Too creative to write?
How can this be?
Surely being too creative is the least of anyone’s problems?
Well, here’s an extract from an email exchange I’ve been having recently with a user of my Screenwriting Goldmine package.
It reveals how an excess of imagination can be a very damaging thing – and tells you what to do if you have that problem.
Here’s the email:
I just wanted to ask your advice regarding narrowing your ideas down. I have the opposite of writer’s block: my major problem is that I’m interested in pretty much everything. I’m attracted to any idea, and will happily and fickly flit from a project I’m bored with (perhaps just begun) to a new shiny thought that has grabbed my attention. I have notebooks full of half-begun narratives, scribbles, sketches and ideas, all of which I’ve lost interest in as quickly as my initial enthusiasm.
It makes it difficult me for to even get through your first screenwriting steps of generating ideas – an idea which I really like because it’s so similar to developing an art sketchbook. All the images I come up with seem very disparate, and I feel like I’m trying to impose a narrative upon them, rather than letting something emerge. I’m then increasingly dissatisfied with the basis of my narrative and throw the whole idea out, only to start the futile process again.
Am I destined to write short stories? If not, how do I gag my internal fickle teenager?
Jess
This is my reply:
In some ways I wish I had your problem, in others, well, I recognise it to be a curse.
I would always suggest the following steps when you are doing that first step of brainstorming and getting some seeds for your story:
1. ALWAYS make sure that you are thinking in terms of concrete scenes, with dramatic action – not themes, or moods, or concepts, or anything more vague. Be absolutely rigorous with yourself – if your idea isn’t a picture of people doing stuff then it shouldn’t be in the list.
2. Make sure that every scene you include like this really does make you catch your breath in some way when you think about it.
3. Make sure that you still think that when you come back two days later, or a week later. Any scene that has lost that power you throw out, then find yourself a new scene.
4. STOP when you have 10 of those scenes. And now put your mind into the next problem, the next step in the book.
5. Any other bright ideas that come up, you can note down, but your real job now is to go out and work with these seeds, structure your main story tentpoles, do the research, and, crucially, get onto the next phase, which is starting to work out your beat sheet.
And this is the reply Jess sent back:
…you’re right about focusing on dramatic action – I’m very prone to just thinking in moods and concepts, because that’s what I usually take from films, plays, books. But obviously the reason I connect with those moods is due to character and action . . . This sounds like an excellent excuse to re-watch some of my favourite films to try to identify the “catch your breath” scenes and look at how the writer creates the ambience I love so much through the action.You’ve also identified my other problem: trying to work through the steps too quickly and not letting my written-up scenes settle on the page or in my mind for long enough for me to become critically distant from them.
Jess’s comment here last is absolutely right – in screenwriting it’s very rare you can express theme except through the choices (ie actions or inactions) your characters make. If you start trying to do it any other way you will end up with a nebulous, self indulgent, BORING pile of paper. Not a screenplay.
Do let me know if you recognise any of this in your own writing – and whether you find it helpful advice.
(And thanks, Jess, for letting me use our conversation.)
How To Write A Screenplay
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I felt a shiver run down me when I read Jess’s email (the window’s open). It have been cursed with the same problem – so many ideas and such little self-discipline to do them with!
I’m going to read through my latest attempts at this and look at the ‘catch the breath’ moments. This, it seems to me, is a beautifully simplistic yet effective way to think of these scenes.
Like Jess, I also find the problem of images being disparate and then find myself forced to try and link them together somehow. What’s the cure here?
Hooray! I was beginning to think I was the only self-discipline-challenged, abstract-thinking person out there!
I’m quite enjoying being more strict about the images I’m choosing to write up as potential scenes. Other more vague ideas get noted down elsewhere for later perusal.
I suppose the emergence of the narrative should be more organic. Take your four most powerful ideas and let your mind sequence them and find the common thread – that thread is the first version of your plotline.
In some ways, I suppose it’s like a band creating the perfect album track order. There might be one or two excellent songs that are reserved for later use, just because they don’t fit in with the overall feel of the album.
