Time to Write

The 1001 decisions you make about writing your screenplay or novel

Why do I say that you have 1001 decisions to make about your writing (or other goal)?

Your 1 decision is what goal you want to achieve.  
Your 1000 decisions happen at the times every day that you have a choice of either moving toward or away from your goal. These decisions are sometimes so small that you don’t even notice them. 

If your goal is to get a certain number of words written every day or week, the 1000 decisions could include:

·      Whether to watch that reality show or spend the hour writing

·      When waiting for a bus or the Underground whether to just stand and people-watch or get out a pad and brainstorm a scene or a character

·      When your alarm goes off early, whether to turn over and go back to sleep or get up and work on your project  

The first decision—what’s your goal?—is crucial, but ultimately it’s your other 1000 decisions that will determine whether or not you succeed.   The good news is that when you consistently make the decisions that support your goal, after a while they become habits and no longer require thought or will power. For instance, it took a while, but now going to the gym regularly is second nature to me. So is posting on this blog.

What are the little decisions you could make today that would move you toward a goal that's important to you?

Are you focusing on the wrong part of your writing goal?

Another session of my online coaching program is ending soon, and I've noticed that some people feel discouraged because they know they will not quite reach the goals they set for themselves.

If this applies to you when you fall short of reaching a writing or other goal, please don’t let what you didn’t achieve overshadow what you DID achieve.

For some reason, it’s natural for most people to focus on the negative rather than the positive. I realized this some time ago when I’d run a workshop or give a talk sometimes for 50 or more people and ask them to fill in an evaluation sheet. If I got 49 compliments and one negative response, which one do you think stuck in my mind?

That’s right, the negative one—which often wasn’t even about me, it was somebody who thought the room was too hot or too cold, or the chair was too soft or too hard, or the lunch hour was too long or too short. Fortunately, eventually I recognized how ridiculous this was.

Of course if there is something to be learned from the negative, that's valuable. But otherwise it's a waste of time and energy to focus on the bad news, especially if it makes you forget the good stuff.

If, like me, you have a tendency to spend more time and energy on what didn't work, this is a reminder to give yourself some credit for what did work.

Writing your novel or screenplay: are you settling too soon?

I've just finished attending an intensive week-long workshop on marketing information products on the web and one of the topics it covered that I think has applications for writers is testing.

Marketing experts constantly test the effects of different elements, such as one headline vs. another. Here's the part that I think could be useful to us as writers:

Keep testing, even when what you've got is working.

In other words, even when you've thought of a plot point that works, it might not be time yet to settle for that one. Instead, generate at least one (and ideally, two) alternatives that also could work. Often you will find that the second or third idea is better than the first--it's the difference between "good" and "even better."

Warning 1: this takes some real effort, because usually our feeling of relief that we've found ONE thing that works makes us want to move on right away. 

Warning 2: If you're a perfectionist, you may have the opposite problem: never moving on because you're sure there's a better way. If that's you, after you've generated three options, choose the best one and move on!

Writing screenplays and novels: why the end should be in the beginning

I want to share one more tip from the most excellent book, "Notes on Directing," by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich, which I highly recommend for writers. They advise:

 "Realize that the end is in the beginning. In all the best material, the outcome is inevitable and inherent in the opening moment and in every moment in between. From the audience's perspective, this can only be understood and appreciated backwards, after the play has run its course."

I would add that from the author's perspective, usually this can be understood only backwards, after the script or book has been written and rewritten--very few writers, if any, are so good that there isn't anything extraneous in a first draft! 

Often the first five minutes of a movie will include a clue regarding the core of the story but we won't recognize it as such until we see it for a second time.

 For instance, early in the classic comedy, "Tootsie," the main character, Michael Dorsey, is talking to his friend. His friend says, "Why don't you stop worrying about being the best waiter or the best actor, and just concentrate on being the best Michael Dorsey?" (I've paraphrased). That question encapsulates the theme of the whole film, and almost every scene in the film reflects it in some way.

Having this idea in mind really helpful when I start on a second draft--give it a try!

(Additional helpful information about writing scripts and books is in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and the associated site, www.yourwritingcoach.com) 

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Screenwriting and novel writing: why to make your characters suffer!

I mentioned in the previous post a great little book called "Notes on Directing," by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich. It's aimed at people who want to direct theater, but I think it has valuable content for writers, too. Here's another insight you might find helpful when you are creating a story:

 "Realize that the human experience is one of suffering and the resolution of suffering. Legitimate questions to ask of any script: How are these characters suffering? What are they doing to resolve their suffering?"

Of course "suffering" can be of any quality, from fearing for their lives to worried that they will not win over the person they desire, to anxious about passing some kind of test. 

Often we talk about what a character wants or needs, which is a good way to think about a plot but it's important to be aware that often what they want is driven by fear or anxiety. 

