I’VE WRITTEN SIX FEATURE-LENGTH SCREENPLAYS.

Five of those I wrote a page or two at a time while going to work or school. (Or playing disc golf, as was the case with one script.)

Slow and steady wins the race.

MY FAVORITE WRITING EXPERIENCE, HOWEVER, IS THE EXCEPTION…

When I first moved to LA, I spent a long fourth of July weekend in San Francisco with my friends. As luck would have it, three weeks later I had a family vacation in Hawaii. (It was a tough summer.)

After convincing myself that it didn’t make sense to start looking for work until after my second vacation, I decided to use those three weeks to finally write an action comedy I’d been thinking about for years. With my roommates gone all day at work, I had the apartment to myself.

My own little staycation-meets-writing retreat.

I didn’t waste the opportunity. I wrote every day, about 6-7 hours a day. And finished a 187 page rough draft.

Yes, that’s WAY too long for a script, but it gives you a sense of how productive and engaged I was. The experience was thrilling, and I’ve always wanted to take another writing retreat.

Today, I’m going to show you how you can do it even if you don’t have weeks to spare.

WRITE EVERY DAY

If there was a 10 commandments of writing, this would be #1: Write every day. (Tweet this)

Writing daily is one of the most important habits you can develop as an aspiring screenwriter. Tracking your writing — even if it’s just 30 minutes — can be a huge motivator. Momentum is powerful, and doing at least a little writing every day is the best way to prevent writer’s block. As novelist Anna Quindlin says:

“I don’t believe in writer’s block. It’s not that sometimes you can’t write, it’s that you can’t write well. Experience has told me that writing poorly sometimes leads to something better. Not writing at all leads only to reruns of “Law and Order.”

Another reason writing daily is so powerful is that it keeps your story top of mind. Often, the hardest part about writing is getting into the story. And the longer you’re away from it, the harder it is to get back. Even a long weekend can throw you off.

Daily writing is the goal.

BUT…

Sometimes, daily writing isn’t enough.

Even if you’re making great progress day after day, 120 pages can be a daunting finish line. Especially for your rough draft. Keeping your focus and spirits up for three months of daily writing isn’t easy. It’s easy to lose the forest for the trees.

That’s when scheduling a writing retreat is so powerful. Imagine having a large block of uninterrupted time to blast through your script. If you could work, uninterrupted, how long would you need? Instead of producing a script during a hundred short strolls, what if you used a few all-out sprints?

That’s the goal behind a writing retreat. In my experience, this works better for writing a rough draft vs. outlining your story (especially if you’ve already got your 25 page outline).

Why is this?

Because writing your rough draft is about finally getting your story down on paper. You’ve already put a lot of thought into it and your energy and momentum can translate to the page. Outlining, on the other hand, is a much more deliberate process. Full of stops and starts, detours, dead-ends. It’s slow. (And also why I recommend you have multiple outlines in the works at the same time while focusing 100% on a rough draft when the time comes to write it.)

PLANNING YOUR WRITING RETREAT

Well, If you can afford to take a few weeks off, I recommend you bookend your writing retreat with vacations to San Francisco and Hawaii. (Alas, I haven’t been able to manage that one since.)

But if you’re in the same situation I’m in now, where money is tight and time is tighter, you have to be creative to make a writing retreat happen. Luckily, a little bit of creativity and drive goes a long way.

Here are four writing retreats that nearly anyone can take a few times a year:

• The Getaway – Find a bank holiday and throw in a vacation day to make a four-day weekend. Plan ahead so you’re sure you have nothing to do but write. If you’re out of vacation time, call in sick. With a good outline, you could write half a script in four full, uninterrupted days.
• Split-time — Take half-days at work for a week. Devote your mornings to writing and your afternoons to work. This will give you enough office time to deal with the “emergencies” while keeping your head clear for writing each day. Start early and you can easily put in a 4-hour power session every day. This is a great way to power through your first Act and build momentum for Act 2.

• Take a media holiday — Chances are you spend hours every week watching TV, surfing the web, checking Facebook, fiddling with your phone. Give yourself a break. TiVo the shows if you have to, but spend your evenings writing (even for a week) instead of consuming info. I love this one because you don’t have to give up anything important to do it.

• Double down — Double your daily writing time for a set period of time. If you write for 30 minutes every evening before bed, then push yourself to work for an entire hour. The extra willpower of writing more will be easier to exert when you know that it only lasts for a week or two. (Plus, pushing yourself will improve your productivity even after you go back to your normal schedule.)

What is your favorite writing experience? How has that shaped your writing habit?

What if I said you could even save months of work?

And you could make your screenplay better while writing it faster?

Too good to be true?

Nope.

The fact is most aspiring writers waste TONS of time on each script because they don’t understand one simple fact about storytelling….

STORYTELLING AND WRITING YOUR SCRIPT AREN’T THE SAME THING

A lot of aspiring writers bemoan outlining.

Especially the “creative” ones who never seem to finish a script, let alone a really good one.

They say things like, “Outlining sucks the life out of your story. I just listen to my characters. I like to let my story go where it wants.”

Which is usually nowhere.

Unless you have an incredibly advanced Gestalt understanding of story and plotting AND you’re telling an episodic story, “just listening to your characters” is a recipe for, if not disaster, at least weeks or months of wasted time.

Look at the professionals. Most working screenwriters outline their scripts in a fair amount of detail.

Why do they do this?

Because they’ve learned that screenplays — all stories, actually — have two distinct layers: STORY and TELLING.

• STORY refers to what happens, how it happens, when and to whom. The main deliverable at this stage is the outline.
• TELLING refers to how you communicate the story to someone else. The deliverable here is the actual script.

By focusing on these two layers one at a time, professional writers can make sure their story is tight before worrying about how to write the actual scenes. Just as you can’t have a great film without a great script, you can’t have a good “telling” without a good “story”.

