - it's just like playing with toy soldiers in a sandbox or whatever your equivalent was. They were just little bits of plastic but dammit, didn't you care whether the heroes won and the villains lost? Wasn't it just awful when the little sniper soldier with the bent rifle was captured by the Nazis? And didn't you cheer when your special forces commando unit broke him out and got everyone safely home?

Stop laughing. My point is, you have to find away to get excited about your work - so excited, that it's all you can think about and you can't wait until you have a spare half hour just so you can start getting it down.

It won't be perfect but writing is rewriting. The most important part at the first draft stage is the core emotion of each scene. To that effect, before I start writing, I will often distil each scene down into one word that best describes the emotion I will be writing - regret, envy, anger - and more often than not, those will develop into little chapter titles (like chapters in a book or those chapter titles you get in DVD booklets) so you can break your script down into, I don't know, maybe thirty little sub-headings like, Trouble at the morgue or Killing Mr. Linson - I had one scene, a big end of first act can of worms - simply entitled Oh, sh*t.

You start to think of your work tonally - it becomes something more than technical writing at that point because you're not writing, "that scene where Francis is caught and questioned by the bad guys," you're writing "Francis loses a toe." It's immediately more exciting, more capable of emotion and sounds like much more fun to write.

Get excited again! If you don’t, nobody else will.

[hubbabubbs]

I may be speaking out of turn here since it is difficult for me to finish anything without my mentor jumping on me and forcibly jumpstarting my brain. However, that being said, I find it impossible to write without being inspired. My "planning"usually manifests itself as procrastination.

What works for me is just to write the story and worry about the holes later. If there is a character conflict, or a plot twist that doesn't work, or you fall asleep reading what you just wrote (never a good sign), rewrite it. (I'm not sure if this is something to be proud of but I have finished this last script exactly 17 times. But it makes me feel like I have accomplished something every time).

Reading what I just wrote, it occurs to me that I didn't really say anything. On the plus side, I didn't kill any trees.

[StephieM]

DoubleIt-

I know exactly how you feel. But have no fear, I believe it's just a natural process and we are all very normal. :)

Well some of us.

I believe we have to allow ourselves to be somewhat mechanical in order to see what works and what doesn't. I think the trick is knowing how to equalize the mechanical with the creative so as not to lose that positive energy we begin with. But it's a lot harder than it sounds. Some of us, like me, have the urge to control everything so when there's an oppurtunity to change something our minds automatically shut it down.

I like Mac's exersize, to just play around with the scenes a little. Have fun with it. Let your mind wonder. Who knows, you could come up with something amazing, if only just a little thing.

Just remember, nothing is set in stone. What ever you write can be changed and rewritten, or completely erased if need be. As Hubbabubbs said, just write and worry about the holes later.

Steph