Attacking

Maybe attacking is the wrong word. But I remember a time when I’d run from a writing problem. If I couldn’t figure something out, it meant I was a bad writer and I didn’t deserve to do this. As you can probably guess, my thinking was messed up.

This afternoon, I didn’t know what to write for this pilot I’m working on. So I typed some of the most basic dialogue and action lines you’ve ever seen. Using whatever verbs and nouns came into my head, however vague and ambiguous. Typing as many words as I needed to without brevity in mind. And I got to a point where I feel like I nailed down the action, got an idea of what the characters were doing, how the characters would be feeling, what needed to happen, how the story would move forward. Again, I just had ideas, but not focusing on the words so much as the ideas allowed me to give this story some kind of foundation for later.

Later, I went back and attacked one of the scenes. Maybe attacking is the right word. I tightened up the wording, concisely nailed down the emotional responses and character actions, described the creature that’s a cornerstone of this scene using the most visceral wording I possibly could, and really thought about how I wanted to describe him to make him terrifying for an audience. And that’s when I felt like I was working, being productive.

The first hour in the afternoon was comprised of me sitting there, banging away on the keyboard, not feeling very inspired. The second hour was where all my ideas came, when I felt creative and focused. But it wouldn’t have happened without that first hour.