Doesn’t matter how crisp your dialogue is, if the scene is pointless or misguided — it’s dead in the water.

“All screenplays have two distinct layers: STORY and TELLING” (Tweet this)

HOW TO SAVE TIME BY BREAKING YOUR STORYTELLING INTO TWO PHASES

I explained how to do this in an earlier post:

Once you have a general overview of your story (a 5-page outline giving you a 30,000 foot view), you still have to decide WHAT happens in each scene of your story and HOW it happens.

• WHAT refers to the mechanics of the plot and character development. What happens in each scene? What do the characters do and think? What does the audience learn in each scene? What is set up or paid off?
• HOW refers to the bringing a story to life. How does each scene play out? How do the characters act? How does the audience feel at each point in the story? How does the story move along?

You can’t do both of these things at the same time. It’s just too much to think about. This is why most people who try end up with wooden scripts that may fit together logically but don’t feel alive. Or they’ll have a couple lively scenes in an otherwise clunky, incomprehensible story.

But if you tackle one at a time, you can dramatically improve your work.

Let me explain how this works…

When you create a 25 page outline (without just adding dialogue and writing the script, a common urge), you have to break down each scene in detail:

• Where did it take place? When?
• Who was involved?
• What did each character want to gain?
• What did the characters do in the scene?
• What did the audience and/or the characters learn in the scene?
• What set-ups or pay offs needed to be included?
• Where did the tension in the scene come from?
• Where did the drama/comedy/fun/surprise in the scene come from?
• How were the characters being developed?
• How did the scene transition to the next scene?
• How many pages should the scene be?
• How does this fit into the sequence? The act? The film?

Most importantly, it’s EASIER to think about these questions in an outline than in a full script. In an outline, this is all the information you have. You’re not distracted by a snappy line of dialogue or clever description you wrote. You don’t have to worry about being attached to any pages in your script because you don’t have any. All you have is notes on the story.

Once you make that work, you’re ready to move on.

Now, since the details are in place, you can focus on the HOW:

• How to bring the characters to life?
• How to show the theme?
• How to make the scene really dramatic, funny, engaging?
• How to pace and stage it for optimal effect?
• How to use my writing style to add to the experience (not just communicate details)?
• How to make sure each scene brings something original and interesting?

As you can see, this lets you focus on the telling little details that bring a scene to life. And most important, instead of wasting weeks (or months) writing scenes that will never make it into the final script or changing your story to fit some dialogue you like, you’ll stay focused on what’s most important for you at that moment.

Write smarter, not harder.

Happy Writing!

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Not casually reading lots and lots of scripts. I’m talking about doing a DEEP analysis of a script. Picking it apart layer by layer and really scrutinizing each piece. Then reassembling it and trying to make it better.

This isn’t quick. This isn’t easy. But it is powerful.

And I’m going to prove it to you.

Starting next week, I’m going to walk you through a full script analysis of one of the most popular action films of all time: DIE HARD. And it’s just for people who’ve subscribed to the Master the Craft newsletter. (Click here to sign up.)

As someone with a film degree, I can guarantee you’ll learn more about screenwriting over the next several weeks than you would in a full year of film school.

However, before we begin…

I HAVE SOME HOMEWORK FOR YOU

First, if you haven’t already read my posts on how to analyze a script, do that now:

• Screenwriting tip #1: Don’t read scripts
• How to analyze a script (part 1)
• How to analyze a script (part 2)

These posts break down why analyzing scripts is so powerful and lays out all of the steps we’re going to go through with DIE HARD.

Second, download a copy of the DIE HARD script. You can find one in the Master the Craft Script Library. Print it — it might help to copy it into Word, then print — and read it.

As you read, write down any questions about screenwriting or the script that come up. Don’t worry about understanding every component and nuance of the script at this stage. You’ll reread it numerous times. For now, the goal is to get an overview of the story.

When you’re done, immediately record your first impression. Take 1/2 – 1 page to jot down your thoughts:

• What did you like?
• What didn’t you like?
• What surprised you?
• What confused you?
• What did you learn?

Third, email me your biggest questions about the screenplay. That might be how the plot was structured, how a character arc was laid out, or how the theme supports the action. Whatever caught your attention. I’ll be sure to cover the answers during my analysis.

HOW TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR LEARNING

BE WARNED: This is an involved process. I’ll be asking you to study a script closer and longer than you’ve probably ever done. That uncomfortable edge where you’re pushing your abilities is the fine line where real learning takes place. (This is what Master the Craft is all about.)

Don’t take it easy! I encourage you to stay one step ahead of me the entire way. The best way you can learn is to analyze the script on your own and THEN compare your notes to mine in the newsletter.

I’ll let you know what to expect each week. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do the full analysis in one week.

For now, just complete the three tasks I gave you above. And if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, you can do that with the form below.

Yippie ki yea, mother fucker!

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MOST SCREENWRITING BOOKS ARE CRAP.

And that crap comes in two flavors:

• Bland, vague rehashes of the (often incorrect) conventional wisdom about screenwriting. “Read more scripts. Get to know your characters. Drama is conflict!”
• Hyperspecific rants that overpromise and underdeliver. “You have to have a boat chase on page 62 or your script will never sell!”

The sad fact is that neither of these approaches helps most aspiring screenwriters. The former sounds helpful until you actually sit down to write and realize you still don’t know what to do. And the latter focuses your attention on artificial milestones instead of the organic needs of your characters and story.

What’s an aspiring screenwriter to do?

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

The biggest problem with most screenwriting books is that they’re marketed as the complete and only guide that anyone will ever need to screenwriting (art, craft, business, everything).

(My favorite example is Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat!, which bills itself as “the last book on screenwriting you’ll ever need”…until you decide to get Snyder’s two follow-up books.)

Nonsense.

I’m no fan of higher education, but at least they understand that students of any subject start with introductory material, then move on to intermediate lessons and so on. Aspiring architects don’t read How to Design and Build a House in 21 Days and expect to open a thriving firm within a month.