Even if somebody wants something mundane--let's say a middle-age man wants a new sports car--there may be some kind of fear or suffering behind that desire. It may be the fear of growing old, or the fear that he's not attractive enough so he needs to attract women with fancy possessions.

I find it helpful to think about my characters this way because it unlocks a lot of other thoughts that help flesh them out. For instance, at the moment I'm writing a thriller TV movie in which the protagonist's fear is that she will never be as capable as her older sister, who was kind of a parental figure to her. In the course of the story the tables are turned and she is the one who has to save her sister. 

 Knowing that her feeling of inferiority is a central issue forces me to think about why she is that way--what happened in the past? How else does this influence her in other parts of her life (for instance, her relationship with men)? The answers to those questions end up affecting the rest of the story elements in larger and smaller ways. 

(Additional helpful information about writing scripts and books is in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and the associated site, www.yourwritingcoach.com)

Writing a screenplay or novel: what's your compelling question?

 I just discovered a great little book called "Notes on Directing," by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich. It's aimed at people who want to direct theater, but I think it has valuable content for writers, too. It won me over when I read this:

"Don't change the author's words. Director Lloyd Richards said that if you continually find yourself itching to make changes to a script, consider whether you should give up directing and take up playwriting."

I like these guys! 

They also advise that the director identify the story's compelling question. So if you are writing a play, a screenplay, or a novel, it's a good idea for you to have a compelling question in mind. Here's what they mean:

"Every good play has a basic "will she or won't she..," an essential question about the central character(s) that keeps the audience interested, a question around which all the action revolves."

They give the example of "Hamlet," in which the central question is whether he will avenge is father's death.

It's not just lofty drama that has such a question. In "Hangover," the question is whether they will find the missing groom in time for the wedding.

In romances, whether you're talking about "Romeo and Juliet" or "Brokeback Mountain," the question usually is whether the couple will end up together. 

In action pictures it's whether the hero will manage to thwart the bad guys. 

In some cases, the answer is pretty obvious from the start, and you have to put most of your effort into making the story interesting even though we can guess the ending. We know, for example, that James Bond is not likely to die.

In stories that are more character pieces, the compelling question may be more subtle and sometimes doesn't become clear until you've seen the whole movie or read the entire book. 

Also, some stories combine a compelling plot story and a compelling character-based story. For instance, I really liked a little picture called "Gloria" (the 1980 original, not the remake). The compelling action story is whether Gloria will be able to protect a little boy from the mob. The compelling character story is whether and how this hard-bitten woman will be affected by having to care for a child.

When you can combine two compelling stories like that, you're on to a winner! 

(You'll find great tips for creating characters and plots in my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite online and offline retailers.)

Creativity and madness: there IS a link

It turns out that the idea that there’s a thin line between creativity and madness is not just a myth after all. BBC News reports that scientists have found that brain scans show “a striking similarity in the thought pathways of highly creative people and those with schizophrenia.”

 In both cases, the brain does less filtering of information, which leads to unconventional connections and sometimes also unconventional behaviour. It’s how far down the continuum you find yourself—and possibly how much money you have—that determines whether you are considered eccentric or crazy.

 It also raises the question of what will happen to creativity if the current trend of turning every divergence from the norm into a disease or condition that requires a prescription drug continues.

 I also wonder whether sometimes people who develop the milder forms of mental illness would fare better if they had an artistic outlet for their unusual thoughts--or is that too much of an oversimplification? All I know is that there have been times when writing has been great therapy for me, and if you feel like there are too many thoughts bubbling around in your head, transforming them into a work of fiction or a painting seems like a good idea. 

(for guidance on how to express your creativity, see my book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)

If you think you lack self-discipline you may just be defining it wrong

On the Huffington Post, Susan Piver writes about her failed experiment trying to get herself to do every day a range of things she felt she should. That led her to re-examining what is really meant by self-discipline and she found an answer in the context of meditation:

 “…you cultivate focus and awareness by placing your attention on your breath rather than your thoughts. PS It has nothing to do with emptying the mind of thought!! Almost impossible!! Stop trying!! Big hoax!! Instead, you take a different view of your thoughts by seeing them as passing phenomena while your primary allegiance, attention-wise, is to your breath as it flows in and out through your nose. When you forget to do this and become wholly absorbed in thought again, you simply come back, with kindness toward yourself.

This gentle coming back is our first clue as to what true discipline is. It has nothing to do with bullying yourself. It has nothing do with being "good" or "bad." In fact, it has nothing to do with anything other than simply coming back. There is no narrative attached to this action, it is what it is. Coming back is always possible…”

 I realize that I need to emphasize this more at the start of my 60-day Breakthrough Strategy program for people who want support in setting and achieving their goals. I’ve run this three times now and each time a few people either have a crisis in the middle or go missing toward the end because they’ve stumbled and they don’t realize that the best thing to do when you stumble is get up and keep going. Maybe they have a harsh inner critic that tells them this doesn’t happen to other people. Maybe they think that “failing” is a permanent state rather than a diversion and convince themselves they just don't have the necessary self-discipline.

