I've mentioned before that I'm taking a class in advanced screen writing at Pittsburgh Filmmakers. Last week's assignment involved an exercise that might prove useful to any writer, no matter what you're trying to produce.
The exercise is this: Write 25 pages. Now.
Sounds a bit impossible, doesn't it? I mean, it's daunting to look at that blank screen staring back at you.
How can you fill it even once?
There is only one way. Sit down and write.
Keep on writing. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't even have to be good. There will be time for revisions later, time to correct those spelling errors and shuffle those scenes. For now, the idea is to get into the creative flow. The words will come. The ideas will come. Trust me.
8 comments:
There is no way I could write 25 pages in a day. I'm struggling with my self-imposed four, which I've upped to a self-imposed seven to meet my self-imposed deadline. I made it to a whopping two pages yesterday.
Amen, sister. I wish I had time to just sit down and write. Anything. Instead of having to write a certain number of words on a certain story by a given time, not self-imposed. Don't get me wrong, I love Avery and Derek, and I love the fact that I have a deadline and a year later, I have another book in print, but variety is the spice of life, right, and once in a while, it'd be fun to have the time to write something different, too.
I did pretty good this weekend. Wrote a detailed Sysnopsis (5 pages single-space), sent out some snail-mail queries and a request for a full, AND wrote the prologue to a new suspense novel. 90% of that was done on Sunday.
"Just Do It!"
But its so not easy, she whined... and if you sit in the chair doing all that writing your butt gets larger ... and....
Congrats to Gina for her method and attitude. Much better than my whining!
Joyce -
They don't have to be good pages, and you can get up to get a drink of water or use the bathroom . . .
This exercise seems to be most useful when a writer gets bogged down. In class, the assignment was given when the instructor realized that a 90-page screen play was due in three weeks and most of us hadn't reached page 30 yet!
But Gina, what about doing the dishes, making the bed, feeding the cat, 3 loads of wash, running the vacuum, cutting the grass, ironing hubby's shirts, making his breakfast and lunch, cooking dinner, grocery shopping...
I used to telecommute once a week for my day job. That means I worked from home. With all the advances in networking, it's easy to do.
With that said, there is a disipline that is needed in a home office environment that is not required away from home. Some of us struggle with the distractions while some of us don't.
A friend of mine that opened his own consulting firm began working out of a home office. He struggled with the distractions so much, he told me he woke up, showered and put on a suit before going down the steps to his office. He knew he wouldn't go out and mow the lawn, fix a drain, etc in a suit. For me, it was closing the doors of my den. I don't have a TV in there, but I do have itunes, so I have music in the background.
I found that having a laptop can work against you since you're not confined to that one room with no distractions.
Boredom sure helps me get to it. 25 is a high number in one day for me, but I go at it every morning.
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