Mastering the craft of screenwriting is no different. There are stages that every writer goes through and no beat sheet or story map or character questionnaire will allow you to leap ahead without putting in the time to improve your skills.

What are those stages?

1. Novice — You’re just starting out and you have to learn the basics the hard way…by stumbling around. Don’t worry about hitting a home run your first time at bat. Have fun!
2. Apprentice — You’ve mastered the basics and commit to mastering the craft. Now it’s time to get serious about your writing habits and skills. This is where learning HOW to write (not just what to write) really pays off.
3. Professional — You’ve landed representation and landed a screenwriting project. How do you leverage your skills into a lasting, rewarding career? (HINT: Everything builds off a mastery of the craft.)
4. Master – You’ve built your reputation as a go-to writer and can now focus on shaping your career and sharing what you’ve learned.

Once you see the process this way, it’s obvious that the info and training you need to improve your skills and advance your career will vary at each step of the process.

The key is to learn what you need to know right before you need to know it. Learning something earlier — like how to pitch your screenplay if you don’t know how to structure a script yet — is a waste of time. You can’t take action, you’ll forget what you learned before it’s time to act and you could have spent that time focused on info you could use immediately.

With that in mind, here are my “10 Must Read Books for Screenwriters”, broken down by skill level…

ESSENTIAL BOOKS FOR NOVICES

1. Crafty Screenwriting by Alex Epstein

Start here. Epstein’s book is a great primer for new screenwriters. Easy, light, fun and filled with just enough info to get you going without bogging you down in details. I particularly love his chapters on the hook and plot. Instead of just saying you need a good hook and giving examples, Epstein walks you through the process he uses to find and vet ideas.

The book also includes a few chapters on the business side of screenwriting. A good quick overview for newbies who want an overview of how the biz works…and all you need at this stage.

2. Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder
Save the Cat! is the rare hyperspecific rant that overpromise and underdelivers…but still has a lot of useful tips to share.
Snyder’s 15-point Beat Sheet is a great tool for figuring out what’s wrong with your sagging second act. It’s specific enough to guide your rewriting while open enough to let your story and characters breath. Just don’t take all his page counts as gospel and remember that even Snyder felt the need to write more books.

3. Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman

The screenwriter’s memoir is curious subgenre. While they usually don’t teach you much about how to write a script, they can give you a day-in-the-life view of a working screenwriter. Having a better understanding of what it’s like to be a screenwriter will force you to decide if you’re really committed to the craft (work hard) or just looking for an easy buck (stop now).

Much has changed since Goldman’s book was published in 1983, but it’s still a worthwhile classic in the subgenre and a thoroughly enjoyable read. Welcome to Hollywood.

4. The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters by Karl Iglesias

Writing can be a lonely calling, which is why it’s nice to have this collection of tips from 14 well-known screenwriters. When you’re stuck on your script or feeling discouraged, friendly advice from seasoned professionals is just a few pages away.

ESSENTIAL BOOKS FOR APPRENTICES

5. The Art of Dramatic Writing – Lajos Egri

This how-to guide is actually written for playwrights, but much of it applies directly to screenwriting.

I included this book on the list because it’s the best guide for developing characters that I’ve come across. In fact, a good third of the book is dedicated to character. An excellent resource for creating rich characters with compelling stories.

6. What Happens Next? - Marc Norman

Art doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Successful artists — including writers — realize they’re standing on the shoulders of giants, and the more they realize who and what came before them, the easier it is to find something new to add.

Norman’s history of American screenwriting is entertaining and level-headed. It’s also a great introduction to some classic screenwriters you may not be familiar with — Ben Hecht, Dalton Trumbo, Paddy Chayefsky and more.

7. The Dip by Seth Godin

It’s no secret that you have to write many, many scripts before you’re able to write one good enough to sell. (Some experts say it takes 10,000 of practice to master any skill.) How do you keep on keeping on when the buzz of starting something new wears off but you’re still a ways from being good enough to compete?

That’s what Godin address in this slim but powerful book.

8. Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin

Why is it that most people reach a certain skill level — let’s call it passably mediocre — and never get any better even if they spend their whole lives doing it? This applies to everything, including screenwriting.

In Talent Is Overrated, Colvin breaks down exactly what it takes to master any skill. (HINT: Reading more scripts and watching more movies won’t help you.)

ESSENTIAL BOOKS FOR PROFESSIONALS

9. Screen Plays by David S. Cohen

When it comes time to start navigating the circuitous path from script to screen, you find these stories of “how 25 screenplays made it to a theater near you” fascinating, scary and encouraging.

The takeaway? Keep writing. You never know when or how a movie will stick, so your best strategy is to keep on writing.

10. Story by Robert McKee

If you’re not familiar with McKee’s Story, you’ve probably seen Brian Cox’s parody of McKee’s writing seminars in ADAPTATION.

McKee’s book is a dense, theoretical, passionate diatribe. His method for analyzing the back-and-forth power dynamics in a scene is particularly fascinating, but note that this book is most useful for people who already have a good grasp on screenwriting.

THE BEST SCREENWRITING BOOK…

Truth is, the best screenwriting book is the one you really study and use.

This is where most aspiring writers mess up. Do you jump from one screenwriting guide to another, looking for that one tidbit of info that will make it all click? It doesn’t exist.

Instead, identify where you are on the screenwriting journey, put your head down and work hard.

What is your favorite screenwriting book and why?

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As any good heist movie already knows, it’s all about the plan. You can’t just thug your way to success. Especially when the deck is stack against you.

You have to be smart. You need a plan. And because we all know that the plan is going to fall apart, you need a plan for that, too.

Are you in?

WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER

In How to Double Your Writing Productivity (Part 1), I showed how what you do when you’re not writing has a major impact on your writing. It can even make or break it, especially when you’re an aspiring writing with other obligations to balance.

