Carolyn Lynch: Director, playwright and producer in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Love your positive energy, Carolyn. The sky is indeed the limit!

Hi Carolyn, Just finished doing a critique for someone on Stage 32 which I hope was helpful to him. Just finishing a off a screenplay with 1 character and 1 set only, about to tackle a project with a new writing partner, and need to put a screenplay together for 10-days time. All this from Stage 32 in the last week or so. Please take pictures and movie samples when you finish filming and show them. Tom

Hello Carolyn, I am William "Tuni" Richburgh and I am happy to meet you!

Nice to meet you too!-)

What's worked for me: 1: Start with a complete outline. 3 acts, with enough points per act to make a story. If the story changes, update and complete the outline to the new story before you move on. 2: There are times you'll be stuck with a scene. You can see parts of the scene in your head, but don't have all the points of it yet. Drop a placeholder and move on. - FIGHT SCENE!! FINISH LATER - - WALTER FINDS THE THING - Whatever you have to do to keep swimming. Writers are sharks. If we stop, we're done. Do what you must to keep going. 3: Don't fight the scene. There was a scene I was trying to write as a scene in an Italian restaurant. I rewrote that scene 4 times a day for a week. It just wasn't working out. Ever day was pulling teeth to get the scene down, and I really wanted the setting to be this Italian restaurant. The lead did... The supporting character did.. The waitress... The other table... Someone from the bathroom... Nothing. I hate it, rewrite. As soon as I changed the setting to a casino, the scene was done. It was perfect. There's my 2cents. Do with them what you will. /cheers

The outline gets me back on track, but like Rick said, sometimes you gotta rewrite parts of the outline ' if the scene comes out more delicious than on the outline.

Many times "writer's block" is just fear and insecurity manifesting itself in a way that we don't realize. If we don't write it, we can never be criticized or rejected, so we procrastinate like we don't want to walk out on that gangplank. I have never found avoiding the work a good way to breakthrough that creative block. There are so many reasons to stop writing when it becomes difficult. Trust me, I know just having gone through this myself. The great Stephen Pressfield calls it resistance and I talk about that in my article: http://scriptcat.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/does-procrastination-resistance/ And you can also go back to the creative well and come up dry—what happens then? It's like a vicious circle, anxiety working on fact your writing is NOT working, you can't SEE the scenes in your head, and you are NOT writing: http://scriptcat.wordpress.com/2011/10/21/what-happens-when-you-go-back-...