Happy New Year! If you’re like most writers, then one of your New Year’s Resolutions is probably “to get more writing done.” So we figured we’ll pull all of our best advice together on how to accomplish that.
What keeps you from writing?
Time and schedule are of course our go-to excuses. We need more of both. Yet these factors may be controllable to a degree. Can you change your schedule or create more time? Can you get up an hour earlier? Stay up a couple of hours later? Change your shifts? Use your lunch break? You can find more strategies right here.
Establish your no-fly zone. Kids are notorious for not respecting boundaries. They don’t give a whit if you’re trying to be creative – far more important that they show you how they’ve not quite-figured out how to do a handstand. This is where you need to lay down the law and establish your Do Not Disturb Time. During those hours, mommy or daddy is not to be interrupted. Period.
And if peace cannot be found at home, go to the library or the coffee shop. You may need to be a bit militant about this. But one way or another, claim your space and stick to your guns.
Are you staring at a blank page? Having a “I don’t know what to write” moment? Make a new folder on your desktop titled IDEAS. Whenever you come across something that interests you–a saying, news story, interesting person or situation, a fun logline–put it in there. When you need inspiration, look at your folder.
Are you working on a script but can’t find a way forward? Maybe you have to go back to basics and revisit your outline. Is your structure solid? Your protagonist the master of their own actions and actively pursuing a goal? (Lookin’ at you, Killers of the Flower Moon.) Your plot logic solid? Do you know your characters well enough? Do you need to do more research on this world?
Once I was working on a TV pilot with a great, quirky lawyer protagonist – but had no idea how he could plausibly win his very guilty-seeming client’s freedom. It took several weeks of research, but I found an amazing true event that worked perfectly. Dropped it in and boom, the whole thing came together. Without that research – nope.
Allow yourself to write shit. Do you write something and then immediately delete it? Or don’t write at all because you don’t think you’ve got a killer idea yet? The “vomit draft” is your friend. Just get words on paper in any way, shape or form. Worry about sculpting them into something cogent later.
Remember, this is only a draft. There will be many, many more. It doesn’t have to be perfect right off the bat. No script ever is. Allow yourself to create the sandbox you will then get to play in. The more you spew, the more your brain will look at the puzzle pieces and see what connects, and what doesn’t. And the best part is, by allowing yourself to be bad, you’re jump-starting the creative process, and all the hesitation and self-doubt may just blow away, replaced with a newfound rush of creative electricity.
Hope this will help you find your mojo. Have a fantastic and productive 2024!