In Part 2, I’m going to show you how to optimize those activities (and your writing, too).  After all, it’s easier to get your obligations completed faster and with less effort than to find extra time in your busy schedule to write.

The goal here is to get through your day with more time and/or more energy left over. As we learned in Part 1, this will dramatically increase your ability to focus — and thus your productivity — when it’s time to write.

There are three key changes you can make to your day that will have the greatest impact:

1. Plan your day
2. Work your plan
3. Measure your effectiveness

Let’s look at each.

PLAN YOUR DAY

We all know the worst time to go to the grocery store is when you’re hungry. Cornbread mix? Sounds good. Whole coconuts? I could eat a couple of those. Kimchi? Supposed to be healthy…I’ll try it. You wander the aisles casually and end up at the check-out with enough groceries to last through a nuclear winter.

The kicker that most people don’t realize is that not only did you spend more money than you wanted, you also spent more time.

Compare this to shopping right after you eat a big meal. Even the thought of food makes you queasy so you zip through the store, pick up what’s on your list and get on with your day. Money AND time saved.

Ask most people if they want to spend their free time wandering around a grocery store, they’ll say no. They’d rather be hanging out with their friends or watching movies or hiking or writing — pursuing activities that are meaningful and rewarding to them.

And yet, most people approach not just grocery shopping but their entire lives like hungry, aimless shoppers. They wander around without a clear picture of what they want, distracted by how they feel at that moment. The end result is a lot of time and energy spent on random, temporary, forgettable things and little (if any) time left over for meaningful and rewarding pursuits (like mastering the craft of screenwriting).

Take your work day…

The hungry shopper approach: You spend most of your time dealing with whatever random tasks land in your inbox. You jump back-and-forth between projects whenever you get bored or distracted. You never miss an opportunity to chit-chat or put your feet up. You relax in meetings because it’s more fun than tackling that next big project. And when you do finally knuckle down on work, you’re constantly interrupted (and interrupt yourself) with phones, email, chats, and coworkers.

The end result is obvious: It takes a lot more time to get a lot less done. While this feels “easier” when you’re doing it, the lost opportunity is staggering.

One salary.com survey found that the average professional under 40 wasted two hours each workday. And that was just how much they confessed to. It didn’t include time wasted from multitasking and poor planning.

Compare this to…

The full shopper approach: You start each workday with a clear list of what you need to accomplish. You plan your day for peak efficiency. You limit your focus to just the tasks on your plan and only respond to other items when you must. You minimize interruptions (from others and yourself) and reward yourself by using the time and energy saved on something more meaningful than killing time at the office.

The end result: It takes a lot less time to get a lot more done. This requires discipline, but it can easily add HOURS to your day.

This one change — approaching your day like a “full shopper” can save you enough time and energy to master the craft of screenwriting.

How do you do it?

Use 15 minutes at the start of each day to plan out exactly what you want and need to do. Schedule writing or reading time at the end of the day as a reward for staying focused. Then keep your plan in front of you. That will help keep you on track and avoid sacrificing your writing time for mindless activities like a hungry shopper.

WORK YOUR PLAN

Okay, let’s be honest. Knowing you should do something and actually doing it are two different things.

Writers like to complain about the creative dearth of studios and the high barriers for new talent, but the truth is that simple procrastination kills more screenwriting dreams and careers than any outside influence. You say you want to be a screenwriter, but there always seems to be something more important than putting a few more words on the page.

If we’re going to beat the urge, we need to understand why we put things off in the first place.

So WHY do we procrastinate?

1. Because we’re not sure how to proceed.
2. Because the task before us is unpleasant.
3. Because the task before us feels overwhelming.

Each of these may be true, but that doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish your goals. Let’s tear them apart…

1. Because we’re not sure how to proceed.

Yes, there’s an optimal way to proceed with any task — even a complex undertaking like mastering screenwriting — but starting with ANY strategy always beats not starting at all.

Want to read and analyze screenplays?

The Essential Script Library will introduce you to the some of the best writers and scripts available. But even reading HIGHLANDER III will teach you a lot more than reading nothing.

Got a question about how to focus your efforts?

Shoot me a question here. I’m happy to help. But whatever you do, do something! The more you learn, the more you’ll be able pick the best route.

2. Because the task before us is unpleasant.

Here’s a tough truth: the activities that are the most enjoyable in the moment are seldom the most rewarding long-term.

I used to be an avid video game player. I could take anyone in multiplayer GoldenEye – which never seemed to impress the ladies — but I quit once I realized that while playing video games is instantly enjoyable, the joy fades as soon as you turn away from the screen. Compare that to the pride of publishing a book or selling a script. That may take years of “unpleasant” work to achieve, but the feeling lasts your whole life.

After a few of years of struggling with procrastination, I started studying high performing individuals. How did they get so much done? What was their secret?

What I discovered was that the “secret” that separates the people who succeed from the dropouts is that winners learn to love the hard work. No shortcuts. No gifts. No unfair advantages. They just define success as “working hard” instead of “hardly working”.

And good thing because screenwriting never gets easier. In his 2011 WGA Award acceptance speech, Steven Zaillian (SCHINDLER’S LIST, AMERICAN GANGSTER) admitted that “I never know where to start. And each new script gets harder than the last one.” Confusion and agony and despair is par the course for the working screenwriter, but it’s also a reliable gauge that you’re working at the edge of your abilities and growing.

With a little practice, you’ll find that pride trumps joy.

3. Because the task before us feels overwhelming.

You’ve heard the joke: How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

You don’t have to sit down and learn screenwriting in one sitting. Instead, all you have to do is stay focused on what you’re doing for about 60-90 minutes. That’s it. That’s ALL you need to, day after day, to master anything.

There’s even a hack you can use to make this easier. It’s called timeboxing or the pomodoro technique. Productivity expert Scott H. Young explains this well in his Little Book of Productivity:

Set a timer. Don’t stop working on a task until you finish, or the time is completed. This is the essence of timeboxing, the sledgehammer of productivity tricks.

