Write it Wrong
A majority of my writer’s block comes from the overwhelming pressure to get it perfect the first time (or the time I’m currently doing it). I keep stopping myself because what I’ve currently got sounds too cheesy or melodramatic or whatever:
Ug! Seen this a million times!
Oh god, what a bunch of melodramatic nonsense.
This lowbrow humor won’t fly!
Pish posh to that! My new method to overcome this is to write it wrong. Instead of staring at a screen waiting for the perfect blahbidy blah, or rewriting the same line over and over, I will embrace the cliques and crap that are slowing me down.
Then, I’ll watch the scenes with a notebook and think, “Well, this really stinks! You know what would be funny/interesting/good here instead…” and jot it down. Think of it like putting place holder in your scenes. I’ll keep this crappy joke here until I come up with a better one.
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24. June 2009 at 14:31
I feel like you need more comments on your great blog. So here is one that will hopefully lead to even more comments. Not due to its content mind you, but rather because that little “1 Comment” I have given you might draw traffic.
Discuss!
24. June 2009 at 14:38
Thanks Joshey.
Have you ever used this method? I’ve done things similar to this, but with sketches or short film pieces. It seemed to work good for those, but the length difference is what’s got me interested/worried…
24. June 2009 at 17:22
I am currently stabbing my inner-perfectionist even as I type. I have a video to edit and it’s not going to be perfect. Infact it’s going to be so far from perfect as to be comical, but I guess it is better to get it done than not.
24. June 2009 at 20:36
First of all, let me pat myself on my own back: my plan worked and garnered you 2 new comments (yes, you count too). BAM, site traffic!
I think I have the problem not of applying the ass to the seat, but of looking at 50 websites once I sit. Everyone who writes a book on screenwriting (and I feel I have read them all), agrees with your method.
I don’t write much, but I will say that when I am editing film (something I feel more confident in than when writing), I go through it, one scene at a time, and shape until I have an idea of where I need to go from there, then move on so that I can get the big picture before I go back and fine tune each cut. I do a little more than letting something that I think is wrong pass before moving on. The difference for me of course is that it has been written and shot, so I know a bit of what material I have to work with.
I think your note card system is great in that it creates a writing environment for yourself where you have that big picture in front of you and you can put everything down and see how it all plays together. In that, it is not so different than what I have when I go to edit. You also get the bonus of extra time to think about what would be less cliche or horrible when you keep moving and come back to the specific later.
My screenwriting professors in grad school would call this 1st draft the “Puke Draft,” where you just puke your thoughts out and clean the mess up later.
26. June 2009 at 07:22
John: Cool. You never know. I find, in editing, whatever I’m working on seems atrocious until the last minute. It’s always a struggle to keep going, even when the ‘inner voice’ is telling you to bail.
It’s why so many people (not us, others) give up. When you work on something and it seems to be going bad, but you keep working on it anyway, you know you’ve got something special.
26. June 2009 at 07:33
Josh: Consider that back patted!
Yeah, I have no problem finding time to sit and write. It’s the not checking email, twitter, making more coffee, texting friends part I struggle with.
I can’t take total credit for the note card system. Robert Rodriguez used a cruder version while writing El Mariachi. There’s a more in-depth system that Rossio & Elliot used for their movie pitches. I combined the 2.
I’ve heard the Puke Draft before. I think it’s a great thing to remind any creative that the their process will be met with great uncertainty, and to struggle through it. The only issue I have is the puke draft is only used at the start. I think you should always have puke parts in your script and fix them one at a time. Puke draft goes to puke scenes to puke characters to puke lines. Keep puking on the page where ever writer’s block strikes and come back later with a fresh head, or fresh breath.
26. June 2009 at 11:27
Hi Joe,
I just sauntered over here from FOD, where I’d been checking your page to see if you’d posted anything new.
Interesting to read your comments about screenplay writing. I’m thinking about taking a week-long seminar later this summer on basic screenplay writing. In your experience, is this kind of thing useful or should I just read a good book on the subject and get on with it? I have “treatments” (i.e., scrawled paragraphs from the last time I got drunk) that I want to flesh out, but I’m one of those people who puts off the actual work. I think it’s called “being a lazy fuck” in the vernacular.
Actually, I’m just commenting because Josh Roberts did.
