Ken Levine was one of the top comedy writer/producers (“Cheers,” “Frasier’) when I was working in Hollywood. He has a blog called, appropriately enough, “by Ken Levine,” and on a recent post he suggested what to do when you get stuck. Here is part of his advice:
“Come at the problem from different angles. What if he doesn’t get drunk? What if she gets drunk instead? What if he kills the cable repairman tomorrow and not today (right away that makes more sense because the cable repairman is always a day late)? Way too often we get stuck thinking there’s only one way to solve a problem. There’s not. On LOST once there was some crisis and the solution was to “move the island”. Now that’s not the first thing you normally think of. Look for other options. They’re out there.”
This is also an approach I have found useful at times. Instead of assuming that I have to find a solution that fits the scene I’ve written, I consider what might happen if the scene were different. Instead of taking a little step backward, take a BIG STEP backward—that perspective may help you come up with a solution.
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