Timeboxing beats the urge to procrastinate from two directions:

1. 1. The time amount is short (ideally between 30-90 minutes) which is less daunting than several hours of continuous work.
   2. The only way to finish early is to complete the given task. This creates an added incentive to work quickly.

The real beauty of timeboxing is that often you will keep working past the timebox. Once you’ve built up momentum into a task or project, it is easier to keep working. Setting a timebox can be the first push you need to get started.

Try setting a 90-minute timebox the next time you can’t seem to get started. Clear your desk, close your inbox and focus on working for the next ninety minutes.

Combined with your “full shopper” approach to planning and executing your work, timeboxing will help you get your work done earlier so you can spend more time writing.

MEASURE YOUR EFFECTIVENESS

“What gets measured, gets managed.”
That maxim has driving effective management for decades, but people are just starting to realize that the benefits of tracking apply to lots of areas.

I’ve written about how to use tracking to improve your focus (here, here and here). But tracking doesn’t need to be complicated. As with getting started, simple tracking beats no tracking.

Best of all, “simple” tracking really can be simple. Weight loss experts have found that just taking pictures of your food before you eat it helps you lose weight. For writers, it doesn’t get much better than Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity secret:

Get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

Another approach is to keep a writing journal. At the end of each day, note how many minutes or pages you wrote. Also note what helped you write more or better (eating breakfast, turning off your email, etc.) and what could be improved (turning off your phone, setting a timer, etc.). Pretty soon, you’ll notice which habits will improve your writing and which detract from it.

This applies to your day job as much as your writing. Keep a journal and track what strategies help you work faster and with less stress. Then standardize those and enjoy the rewards.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Let’s recap…

In How to Double Your Writing Productivity (Part 1), you learned just getting enough sleep, eating well and working with your biorhythms are the most powerful tools in your productivity toolbox. Ignore them and you will fail.

In this post, you learned that best way to find more time and energy to write is to spend less time and energy on your other activities.

You can actually accomplish MORE in less time and with less effort by planning your day, executing your plan, and measuring your effectiveness.

Simple changes that can add hours to your day…every day.

Happy Writing!

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They make a distinction between Best Drama and Best Comedy.

Comedies tend to get the short end of the stick during award season. And genre films typically have to satisfy themselves with more technical awards since people don’t usually consider the craftsmanship that went into them on the writing and directing front.

Even the WGA awards sticks with the original/adapted dichotomy.

That’s why I propose a writing award for all the variations of screenwriting we see each year. Categories could include:

• Best Dramatic Script
• Best Comedic Script
• Best Action/Adventure Script
• Best Thriller/Mystery Script
• Best Horror Script
• Best Family/Children’s Script
• Best Studio Script
• Best Independent Script
• Best Dialogue
• Best Structure
• Best Character (Male)
• Best Character (Female)
• Best Cast
• Best Style (goes to script whose prose style best brings the story to life)
• Best Script from a First-time Screenwriter

Next year, I’ll create ballots for all Master the Craft newsletter subscribers. Until then, who do you think should win these awards this year?

“A lot of the educational material available to screenwriters today assumes that most writers start with plot, and then flesh out their characters. For a lot of us, this isn’t the case. I often start with my characters, and structure my story from there. I think this method leads to a richer story–but the structuring of that story is terribly arduous.

Do you have any suggestions for those of us who start with characters first?”

Often, people’s struggles don’t come from the problem but how they perceive the problem. Consider your plot vs. character dilemma. In the best films, plot and character aren’t diametrically opposed. If you’re doing a good job, it’s hard to even distinguish between the two.

Most screenwriting resources focus on plot because it’s easier to teach than character and makes it seem like screenwriting is easy with the right formula. We both know that’s a lie. Screenwriting is hard. Even the pros say that it doesn’t get any easier.

My suggestion is to start from where plot and character meet. You need an interesting character, but you ALSO need an engaging inciting incident. When the two meet, the framework of your story should appear.

For example, take THE EXORCIST. The main character is a successful, no-nonsense, independent actress and mother. She’s in control of her life and happy. Then her daughter gets possessed. Just from this, we can guess at the plot of the film. She’ll be a disbeliever at first. Then she’ll seek help from the medical community (what she knows and trusts). That won’t work, the possession will worsen, her life will become unraveled, and she’ll turn to religion for help. Enter the exorcists. Now, what’s more interesting and dramatic than an exorcist performing an exorcism? One with a crisis of faith.

That’s not a full outline, but you can see how character and plot worked together to shape the story. The key is to match the right character with the right inciting incident.

Patricia also asks:

Any ways in which we may use three dimensional characters to make out first act turning points, midpoints, and second act turning points more clear to us?

Let’s look at this question closely…

What does Patricia mean by three dimensional?

Some writers think they’ve created 3D characters when they write out extensive backstories. History can help you write a character, but it can also distract you from the story. And there’s a difference between adding backstory and making a character come to life. For example, the Terminator is NOT a three-dimensional character, but he is one of cinema’s most memorable characters. The characters in CASABLANCA aren’t really three-dimensional, but they’re all memorable. The latter is your goal.

Here’s one way to think about character and plot…

• OPENING: Character exists in a state of want/need (either consciously or unconsciously).
• INCITING INCIDENT: Something happens that turns the character’s world upside down (or gets them to consider an alternative life) — this shows them their need/want, presents a solution to their need/want, or is an event that will end up involving their need/want.
• ACT ONE BREAK: Character decides to pursue goal (related to want/need) introduced in the inciting incident.
• MIDPOINT: Usually, the character is fairly successful in the 1st half of Act 1, and this is the high-point. A mini-victory. But it can also be a defeat.
• ACT TWO BREAK: Character is nearly defeated and worse of than when she started. Could quit but decides to give it one last try.
• CLIMAX: Character succeeds (or fails) to achieve goal.

Seen this way, the plot points are really character points.