The only thing is, it sort of collapses as a theory if you start with a “big event.” Or does it? I don’t know!!!
As for the perfect running order for an album, does that include bonus tracks which are usually dodgy techno remixes?
You’d almost invariably save the best till last, Mongo, that’s true.
How do you know what to include? It’s complicated, and a lot of instinct:
Know your genre, and the world of your story – scenes outside this should probably be put on the ‘use elsewhere pile’
Try to assemble a pool of characters you want to include in this story, and see if you can populate the scenes with them. If you can’t, then either you need new characters or the scenes belong to a different story.
But if the scenes feel like they belong, then just go with it and try to invent the story you need to get them in there. I once spent a week wrestling with a story, trying to get from point A to a scene that I knew was powerful as hell, but I couldn’t work out how to link in.
When I finally found a way of getting the characters and narrative there into that room, doing those things to each other, it worked very well.
I think what you say about knowing your genre is vital, Phil. I prefer to write comedy and so have been struggling the transferring the 4 main scenes idea to this genre – not because it doesn’t work, but because I haven’t got to grips with the type of scenes that would work in there.
When does instinct become cliche too? It’s one thing knowing what works, another avoiding the obvious.
Would you recommed this approach too for stories already started? I’ve got 3 million unfinished stories (maybe a bit of an exaggeration) and whether these could be revived.
Great advice about having a “use elsewhere pile.” I’ve agonised over scenes that were funny but didn’t fit – and so I distorted the story to make sure it was in there!
“I once spent a week wrestling with a story, trying to get from point A to a scene that I knew was powerful as hell, but I couldn’t work out how to link in.
When I finally found a way of getting the characters and narrative there into that room, doing those things to each other, it worked very well.”
~
I’m writing a script presently that I believe is very good (of course) and *I’m trying to get from point A to a scene that I know is powerful as hell*.
So what steps did you take to get to that hellified scene Phil?
I guess it was a matter of working backwards from the scene, and constantly saying to myself, well, if this hellified scene really took place, then the prerequisite is that all these elements were in place before, so this, this and this must have happened – and for all THAT to have happened, then THESE things must have happened before that – I kind of chained on backwards until I got to the beginning.
The other thing to think about is character consistency – it’s sometimes the case that you have to change your characters’ makeup in order to allow certain things to happen. (Which can be difficult if you have very clear ideas about who they are.)
That’s another reason why I always recommend starting with the end of your story firmly in mind – if you know more or less where your characters are going to end up, you have a much better idea of the rail tracks you are going to set them on during the story.
“I guess it was a matter of working backwards from the scene, and constantly saying to myself, well, if this hellified scene really took place, then the prerequisite is that all these elements were in place before, so this, this and this must have happened – and for all THAT to have happened, then THESE things must have happened before that – I kind of chained on backwards until I got to the beginning.”
~
I wrote until I got to my hellified scene. A *lot* of words are involved though, so I thank you for the *backtracking* tip. I’ll simply backtrack through what I’ve written and trim the fat.
Thanks Phil.
I have the same problem. I’ll have one idea I’m really excited about then I’ll start working on the story and then something better comes to mind. So how do I deal with this?
I write a paragraph off the seed then…I don’t even think about scenes, character, plot. That comes after…
I ask myself five questions:
1. Does the idea have enough juice worth plotting and following through to a complete script?
2. Is this concept appealing enough to compete in the marketplace.
3. Is this an idea I really love? Sometimes I’m not sure so I give it one month to think about it.
4. Does the idea depending on the genre. A horror film, scrare me, a comedy make me laugh, or drama, get me emotional.
5. The most important of all. My audience, would they spend money to see this?
Until I have a Yes to all five. I won’t even start an outline.
I kind of have the same problem..
(big surprise)
It’ll all begin with a scenario, one that just randomly pops into my head. I can draw up the setting, my mind races and I can tell u absolutely everything from how the characters look, to where they are, what they’re feeling, even to describing that pot that’s sitting on the nightstand next to the oil lamp..
