'How To Write a Killer Screenplay'

I used to have no idea how I wrote anything, let alone something so complex and dificult as a screenplay.

My producers would yell at me, saying they needed the new draft - and I wouldn't know how to tell them the well had run dry. It wasn't fun. But after a long long time I learned what to do.

Now when I need some exciting ideas, I simply walk away from the computer. I run a big deep hot bath, water up to my neck, and I lie there, drifting in and out of sleep for maybe an hour.

Sounds like a chore, right?

It's actually the most reliable way I know of kickstarting my creativity. After a little while, say 10 or 15 minutes, vivid images, great plot ideas, sharp lines of dialogue, will start popping up unbidden.

Look. Forget about generating ideas with your conscious mind.

Your conscious mind acts as a brake, blocking off the constant bubbling well of images and emotions from your subconscious.

If you want to create new things then you must distract your conscious mind and let your subconscious have more power.

It may sound too good to be true - but writing is a form of dreaming after all. You need to be in a place, and a state of mind, where you can dream. Simple as that.

Oh, there are just one or two other things you ought to know...