Thanks for the questions, Patricia.

What screenwriting questions do you have? Submit them here. I answer every one and share the best on the blog.

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Which is a pity because I think Hollywood could learn a lot from Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial mindset and way of defining and tackling problems. Writers in particular.

Look at start-ups…

1. They come up with a novel idea — or at least a novel twist on an old idea — and turn that idea into something tangible.
2. This usually requires a well-thought out plan (the business plan) that covers the same key steps each time (who’s involved, what they’re doing, what obstacles they’ll face, how to overcome those obstacles).
3. And success at each stage often involves convincing other people — first one or two, then more, then the public at large — to invest in the idea.

When you think about it, that’s not so different from screenwriting…

1. Screenwriters start with a new idea — or a twist on an old one — and have to turn that into a physical screenplay.
2. For most professional writers, this process starts with an outline of the script that covers the key beats and character developments (as well as more than a little consideration for the marketability of the story).
3. And the successful story has to convince and excite an ever-widening circle of people — your agent and/or manager, readers, producers, studios, talent, the movie-going public.

And yet, starts-up tackle their work completely different than writers.

What do they know that we often miss?

WHAT WRITERS CAN LEARN FROM START-UPS

1. It’s all about the team.

For start-ups with little time and less money, success is measured by the team as much as by the plan. In fact, without a solid team, even the best idea and plan won’t find funding (a.ka. get sold and move into production). If you’re an entrepreneur with a big idea you want to bring to life, it’s much more effective to start with a team of complementary specialists than slave away in your basement for years working on a prototype and barebones business.

Successful start-up founders know they can’t do everything themselves, so the best way to realize their vision is to get other people involved. And not just anyone. Specialists in different areas: management, sales, product development, marketing, finance, programming, etc. One of the key factors of success for a start-up is having the right team all working in unison for the same goal.

Compare this to screenwriters…

They typically work alone, sometimes in a pair. This requires writers to become masters of a slew of very different skill sets:

• knowledge of film history (what’s been done)
• knowledge of genre conventions
• developing story ideas
• breaking the story
• bringing the characters to life
• dialogue
• writing action and optimizing pacing
• the geographical or historical accuracy of the story (sometimes)
• editing the script
• pitching and selling the script
• modifying the script per notes or for production

One of the reasons it’s so hard to become a screenwriter is that you have to master so many things before you can be good enough to compete. Even the screenwriting partners typically break the roles into “the structure guy” and “the character guy”, which still leaves a lot of hats for both of them. What if we pushed this even further?

OBJECTION 1: “I don’t want to do that because they the script wouldn’t be mine. I’d lose creative control.”
But film is a collaborative medium anyway. Even if you’re the only one who touches the script, hundreds of people influence the story as it goes from page to screen. And the final product is known as the director’s film anyway.

OBJECTION 2 “But too many cooks spoil the broth. The best scripts have a singularity of vision and voice.”
True, but so do the best start-ups. The solution may not be working in isolation but for each script team to have a leader (with final say). Pixar is an interesting example of an environment where a multitude of people help perfect the story without a loss of the leader’s (in this case the director’s) vision.

2. Beta-test.

As start-up heroes 37Signals says:

1. Decide if it’s worth doing, and if so:
2. Do it quick — not perfect. just do it.
3. Save it. upload it. publish it
4. See what people think

Winning start-ups don’t swing for the fences their first time at bat. They build the smallest iteration of their product possible and get it in front of customers as quickly as possible. The goal is to start getting real feedback fast.

Major victories aren’t created in their finished form; they’re endlessly tweaked and expanded to fit the needs and wants of the market. When done right, a successful launch is much closer to guaranteed because they already know what people while think and do.

Compare this to screenwriters…

They sit at a blank page and dream of writing a Oscar-winning script in one swoop. They may share their draft with a few close friends, but few make the effort to pitch their story to strangers in their target demographic.

Instead of ensuring that the story generates interest before they begin, most screenwriters devote months breaking and writing scripts that nobody wants to read. What if you tested your ideas and pitches before committing the time and effort to write them?

OBJECTION 1: “But people will steal my idea!”
It’s highly unlikely a random, non-industry stranger is going to both steal your idea, complete it faster, write it better and sell it before you can. Plus, very few ideas are truly so high-concept and unique that theft is an issue. Are you writing a tidal wave movie? I’m sure a number of people are currently writing the same idea.

OBJECTION 2: “But the average moviegoer doesn’t know what makes a good movie.”
This is sort of true, even if it’s elitist. But it also misses the point. The goal of your story is to capture the average moviegoer’s attention. If you can’t do that with your pitch (a.k.a. the trailer of your movie), why do you think anyone would go see it? If you pitch your idea to someone and they don’t want to know more, either your pitch was bad or your story idea is bad. Saying that people will actually be interested once they can see the explosions is a cop-out.

THE SCREENWRITING PRODUCER

I’ve often wondered why some screenwriters become producers. Like Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (STAR TREK) who continue to write but also produce films (COWBOYS & ALLIENS). Or Simon Kinberg who wrote MR. & MRS. SMITH and is producing next year’s ELYSIUM. Doesn’t producing just distract from their love — writing movies?

The answer is obvious if you approach it like a start-up. Producing allows them to leverage the talents of other storytellers and specialists to help bring more of their ideas and passion projects to the screen.

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In my last semester in college, I wrote two screenplays at the same time: A historical drama about the 1991 attempted Russian coup for my Advanced Screenwriting class and a BONNIE AND CLYDE meets OF MICE AND MEN drama for an independent study thesis.

I outlined and wrote both scripts on top of an 18 credit course load and an unhealthy amount of video games… and never broke a sweat.

The good old days, right? When all of your obligations could be squeezed into a few hours a day and you had the rest of your day (and all of your evenings and weekends) to do whatever you want. When you could write to your heart’s content and still have free time left over.

My life looks quite a bit different today.