If that describes you as well, maybe it's time for a new definition of self-discipline.

(For an innovative approach to getting more done---without bullying yourself--get a copy of my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done" from Amazon or your other favorite online or offline retailer.)

Are you using brainstorming to its full potential? (4 times to use it)

One of the reasons that brainstorming sessions in businesses often fail is that there's no follow-up. Ideas are generated, a memo is written, and then...nothing. The same thing can happen for individuals who are brainstorming ideas for books, scripts, or other creative projects. One way around this is to plan four brainstorming sessions:

1: THE BIG IDEA. This is where you are looking for a solution to a challenge you're facing or coming up with new ideas. Usually that's the end of the process. But it can be useful to add:

2: IDEAS ABOUT IMPLEMENTATION. Rather than just going about implementation of the idea the first way that occurs to you, you can have a brainstorming session about a variety of ways you could do this. 

3. OBSTACLES & SOLUTIONS. As you implement any larger project obstacles will appear. Sometimes in the heat of trying to get things done we forget that we can use the power of brainstorming again.

4: BUILDING ON SUCCESS. When the project is finished it's tempting to just move on to the next thing, but this is another time when brainstorming can be useful, with an emphasis on what you learned from that project, how you can leverage your success with it, and how it might influence what you do next. 

If your project is something you want to sell (for example, to a publisher or producer or the people who visit your website) it's time to start the four sessions all over again, this time on big idea about marketing your work, implementing your marketing plan, overcoming marketing obstacles, and then again on building on your success. 

(You'll find lots more ideas about how to be more creative and productive in my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done." It's published by Pearson and you can get it from your favorite online or offline retailer.)

One way to get more ideas easily

On The Morning News, Nicole Pasulka interviewed artist Julie Heffernan about her dream-like paintings. I recently posted a review of a book about image streaming so it was interesting to read how it works for Heffernan:

 “I read somewhere that you get ideas and inspiration through a process called “image streaming.” How does that work?

 It works differently as I develop, but when it started I had been through graduate school and this very intense Fulbright year in Berlin, really painting for 16 or 18 hours a day…I started to notice that as I would relax and go into a fade-away state before sleep, I would be dreaming these images from nowhere that wouldn’t relate to anything I had seen in the day or was painting at the time; they would come to me like a movie. Francis Bacon talks about it, a lot of people do. I would just kind of watch this movie and think, “Oh my goodness this is so much more interesting than what I’ve been painting.”

 Over the next few years, I changed everything I was doing stylistically so that I could see these images more clearly. That’s why I went toward what some people call the old master image, but what I think of as “Light and Shadow.” Over time the image streaming has given way to an inner sort of mind voice where I don’t necessarily see a particular independent image so clearly as I am being told by the inner voice what to do in the painting.”

 ***

Some writers have found this process useful as well—the key is being ready to capture the images and sometimes it’s easier to speak them into a recorder (which could be an iTouch or smart phone) than to interrupt the process by writing things down.

(There are loads of ideas on how to be more creative in my newest book, "Creativity Now!" published by Pearson--you can order it right now from Amazon or your favorite online or offline retailer.)

How well are electronic books really doing?

Waterstone's (the UK's leading bricks-and-mortar book retailer) has sold more than 700,000 e-books and 60,000 e-readers since it began selling them in September 2008, the Bookseller reported. The company plans to double space devoted to e-book hardware. Their prediction is that e-books will account for 8% of the book market by 2013.

One big question is how the popularity of the IPad will impact this, and another factor is whether there will be cheaper versions available. Inc magazine says yes: 

"A cheaper tablet on the horizon. It will run Google's Android operating system and it will likely be sold by a Chinese computer company. That's the gist of reports in Bloomberg and The New York Times about tablet offerings by the likes of Via and Foxconn. Ashlee Vance of The Times calls these little cheap tablets "flankers," meaning not good enough to kill the $499 iPad, but "different enough to challenge the iPad with certain audiences." Whichever device prevails, the explosive popularity of tablets should be a boon to app entrepreneurs. Bloomberg reports that the gadgets are expected to sell an estimated 46 million units by 2014, up from 7.6 million this year."

Electronic editions of books will be one of the core offerings of any tablet. Will these bring in readers who don't normally buy books? Or will they merely cannibalize the already-struggling book trade? Stay tuned! 

I'm tempted by the iPad but have made up my mind to wait for the 2nd generation. Until then I am not taking my credit card with me anytime I anticipate being near an Apple store...