Amy(4birds)
26. June 2009 at 11:55
Hi Amy. Nice to see you! Thanks for stopping by.
Unless the seminar is free, I’d skip it. From what is sounds like, you have ideas, but no idea how to turn it into a screenplay. That’s just about everyone. Don’t know what a seminar will do for you, except make you feel bad about how much writing you’re not doing. If it’s expert advice you’re looking for, try these sites:
http://www.wordplayer.com/
http://johnaugust.com/answers
Lots of brilliant writing advice from real professionals.
I have a post about my film maker’s required reading. Hope that helps.
Check those out first. Maybe they’ll give you the push you’re looking for. I don’t want to rag on writing seminars or instruction in general. You say your ‘lazy as fuck’, a seminar won’t change that.
Good luck, and thanks for stopping by!
26. June 2009 at 12:04
Great sites, Joe! I bookmarked them, so I count that as my “writing” for today.
I knew deep down that a seminar wouldn’t change my lazy-fuckedness. But it would’ve been a good time killer.
Hope to see some new and brilliantly hilarious shorts from you on FOD soon.
26. June 2009 at 13:18
Thanks. In the meantime, check out my youtube channel. It’s got all my stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/user/joeavella
26. June 2009 at 14:23
I had a friend who once said “You can’t rewrite a blank page.”
That friend?
JAMES JOYCE.
Hey, how do you like Wordpress? I’m thinking of making the switch for my blog and I’m wondering what you think of them.
26. June 2009 at 14:28
Good advice! But did you mean James Joyce the writer or James Joyce the manager of the Golden Angel diner on Lincoln and Montrose?
Overall wordpress is great. tumblr.com is good, but doesn’t have multiple page options. Both allow you to edit the html of your blog. Wordpress also has some great templates. You can import the stuff from your old blog, too. Give it a shot, it’s free!
27. June 2009 at 06:37
Joe & Amy,
I just checked your post on required filmmaking books, and thought it was completely missing some important ones.
To specifically stay on the screenwriting topic here: Amy, I highly recommend you skip the class and pick up Robert McKee’s STORY and Drew Yanno’s The 3rd Act.
Neither really talks about screenplay formatting (Syd Field comes to mind), which you can find in a million other books, online, and as the inherent awesomeness of Final Draft software. STORY should be required reading for anyone who wants to make a movie, from Screenwriter to Production Assistant. The 3rd Act deals with knowing your ending before you start and how to build yourself back to it. Endings are hard and this book helps. It does focus on the third act, but in doing so, it lets you know what the first and second acts need to have to make a good resolution to the main conflict and how to put seeds in throughout the story to make that resolution have a strong impact.
I would completely skip Halperin’s Writing the Second Act. I thought it would be good like The 3rd Act, but was horribly written and didn’t help at all.
There are other great screenwriting books out there, but I highly recommend starting with Story, and then once you feel ready to tackle to project, moving on to The 3rd Act.
I’ve also picked up Paul Chitlik’s Rewrite, but haven’t quite conquered the blank page yet. Perhaps Joe this book will help you, and you can tell us about it on your endeavor?
And since I am on topic here and not at your other post: Joe, I agree, many filmmaking books suck the fun out of the process. Syd Field is a little to “paint by numbers” screenwriting (or is it “write by numbers” – gosh, I love those binary code scripts) for me. I feel these books give a solid understanding of the game so you can go out and write something structured and producible.
Josh
PS- 2 other books I would add off the top of my head to your filmmaking list that are instructive, but come from filmmakers who love what they do and want to share that. Both are books by editors on editing (and in my mind, editing isn’t that far off from screenwriting in a structural sense):
Walter Murch’s In The Blink of an Eye
Edward Dmytryk’s On Film Editing
2. July 2009 at 14:29
Cool, Josh! Thanks so much. I am going to Amazon and ordering STORY immediately.
7. July 2009 at 10:39
Hey Joe and Josh,
FYI, my second-hand copy of Story came in the mail yesterday and I started reading it last night. Phenomenal book! My only complaint is that the previous reader highlighted a lot of passages. It’s really annoying — like having someone reading over your shoulder and commenting. Fortunately they only made it through the first three chapters. Quitter!
7. July 2009 at 12:03
Or maybe the previous reader found it so informative, he/she felt they would end up highlighting the whole book. Meh, probably not.