On top of my full-time job, I do freelance marketing consulting. I’m married — which takes up time — and I have a 2-year-old — which is essentially another full-time job in the evenings and on weekends. I also write www.masterthecraft.com.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy these obligations. But if I’m going to do any screenwriting myself — let alone improve my skills — I have to find the time and energy to do it on top of all this.

That’s why I’ve spent years quietly studying productivity…

• How can you squeeze the most out of each day without burning out?
• How can you write on demand (instead of waiting for inspiration)?
• How can you increase the quantity AND quality of your writing at the same time?
• How can you hack the screenwriting process to minimize wasted time?

Like the concept of deliberate practice — which says that the best way to master screenwriting is to approach it like an athlete would — much of what I discovered was unexpected or typically ignored by writers, aspiring and professional alike.

But it works. I’ve used the strategies I’ll be teaching you throughout this series to go from “too busy and tired to even think about writing” to plowing through my best script yet even as my obligations increase.

A WORD OF WARNING

Before I jump into the tactics you can implement today, I want to highlight one strategy I found that doesn’t work: screenwriting cheat sheets and formulas.

Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat is a great example.

Now, I love Synder’s book, but there’s a Marianas Trench of work and talent between Snyder’s beat sheet and the script for THE GODFATHER. Snyder’s book is not a replacement for or shortcut around mastering the craft of screenwriting. It’s just a map — one of many, sometimes contradictory maps available. You still have to take the journey yourself. That’s why everyone who reads his book isn’t making headlines with spec script bidding wars.

You can double your writing productivity, but like deliberate practice, even the best solutions take work…

THE KEY TO IMPROVING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

Your success as a writer depends on your ability to think clearly and sustain focus.

Your success as an aspiring writer depends on your ability to think clearly and sustain focus even after you fulfill all of your other obligations.

You have to do your job and live your life and when all of that’s done, instead of going to bed or crashing in front of the TV, you have to have the mental energy to write for at least 1-2 hours.

The kicker is that deliberate practice is tough and mentally draining. You have to work at the edge of your ability, fully-engaged, if you’re going to get any better. If you’re tired and just trying to get a few words on the page, not only will your quality be low but you won’t be improving either. Instead, you’ll just be wasting your time.

That’s why focus is the key improving your productivity:

Most people answer this question believing that “using your time well” means spending more time on things that are important to you. That can be good, but it’s only part of the story.

Take Gary, an overworked businessman who comes home early in the afternoon to spend more time with his kids. He’s playing ball with them in the backyard, but his mind is back at the office, stressed about all the work he has to do. He’s not relaxed. He’s not enjoying time with his family. Nor is he being productive at work. Despite spending more time on what’s really important to him, he’s not improving his quality of life.

Or take Megan, an aspiring writer who stays up late for more time to write. She drinks coffee to stay awake, but it takes her 60 minutes just to settle down and start writing. The TV plays in the background and she’s checks Facebook and Twitter every ten minutes. After a few hours, she’s exhausted and frustrated that three hours of work only produced one page of mediocre script.

In both cases, more time wasn’t the answer. Without the ability to focus, more time is just wasted.

So how can you improve your focus?

A HEALTHY WRITER IS A PRODUCTIVE WRITER

The #1 way to improve your focus and productivity is to improve your health.

This change will produce both the quickest and most dramatic change in your ability to focus over the course of a long day. More energy means more focus means more writing. Best of all, if you start making changes today, you can feel the differences in as few as a couple days.

Before I get into HOW to do this, it’s important to know WHY it works. After all, we all know that eating healthy is important, but when we get tired, we still reach for another cup of coffee, failing to draw the connection between our health and our creativity, productivity and dreams of becoming writers.

So, consider this:

1. We know that writing and deliberate practice (e.g. mastering the craft) require intense focus and mental effort. In other words, self-control. At the end of a long day, it’s easy to kick back with a beer and watch TV. It takes real discipline to stare down a blank page and write.

2. The problem is our self-control is a limited resource. We only have so much willpower. When we use it up, that’s when give in, eat junk food, break our goals and veg out:

In experiments first reported in 1998, Baumeister and his collaborators discovered that the will, like a muscle, can be fatigued. Immediately after students engage in a task that requires them to control their impulses — resisting cookies while hungry, tracking a boring display while ignoring a comedy video, writing down their thoughts without thinking about a polar bear or suppressing their emotions while watching the scene in “Terms of Endearment” in which a dying Debra Winger says goodbye to her children — they show lapses in a subsequent task that also requires an exercise of willpower, like solving difficult puzzles, squeezing a handgrip, stifling sexual or violent thoughts and keeping their payment for participating in the study rather than immediately blowing it on Doritos.

At the end of a long day, when we most need our self-control so we can focus on writing instead of zoning out, our willpower tanks are empty.

3. Our brains (and thus our self-control) run on glucose. Glucose is sugar. When the brain gets the right amount of it, we do alright. Our willpower remains strong and we have the energy to focus. However, studies have shown that drops in blood sugar levels lead to “decision fatigue”:

No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.

This is why we reach for sweet treats when we start getting tired (as opposed to salty snacks). Our brains are instinctively asking for a sugar boost.

At first blush, this would suggest that we should keep our brains fueled with a steady stream of sugar to keep our willpower up. The problem with that is the rest of our body isn’t designed to work that way.

4. Sugar destroys our bodies. Sugar, which includes grain, wrecks havoc on systems in a variety of ways:

• Sugar stimulates a physiological stressor-reaction cascade that provokes adrenaline and cortisol release and thickens the blood.
• Sugar effectively disables your immune system by impairing white blood cells’ functioning.
• Sugar decreases your body’s production of leptin, a hormone critical for appetite regulation.
• Sugar induces significant oxidative stress in the body.
• Sugar appears to fuel cancer cells.
• Sugar promotes fat storage and weight gain.
• Sugar disrupts the effective transfer of amino acids to muscle tissue.
• Sugar intake over time spurs insulin resistance, subsequent Type II diabetes and the entire host of related health issues like nerve damage and cardiovascular disease.

