It happened...the dreaded "writer's block" hit me hard yesterday. I was going like a bat out of hell and then WHAM! I just stared at my opened project and at the white space where the cursor was blinking furiously, taunting me, daring me to write something. My fingers hovered above the keys on my laptop's keyboard, sometimes a hairbreadth away from pressing down...but I never did. I lie...I did press one letter (can't remember which one) only to delete it immediately. I glanced at the bottom of the page, it said I was on page 112. I accepted my fate, closed my laptop and made the decision to face this demon tomorrow.
So I woke up this morning at 6am, MONDAY, headed downstairs to the coffee shop (I'm on the Regent Seven Seas Mariner sailing the Caribbean to Miami). I opened the document and the first thing that entered my head weren't words for the page, it was DOUBT. I ordered the double shot macchiato, sipped it and thought, "F this...any words are better than NO words...and you can always fix those words later", and my fingers went to work.
Three and a half hours later I'm on page 116. Not my best work...but 4 pages is better than 3 pages which is better than 2 pages which is better than 1 page which is better than yesterday. VICTORY.
I'm not sure if what I vomited out onto the page is any good...that's another day's problem...I do know I'm 1 page closer to my ending.
Today felt like work, and honestly I did not enjoy myself...BUT I'm glad I didn't throw in the towel. And now for a saying I really, really love, which got me through the horror of lockdown and losing all my work in 2020 and most of 2021: THE SWEET DOESN'T TASTE AS SWEET UNTIL YOU'VE TASTED THE BITTER.
Onwards and upwards.
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Good working through it. I use the 10 minute rule. No matter how weird it gets, write for 10 minutes. At the end of that time, allow yourself to stop if nothing is working. Almost always, something is working by that time.
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Hi Mark, a really useful post as I am sure most (if not all) the talented people in this community can relate. Cheers Frank.
Hello Mark, what's your screenplay about? Or is it a secret
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Way to persevere Mark! Thank you for sharing and inspiring the rest of us.
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So inspiring to hear how you wrote through that block, Mark, such an enormous triumph!
Thx Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg - love the "10min rule" idea.
Cheers Frank O'Collins :)
Thx Ginger Gilley - getting these comments are inspiring for me too :)
Thank you Angela Cristantello - it was tough, but I'm glad I persevered. I do find it tough though to focus on writing when I've got a show looming. Once my final one is done I find I can normally relax and just let the writing flow and in this case my final show is tomorrow night and then I have 3 days ahead with nothing but writing to focus on :)
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Hey Billy Kwack - no secret - a little while back I challenged myself to write a 1 page screenplay. I loved the storyline and decided to turn it into a full length feature. The one-pager is on my profile, called HITCH!
A quick update on the "block". Sat down this afternoon to get something out and it seems that the "blockage" has been dislodged because I managed to smash out another 7 pages. Page 116 to 123. Boom. What a feeling. And what I wrote was the most epically, graphically violent scene I've ever written. Have a great day everyone.
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Hi Mark, good luck
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Yeah; turn that block into a stepping stone. Good going.
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Do you use outlines? I've never gotten writer's block because I've never written anything of length without an outline first. I have experienced a lack of interest in writing at a specific time I've set aside for writing, but I don't consider that writer's block. That's just procrastination which can be applied to any task one sets out to do.