#screenwriting advice

I knew during the writing process I had gotten a little aggressive, stubborn…I raised my voice when I shouldn’t have (which is something I do when I feel like I’m not being heard) and apparently even though the other work I did was good - my personality isn’t.

I’m really sad because I really enjoyed working with the group - and thought that my level of excitement (not sure what else to call it) was a little extra but still within the realm of appropriateness.

I’m not exactly sure how to tackle this aspect of myself. Obviously I need to at least get better but I’m not sure how.

We’ve all been there. Some people have it all the time. Some say it doesn’t exist. I class writer’s block as anything from lack of motivation to not being able to solve a plot problem. Whatever it is, here’s a list of activities to try and get those creative rivers running. 

Move. Pick up your laptop and go to a different room. They say a change is as good as a rest and this can be true with writing. Move to the kitchen. Write outside. Go to a coffee shop. Sit in the cupboard under the stairs and block out the world. Just change up the scenery. 

Swap Medium. If words just aren’t doing it for you make aesthetics, mood boards, draw maps or characters. Victoria Aveyard once said she designed book covers and let the plot stew in the back of her mind. 

Write Something Else. Working on other projects can give you inspiration for what you’re working on now. Find some prompts. Write irrelevant short stories or character studies. Write about your characters as kids or at defining points in their lives. 

Plot. Hands off the keyboard, open up one of those many unused notebooks I know you have and start scribbling vague, half formed ideas. Allow yourself to write things you might discard later. Allow yourself to try and work through an idea you like but don’t understand yet. Try and work out the next 10 steps. 10 things you want to cover. 10 scenes. 10 days. Whatever it is, just write it down. 

20 Minutes Rule. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Sit your butt down in that chair and write for 20 minutes. I don’t care if it’s trash. I don’t care if you’re going to delete it all later. I don’t care if it’s nonsense. Do it. 20 minutes of writing nonsense is still more productive than 20 minutes staring at that wall. After 20 minutes if you still don’t want to write, leave it, but you just might find yourself inspired. 

Finally, Take Time Off. If none of this is working, it’s likely a sign of burn out. Take some time for yourself and just do nothing. “Write every single day,” yeah sure if you wont to be a machine who pumps out words instead of art. Sometimes you need to recharge before you move forward and that doesn’t just mean getting a good nights sleep. Look after yourself and be kind. This isn’t a race against the clock, you have your whole life to publish a book. 

You’re all good! I’m all about wordy asks. :D

It was more a process of elimination for me.  

I’ve always loved writing, so my thought was I was going to be a director/screenwriter. I then went to film school, found out what it takes to be a director, and all the other aspects of filmmaking and decided screenwriting is the thing for me.

If I want to write a dead horse, I can write a dead horse.  I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to get that dead horse on screen.  That’s the producers problem.

It also helped that I had a couple of great professors in screenwriting that really encouraged me to go for it.

Honestly, it’s whole movies I want to re-write *cough* Star Wars sequel trilogy *cough*.  But, there have definitely been moments in movies where I’m sitting in the theater and thinking “I could fix this”.  I’ve even thought about making a YouTube series where I basically script doctor movies and see what went wrong.

But, that’s a fun place to start in terms of getting used to the formatting.  I really do recommend getting screenwriting software (FinalDraft is industry standard), just because the formatting takes so much time otherwise and it ruins your momentum.

(Note: This exercise can also be performed on written narrative forms like fiction, but it is probably best utilized for visual forms like film/screenwriting. Still, fiction is welcome!)

The art of introducing conflict indirectly is probably one of the most useful tools to a writer of any story form. Sometimes, conflict can be introduced directly, but other times, this isn’t appropriate, or it’s far too on the nose. If you have a character that is avoiding their conflict, or if you don’t want your story to just dump exposition everywhere, then you may want to work on revealing conflict in a more indirect way. This flatters the reader and makes for very smart, realistic storytelling.

One way to practice this is to write a character with an internal, chronic conflict into a setting that has nothing to do with that conflict.