The truth is that our bodies don’t need energy from grains (bread, pasta, cereal, rice, etc.) or sugar to operate. We can convert all the energy we need from protein and lipids, and our brains can get enough glucose from healthy amounts of fruits and vegetables. In fact, once you cut out the grains and sugars, your body will get better at processing and storing sugar. That means your brain will get a steadier supply of fuel, you’ll enjoy higher levels of energy, and your self-control (and ability to write more and longer0 will improve.

When I switched from the standard American diet (lots of bread, pasta and cereal) to a grain-free diet, my energy levels exploded. After I pushed through the headache and other sugar withdrawal symptoms in the first few days, I easily added 2-3 hours of productive time and energy to each day.

5. Caffeine disrupts your natural biorhythms. Many people have no idea what it feels like to feel healthy because their bodies are constantly struggling against stimulants (caffeine, sugar) and depressants (alcohol, sleeping aids, pot). Scientists have discovered our bodies operates best according to internal biorhythms. We naturally go through phases of heightened productivity and focus, followed by periods of lowered attention and fatigue. Ignoring these biorhythms — or plastering over them with coffee or booze — has surprisingly detrimental effects:

Consider a study conducted by NASA, in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration, of pilots on long haul flights. One group of pilots was given an opportunity to take 40 minute naps mid-flight, and ended up getting an average of 26 minutes of actual sleep. Their median reaction time improved by 16 percent following their naps.

Non-napping pilots, tested at a similar halfway point in the flight, experienced a 34 percent deterioration in reaction time. They also experienced 22 micro sleeps of 2-10 seconds during the last 30 minutes of the flight. The pilots who took naps experienced none.

If you’re not working with your body, you’re working against it. Even if you have the energy and self-control to push through another two hours of work, you may actually be decreasing the quality AND quantity of your work by doing so. Breaks aren’t a waste or a luxury; they’re essential. Especially if you want to maximize your productivity and have the energy and focus to write on top of all of your other obligations.

6. Sleep is more important than food. Studies on rats have shown that you’ll sooner die from lack of sleep than lack of food. In fact, even minor sleep loss can have a dramatic impact on our ability and performance:

Why is sleep one of the first things we’re willing to sacrifice as the demands in our lives keep rising? We continue to live by a remarkably durable myth: sleeping one hour less will give us one more hour of productivity. In reality, the research suggests that even small amounts of sleep deprivation take a significant toll on our health, our mood, our cognitive capacity and our productivity.

Many of the effects we suffer are invisible. Insufficient sleep, for example, deeply impairs our ability to consolidate and stabilize learning that occurs during the waking day. In other words, it wreaks havoc on our memory.

In other words, staying up late to write counteracts our very ability to do what we’re staying up late for in the first place. Burn the candle too much at both ends and it’s the mental equivalent of being drunk.

On the flipside, consistently getting a full eight-hours of good sleep and dramatically improve your alertness throughout the day, making you more productive (and increasing your self-control).

WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS MEAN?

It means the best way to improve your writing productivity and ability to master the craft is not to drink a cup of coffee and stay up late. Any minor gains you make on the first day will be erased by lowered productivity, decreased self-control, and impaired ability to learn in the days after. Keep it up and your entire concept of what healthy, energetic, focused and productive mean will slowly slide downwards to mediocrity.

On the surface, this seems like a letdown. And too simple to really work.

Most people hear this and say:

• “Wait, I have to change what I eat? Isn’t there just a productivity app that I could download?”
• “I don’t want to give up my bagels. I don’t even like meat.”
• “How can I sleep more when I have so much to do?”
• “If this is true, how come most people don’t already do it?”
• “I don’t drink coffee/alcohol because I need it. I just like coffee in the morning/drinks in the evening.”

And then they do nothing. Their productivity remains low, as do their odds of becoming a professional writer.

Another common objection is that: “Lots of people become screenwriters who don’t do this.”

That’s true. Like my productive days in college, you don’t need to be an efficient machine to write a lot if you have time and energy to spare. But if your time and energy is limited, improving your health is essential.

You have to wonder, though. Even if have the time and energy to write now, how much MORE could you write (and how much BETTER would it be) if you have twice as much energy and mental clarity?

The science is clear:

1. The best way to improve your productivity and focus is to improve your health.
2. The best way to improve your health is to sleep well and eat well.

Sleeping well means getting a full 8 hours of sleep every day at a consistent time. It also means protecting the quality of your sleep by avoiding things before bed that can disrupt your sleep (caffeine, alcohol, TV, computers, news, work, email).

Eating well means not eating grains, sugars and processed foods. (For some people, dairy and legumes may also be problematic.)

Happy Writing!

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Thank you for joining me on this screenwriting journey!

I hope you’ve learned a lot over the past 12 months. I know I have. And not just about how to write a screenplay, but how to be a writer.

As a busy guy with a wife, a toddler, a day job and extra freelance work, it’s not easy to find the time and energy needed to write. But one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is that you can actually write more — and write better — in less time if you use your time right.

Most people are trained to just try harder. Got more work to do? Just stay a little later.

That works when you don’t have anything else going on, but if you’re trying to master screenwriting while living your life, it doesn’t work. Especially when you’ve got family and work commitments. You need to work smarter, not harder.

COMING UP…

Last year I focused on a lot of fundamental screenwriting knowledge. Things like how to sell, format, analyze and structure a script, as well as how to improve your writing.

This year, I’m going to show you how to kick your writing into overdrive…

• How to write faster
• How to outline, write and polish a script when you don’t have free time
• How to advance from novice to professional in the minimum time necessary
• How to go from aspiring to paid screenwriter

To launch the year right, I’m starting with a 5-part series: How to Double Your Writing Productivity.

Stay tuned… it’s going to be a great year!