I–
I can basically just see it in my head, vividly.
at times it makes me wonder if I should be directing instead.
these thoughts will be so alive at the moment that I get carried away and can’t slow my mind down enough to write it. Putting it on paper is the hard part, I find that sometimes I’m unable to write how and why i’ll reach that ONE scene.. just because nothing else matters to me except that scene.
most of the time it ends up being just that… a scene, in my head or maybe scribbled on paper.
I have the infamous binder full of random thoughts just waiting to be used, will it ever happen? I’m not sure.
I’m only able to write when I feel inspired, I’ll go weeks without writing and suddenly I get so aggravated or frustrated in life that my mind races and I seek refuge in these poor sheets of papers that finally feel my wrath.. I’ll then spit out a good 20-30 pages in 2 or 3 days
(with TONS of side notes by the way)
once that’s done, I’m back to not writing again.
:-/
Now, I also have the problem of it being my first time ever attempting to write..
I’ve never acted so I’m familiarizing myself with screenplays as much as I can by reading some online, seeing my favorite movies and imagining how to put what I appreciate in films on paper
(but in my own way)
I try to shy away from screenplay writing books because I feel confined reading those, I’m not able to write freely because I’m constantly reminding myself of the structure,
(I’m not one for rules)
So I write, I figure I can always come back and try to make it fit the mold and it will still have my vision all over it, not somebody else’s vision–
and then mine.
I don’t ask myself questions like Ghostwriter here, I barely give it much thought.
I pick what my story will be about
(character wise, who are they, what they do, etc.)
I can then draw up a personality for them, once I start writing about them and their personality, other characters come into play, how they affect him, etc..
I’m guessing it’s a very messy way to write, no?
–In case you guys were wondering.. I’m going through the “no writing” time phase right now.
:-/
wow. I know this is an old topic now, but this is so fascinating. I do the exact same thing. I always have these ideas and I never get them down on paper or I do and then so many others come into my mind that I never finish them. It’s alot of lost content and it sucks because they’re good ideas (every writer thinks they have good ideas, right?)
Well anyway I keep on putting it off saying I’ll start writing when I get alot of money to go to school for it or when I have free time to myself and fewer things to worry about. That will never happen so I’m finally deciding to start it back up.
The real problem with me, though, is that I don’t really know the format(s). I don’t want to write this entire screenplay and then it’s useless because no one wants to deal with it being improperly formatted. So I have to study formats now and of course all of these ideas are ready to burst out.
So anyway, I need to focus on not getting distracting and starting something new. I guess I just wanted to get this off my chest.
Great advice Phil.
Yo, Jess!
yo, yo homey check it out.
the bad thing about watching those favorite movies of urs is that you get carried off by the images..
the visual is just as important but u have no shortage of imagination so that shouldn’t be your main concern, u can fit your chracters in whatever scenery and scenario you please, the tough part is to have them BE in that place you made up..
(i hope im making sense)
I have sort of the same problem now, ideas flood my overactive mind and I end up with nothing.
I have about 5 different stories pending, only one made it til about the 30 pg mark and is undergoing extensive rehabilitation as we speak.. well, its being thought of to say the least (procrastination is also one of my main problems, I guess a fear of not being good enough can be piled on top of it all)
not that procrastination isn’t good btw..
just make sure you don’t apply it towards the things you need to accomplish!
anywho, my suggestion.. get a sound system, plug in to ur vcr or dvd player independently and LISTEN to your movies..
its what I do and it helps a lot!
when hearing the words and already have seen the movies you can pretty much picture what’s happening and ur able to focus more on how the dialogue runs together and u can see how much drawing canvas the writer had and all the different scenarios that could be taking place..
try to imagine how the writer decided to ground these characters and how he went about doing it..
a great one to listen to is ‘eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’
great movie btw.. (cant wait to see his new one!)
im looking for a writing partner/muse btw,
feel free to contact me via myspace.
: )