First, you need a chronic conflict. This is usually something internal, but it doesn’t have to be. Chronic just means ongoing, continuous. This is the conflict that has been present in the character since before the story’s beginning. Going back to my previous post, in the movie clip of Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, Bill Murray’s character’s chronic conflict is his loneliness, mainly due to his failing marriage.

But, instead of setting that scene in a more direct way, such as Murray walking in on his wife, or catching her on the phone with another guy--he’s at a pool party. He’s performing a mundane task. He’s jumping off a diving board. How he does it is so telling of what he’s feeling, of what his inner conflict is. Certainly, Wes Anderson is very stylistic in his portrayal of this idea, but the basics are obvious to us, even through such an indirect means.

So, here’s the formula for this exercise:

Chronic Conflict  +  Unrelated Setting  =  Scene

You can come up with this yourself, but you want the setting to be as random and unrelated as possible. If a character just got dumped, they can’t meet their ex randomly; they can’t be stuck alone on Valentine’s Day.

I’ve also made a list of possible things prompts for this exercise below (keep reading). For funsies, you can use these if you’d like! Also, if you want me (or anyone else) to comment or give critique on your exercise, reblog your response to this!

The key to becoming a working writer or creating longevity as a working writer is writing a TV pilot script that they can’t ignore. The pilot script is one of the hardest scripts to write.  Jen Grisanti developed a story system that has led 48 of her clients to sell their pilots. 

Jen has launched numerous writing careers over the last 20 years. She developed a system of story for writers leading them to sell their pilots and staff on television.  Part of her system includes story structure, adding fiction to your truth, writing memorable characters and creating a strong internal story. In this class, Jen will dive deeply into story structure.MASTERING THE SET UP OF YOUR PILOT THROUGH STRUCTURE

Learn Jen’s Story System – Jen believes that every strong story starts with a trigger incident that leads the character into a powerful dilemma. The choice made in the dilemma defines the external goal in the A story. Then, every obstacle, escalating obstacle and “all is lost” moment needs to connect back to the goal. It is when the goal/want/desire isn’t clear that the story doesn’t work.

Link your series trigger and dilemma to your pilot trigger, dilemma, and pursuit. This is KEY to the success of your pilot.

Learn to create empathy and a rooting factor for your character from the start through linking the personal dilemma to the pursuit.

Understand how using the trigger, dilemma, and pursuit in all your storylines will change the way that you write.

Learn the value of linking every preceding scene in each story arc.

Create a powerful dilemma that will lead to a question. Answer the pilot arc question with your resolution. Build on the season arc question with your opening and the end of your pilot.

Practice how to write your act breaks in a way that will bring your audience back.

International speaker Jen Grisanti is an acclaimed Story/Career Consultant at Jen Grisanti Consultancy Inc., Writing Instructor for Writers on the Verge at NBC, a former 12-year studio executive, including VP of Current Programming at CBS/Paramount, blogger for The Huffington Post and author of the books, Story Line: Finding Gold In Your Life Story and TV Writing Tool Kit: How To Write a Script That Sells and her new book, Change Your Story, Change Your Life: A Path To Your Success.Grisanti started her career in 1992 as an assistant to Aaron Spelling, who served as her mentor for 12 years, and she quickly climbed the ranks and eventually ran Current Programs at Spelling Television Inc., covering all of Spelling’s shows including Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place and Charmed. In 2004, Grisanti was promoted to Vice President of Current Programs at CBS/Paramount where she covered numerous shows, including Medium, Numbers, NCIS, 4400 and Girlfriends.In January 2008, Grisanti launched Jen Grisanti Consultancy Inc., a highly successful consulting firm dedicated to helping talented writers break into theindustry. Drawing on her experience as a studio executive where she gave daily notes to executive producers/showrunners, Grisanti personally guides writers toshape their material, hone their pitches and focus their careers. Since launching the consulting firm, Grisanti has worked with over 1000 writers specializing intelevision, features and novels. Due to her expertise and mentorship, ninety-five of her writers have staffed on television shows and forty-six have sold pilots, five that that went to series

IMPORTANT!

For security purposes, you MUST REGISTER before 10:00 pm on Thursday, January 18, 2018 – for guaranteed entrance onto CBS’ lot.