Screenwriting : How do you stay consistently motivated when writing a feature? by Daniel Cummings

Outlining has helped me so I don't get bogged down. People always have to remind me to outline because when I do, I act like I've made the discovery of a lifetime. Hey, look everyone! Outlining works! Everyone: "Duh." It helps you keep the ball rolling instead of rambling.

The first feature is always the most difficult. You might try the Save the Cat beat sheet. That really helped me a lot.

Two things work for me. First, I break the project down into realistic sections. Depending on your "day job" maybe that's just 5 pages/day. But that will get you through your first draft in just 3 weeks. Or maybe it's 5 pages/week. Whatever works best for you. (Like Dan said, working with a beat sheet first will help you figure out what should be in those pages. It might also inspire you to break the project down by beats or acts instead of page count.) Second, a writing group is super helpful. Mine meets monthly, and I'm on the calendar 3-4 times/year, so those dates become my deadlines. I know exactly when my next draft will be read and discussed, and I know it has to be ready. If you don't have a writing group, you might try to find one in your area through Stage 32.

Write a treatment, spend time getting it just right, then write the screenplay- don't fiddle with it while your writing it just keep it moving forward till you get to the end. Then rewrite all the bits you've been itching to change. Keep rewriting till you think it's ace!

This was my previous answer to this question: At the end of the day, it's always going to be you and the blank page. So you have to figure out how to get yourself motivated (even if you say that's not gonna happen). It's always going to be from the inside instead of the outside. This is a business where when they love your work and buy your work, they tell you everything they hate about it and want changed right away instead of that they even like what you've written. So external motivations aren't going to help you in the long run - you have to figure out how to keep writing through the crap that life hands out. Best thing to do: 1) Don't depend on inspiration - it's a trap. 2) Set aside a specific time every day to write - can be as little as 15 minutes, but that is the time that anyone who bothers you gets punched in the face as hard as you can. 3) If all you do in that 15 minutes (or half hour, or whatever) is just stare at the blank screen, it's a win... 4) But you'd rather write, right? 5) So be prepared to write! Outline your screenplay. A step outline is easiest - just bullet point scene-by-scene. The great part about an outline is that you can play around with it and solve all your story problems while it's just a page or two of outline... instead of 110 pages of screenplay. Less writing for the garbage can. 6) The other great thing about an outline is that it breaks your story down into bite sized pieces which are easier to write. You don't have to write a whole screenplay, just this one scene. A scene is about 2 pages, so you can knock that out in a day or two... but if it takes you a week, you are still making progress. Some scenes are easy, some are more difficult. What matters is that you make a little progress every day. 7) If you end up with only 15 minutes a day, it may make sense to outline the scene. Just start by writing down all of the things the scene needs to do for the story. Then figure out the most interesting ways those things can happen. Then figure out the most interesting order for those things to happen. Now you have a scene that is broken down int bite-sized pieces. If you only have 15 minutes, you can write one of those little pieces, right? Or at least part of one of those pieces. The key is to make progress every day, even if it's just a little progress. 8) "Nothing succeeds like success!" That may not make much sense, but if you write half a page, a quarter of a page, a sentence - you are making progress, and that will make you feel good and keep you "self-inspired" to write the next day. 9) Most important: Your Doorway Into The Story. Make sure your screenplay is personal. A piece of you. That way you won't want to abandon it. It would be like abandoning your arm or leg or head. "What right does my head have to call itself me?" I write action and thrillers and horror - and even if it is an assignment, my first step is to find that piece of me in the story. Most of my screenplays are just cheap therapy - and I either begin with the personal emotional conflict I want to work though in fiction form or I find it within whatever story idea I've come up with. There are times when I've been offered paid writing jobs and turned them down because I couldn't find my story within their story. Better to wait until something comes along that I can find a "doorway" into that write something that I don't give a crap about. Here's one of my script tips: http://www.scriptsecrets.net/tips/tip105.htm - Sibling rivalry is something I completely understand. I am not the favorite son. I'm the guy who has to work harder just to get noticed, and that's an issue I'm still working through... so I pitched a story dealing with that subject and ended up getting paid to write the screenplay. Everything I've written has a "personal core" that keeps me from abandoning it, because it may be about fighter pilots and explosions - but it is still really about me. 10) Now just write a little bit every day, and the pages add up. I used to write 1 hour a day before work, but really all I required myself to write was one page a day. That's it. One page. And 1 page times 365 days is 3 rough draft screenplays a year. Look, if you write a third of a page a day in 15 minutes, that a screenplay a year - and that puts you ahead of most people who would rather talk about writing than actually write every day and get progressively better and eventually sell something or land an assignment and have a handful of credits here on IMDB that represents about a tenth of what they've been paid to do (only about 10% of stuff you sell or are hired to write ever makes it to the screen). When you are being productive, it helps keep you productive. Momentum. When you lose momentum, you need to push yourself to start moving again. It's not easy at first, but when you start rolling at 5mph it's much easier to roll to 10mph and keep increasing speed than it is from a cold start. Starting's a bitch! And that may be what you are facing now - so just push yourself a little at first (even force yourself) and it gets easier. One Writers Block Breaker is to just write nonsense that doesn't matter to get started. That gets things rolling. Then just keep it rolling. Not easy... but possible. Good luck.

I can't speak for every writer, but when I'm writing something, I'm usually so focused on it I can't think of much else. I'm plotting in my brain and developing characters as I go. You got to get excited about it! Coffee helps...

Write every single day, even if for only 30 minutes. It doesn't have to be good, just get it on the page. Then you work off that... Delete... Edit... Rewrite over and over and over.

Hey Daniel, I'm with Mike Briock on this. I find that there will be days when writing is pure agony... Get something down even it stinks... you will find that once you break through that barrier (even with bad writing) and move forward, that the "fix" for the bad scene (s) will generally present itself. Remember.. writing is RE-writing. It never ends... But the results are well worth it.

I don't.