Screenwriting : Getting into the writing zone by Gav Elias

I have to prepare and really set a whole day aside. watch a few episodes of inspiring TV, then put on some music and go. but I'm the worst procrastinator ever.

I find time to be by myself and grab a coffee whether i'm at home or at a cafe or wherever and I try to concentrate. The damn thing isn't gonna write itself.

I usually set a target to start about 12:00. Up to that point I'm thinking about what I need to do that day and trying to establish routes around any roadblocks I have. Usually while drinking copious amounts of tea. Sometimes I have a big niggle or worry that's bothering me and need to hone in on the issue and set my only objective for that day to tackle it. For example, today I have a concern over the dialogue and character descriptions in the first act of my latest spec. So this afternoon I'll be striking off any actual scene writing and focusing on that. I don't know exactly how I'll be addressing the issue but I'll have a plan formed by mid-day. When it comes to actual scene writing I'll often spend the morning thinking about the scene(s) away from the computer. Most likely pacing back and forth in the kitchen. I'll already know the beats from my treatment so I'll just be looping over and over. I'll take very brief notes on my phone which will be available on my computer when I sit down and go to write. Silence is good if I can get it but music is good too.

I'm kind of like Alle... thinking about the story until it kind of pours out. In the meantime, I'll jot down notes if I worry I might forget something. Then I sit and work out a brief outline and add to it wherever a bit fits. Then I write narrative to see where the characters are, and get deeper into their personalities and back-story. Usually at about 15-20 pages in is when I switch back to screenwriting and start writing scenes. I have one story that I'm close to writing script for. I've written about 30 pages of back story and various intros. It's one where I'm not sure whether to start the story at the true beginning or toward the end because I think the way it written can really change the reader/viewer perception of the protagonist.

I get excited Gav and go for it and if needed, even until the sun comes up! Just saying =)

Same here. I do get excited and want to get on with it. However, I get the same excitement for other things, like sound design, composing music for moving images, digital art etc. I was just curious if people had any 'tricks' that gets them into the zone, like my up a mountain example away from distractions, but more practical ones. I have recently began creating "soundtrack" playlists on my Deezer account for the screenplay I am writing and found listening to that whilst writing does help me get in the zone.

Well on that note Gav, you have to find the same type of excitement in your writing, as you do when it comes to your passion in other creative things you do. Once you discover it, you will be on your way to a better means of screenwriting. When it comes to me doing a screenplay, I think about what I want to write, think out the plot and away I go!! Keep it moving Gav stay focused and you can do it! Keep me posted and Happy Friday!!.

Cocaine and heroin. The zone lasts about 84 seconds but I can usually knock out a paragraph or two.

Quite an apt surname you have there it seems, Adam :)

I go hiking as well. Sometimes I will do exercises. It gets the blood flowing, and since the brain hogs a huge amount of oxygen, getting the blood flowing is always a good thing. I also close the internet. Too much interesting stuff to read. Like Stage32 ...

There was a reddit post about this. Something about how its easier if we have certain associations that ease us into writing. Habits essentially. Won't get you in the zone but will make you find it easier to focus. The easiest one was music - differs for each person how much or little lyrical music they could listen to, and also smell. Usually coffee. If you could set yourself a certain area you always write in, and then music and coffee for instance that 'connect' you with writing. I feel like weirdly darkness works for me too. It feels more natural to be writing at night in a dark room when it's very quiet- but that's hard to do!

Various ways to challenge yourself are to take notes on a situation that you might not have witnessed before. Look at the masters of film who inspire you to write in the 1st place and observe why each cue and action makes their story work or not.

I wish there were notifications when people comment on a thread.

When I was forklift jousting full time, I wrote for an hour a day before work, and had to produce one good page every day. Then, while working, I worked out the next day's page and scribbled notes (whole patches of dialogue sometimes). That way I was prepared for that hour the next morning. I believe if you want to write you will write and if you don't want to write you won't.

I believe if you want to write you will write and if you don't want to write you won't. Well put, William.

Turn your mind to starting something entirely different....

Then go back when you have given yourself a break....brake... smiles.

When I do that Lyse... I start writing another story in my head, that is my problem, I have so many stories.....

That's a tough one -- carving out time to write. Pick a day/time and defend it like Iron Man! Sunday morning is my time. I listen to movie soundtracks that fit whatever project I'm working on to help get me in the mood. ;-D

I get into the flow because I have a contracted deadline. But seriously, don't answer the phone, stay off the Internet, protect your precious writing time. It's just like any discipline. You must follow it for to get work done. And picking the same time every day helps. I'm lucky to be able to write 6 or more hours a day because it's my job, so I can't have any excuses. But an old Hollywood veteran once told me, "It's simple. Put your butt in the seat and write." Raymond Chandler sat at his desk at the same time every day if the writing came or didn't come to keep the discipline. I have a good article about this: http://scriptcat.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/protect-your-precious-writing-...

Lyse... we are all Loons on here, well... some of us anyway. I know what you mean though. I tend to go the other way when my mind thinks ten to the dozen. I am a Gemini... I think that accounts in part for my personality. Duel thinker. I think of something and that is enough to start me off wondering and wandering all around the mind. Just takes one, I wonder if moment and I am lost. I take a word... Snookums. Snookums Palookums hid under the bed, he shivered and shook with fear when a boy with a torch came into the room and called out is anyone there... Snookums Palookums crept from beneath the bed and slunk his way across the floor, he snuck into the closet and quickly closed the door. That word started me off writing that little poem.... It is now being written as a little tale. The ghost who was a afraid of People....

Thank goodness for Editors....... I do have one.