When should you write for a different genre? (The Michael Ridpath experience)

 I interviewed financial thriller writer Michael Ridpath a few years ago for bonus material to go with my book, "Your Writing Coach." I've just had an email from him saying his new books is about to come out ("Where the Shadows Lie," published by Corvus) and revealing that it's not a financial thriller. He told The Bookseller his reasoning and strategy in an article written by Alice O'Keefe:

"I enjoyed writing financial thrillers and thought I was getting better at them, but the problem was as a genre it wasn't selling very well. I wanted to write in an area that I thought would be popular."

The article says,"in order to determine what might be popular with the reading public he paid a visit to his local W H Smith, where he found two genres dominating the shelves. One was thrillers about secret societies, lost manuscripts, which left him uninspired; the other he describes as distinctive detectives."

He went for the latter by creating Sergeant Detective Magnus Johnson, who returns to Iceland after having worked for the Boston Police Department. Perhaps not to waste his other research, Ridpath's plot involves rumors of a lost saga about a ring with terrible power--a story that may be linked to J R R Tolkein.

Ridpath's first book, "Free to Trade" was a huge success and was followed by seven more, but when the appeal of the genre declined, Penguin didn't renew his publishing contract. So he want back to work. The article spells out how he spent his time:

"He spent 18 months working on the book: six months on researching and planning, six months on the first draft and then six months redrafting with freelance editor Richenda Todd. Ridpath decided that, rather than showing potential publishers "a good synopsis" he would do better with the whole novel. 'It seemed to me that the nearer a finished product there was, the less risk publishers would be taking. And with the change of genre and everyone being so risk-averse, anything I could do to minimise the risk would help.'"

His agent sent out the new book under a pen name and it landed at a new imprint from Atlantic--his strategic method worked out. He says, 'I always think about how to do things hard, before I actually do them. At university, they used to talk about the ‘Ridpath Method' which was just the way I went about doing exams or anything like that. I've always done it, and I applied it to writing. For me, it works.'"

You can find out  more about him and his books at www.michaelridpath.com

(The interview with Michael Ridpath is one of number of bonuses to my book, "Your Writing Coach." Each chapter has a code word that unlocks the bonus at the www.yourwritingcoach.com website.)

What does it really take to succeed as a writer?

 I'm reading marketing guru Dan S. Kennedy's book, "No B.S. Business Success in the New Economy." He sets out some preconditions for success as an entrepreneur and they all make sense for the writer/artist as well (after all, generally writers and artists ARE entrepreneurs). Here are a few key points:

"Every successful achievement begins with decision. Most unsuccessful lives are conspicuously absent of decision."

"The New Economy mandates a much more willing and creative approach to constant change and evolution and recurring reinvention..."

"You have to reject the entire idea of limited choices. Limitations, rules, industry norms—these are for other people, but not for you. Reject any idea that removes any option from your table."

"To succeed as an entrepreneur requires decision and determination—total, unwavering commitment…you have to develop and embrace attitudes, habits, and behaviours that are markedly different from those of most of the people you’ve known." 

"To succeed as an entrepreneur, you must set aside your neediness for acceptance from others. Immunity to criticism is a “secret” shared by all the highly successful entrepreneurs that I know."

"You have to set aside your “book of excuses” once and for all." 

"THE characteristic that tends to distinguish the winners from the losers is the relentless conversion of problems to opportunities, negatives to positives."

If those resonate, you'll find the rest of the book useful, too. It's published by Entrepreneur Press.

(Another book I think you'll find useful is "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and written by...me. You can find out more about it at www.focusquick.com). And if immunity from harsh SELF-criticism is an issue, you will find my "Taming Your Inner Critic" program essential--find out more here.)

 

The difference between a flop and a failure

 In an article about veteran producer Hal Prince in the (London) Times, he said, "I had a cycle of eight flops, one after the other, which meant eight opening-night receptions and eight times we opened the paper to read goddam awful reviews. My wife [Judy] after a number of years of marriage to me, said, 'I wish to hell you would stop talking about hits and flops and thinking they were the same things as successes and failures.' Follies was a very successful show, but lost a lot of money.

By the way, the ninth musical was Phantom of the Opera.

When you don't get the reaction you hoped for, do you assume a flop is the same as a failure?

(For tips and inspiration, use the form at the right to sign up for my free monthly Brainstorm & Focus e-bulletin. You might also find the material at www.timetowrite.com useful.)

A quick tip for fellow email addicts

 Addicted to checking your email too often? Here's a quick tip: send yourself an email with the subject line ARE YOU SURE THIS IS THE BEST USE OF YOUR TIME? 

Keep it there, and occasionally re-send it so that it's always on the first page of your emails. 

It's an unavoidable reminder that probably you should be doing something else!