Be The Best Writer You Can
OK. Progress. I’ve completed 12 pages of the script (out of a target 46-48), and I’m pretty happy with these 12 pages, (though I’m running a bit long) but I’m stuck on the sequence at the end of Act 1, so I’ve come over to write an update. Then I shall have a bath. Assuming [...]
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This is getting alarming. Day 8 already, and I’m behind. Well behind. First of all I couldn’t write over the weekend, thus breaking one of the main rules – (‘Write, even for half an hour, every day.’) I had house guests, and family commitments, and it was impossible to get the time. That means that [...]
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No real creating today. (Except maybe at the subconscious level.) Just another day of transcribing the original interviews. Starting to get alarmed now at the mass of brilliant material there is still to be listened to, and exactly how long it will take me to transcribe it all. I don’t want to duck the job, as [...]
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The one question I’ve been asked most frequently in the last few weeks is this: ‘Dear Phil, I have an absolutely brilliant idea for a screenplay, but I just don’t know how to take that idea and get it into 110 pages of well written script. Please tell me everything I need to do.’ If that’s your situation, then [...]
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A more or less non-writing day today. I spent all my time listening to the old interview tapes and getting back into the world of the characters. It’s amazing what depth this sort of immersion brings to your vision. At the same time you’ve got to be SO careful that you don’t include something just [...]
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I’ve been to this event for the past few years, on and off, and it’s really quite something. (I think it’s now the biggest screenwriting event in Europe.) We’re going to be bringing you some audio interviews from the festival after it’s done, but it’s not the same as going, so I spoke to Chris [...]
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A fairly straightforward day today. Because I had to do quite a lot work to get the commission in the first place quite a lot of this early stage was already done. Looking at the Guider it’s now as full as I need it, with stories that all work, and that cross over enough so [...]
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This was a day of continuing to complete the Guider. It’s coming together, but there’s a fair bit to do. I was hampered by having to work in the afternoon. I write SO much better in the morning. But I can see no reason why tomorrow it won’t be the early shift at last. Frustrated [...]
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So the first problem is the sheer terror. That blank page really never gets any easier. I researched this story back in Feb, and wrote the two page pitch later in the Spring. Reading what I’ve got now is like reading a broadcast from a foreign land. What on earth was I thinking when I [...]
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What with organising the screenwriting seminars and writing a new spec script, I’ve let myself get a little behind on the commissioned work. Checking the diary I find I’ve got two plays to deliver before Christmas. That’s pretty scary actually. I’ve set myself the deadline of delivering the first draft of the first script by [...]
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How To Write A Screenplay