Backgroundprocessing.exe
I’m coming back to a project after a few weeks off (driving across the country + soul-sucking branded content work) and the first few days have been really tough. I had some attention and focus issues, I felt a little lost on where I was at, and just generally couldn’t sink my teeth into the work in the same way that I had a month ago.
So I wanted to talk about how I’m trying to combat this. In On Writing, Stephen King offers some advice:
“Don’t wait for the muse. As I’ve said, he’s a hardheaded guy who’s not susceptible to a lot of creative fluttering. This isn’t the Ouija board or the spirit-world we’re talking about here, but just another job like laying pipe or driving long-haul trucks. Your job is to make sure the muse knows where you’re going to be every day from nine ’til noon. Or seven ’til three. If he does know, I assure you that sooner or later he’ll start showing up.”
Now as much as I love this (my butt-in-chair time is 3PM-6PM), I think there are ways to bait the muse. Specifically, there is one technique I apply.
Every morning, as I eat breakfast and drink my tea, I read what I have so far. The entire thing, top to bottom. Right now I’m in the outline stage, and I’m creeping towards 14 or 15 pages on the document, so it’s not too bad. But even as I take it to script and start pumping out pages I’ll still do this.
For me, it vastly increases the chance the muse strikes, or what I call ‘background processing.’ When I’m reading and digesting the work every day, it just plants that little seed in my mind. So when I’m on a walk, or in the shower, or doing dishes, little ideas will spring forth. I’ll jot them down, and then during the butt-in-chair time, I work on them.
Give it a shot, see if it works, and let me know how it goes.
TRIPLE TREATS:
If you’re interested in applying for the TV Writing Fellowships then MARK YOUR CALENDARS. Thursday, 4/15 at 3:00 PM PDT, Carole Kirschner, the director of the CBS fellowship program, is doing a live Q+A on YouTube. Check the link below and good luck.
I can’t get enough of the drama around the Justice League movie. This Vanity Fair interview with the original screenwriter Chris Terrio is pretty wild, with some pretty solid gems and insights into how shitty the studios tend to treat screenwriters (and everyone else I suppose).
Ok, this is the first time I’ve used an image and added a hyperlink to it. Does it work? Who knows. Click the image below and see what happens.
ALERT ALERT ALERT. Final Draft 12 just dropped, but that shit sucks, so get Highland 2 while it’s on sale all week.
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