Introduce Yourself : Hello from Brooklyn! by Maureen Vantrease

Welcome Maureen. The 1st one is certainly a learning experience. I do most of my writing between 10pm and 4am. I find everything flows better without any distractions. I'd suggest, if you haven't already, do and outline, then a treatment, then just sit down and write your 1st draft without even thinking too much about it. Get the words on the page, hopefully you have a screenwriting program for that. It's pretty much impossible to do without one. I use Movie Magic Screenriter 6, and have had no problems with it for the past 20 years.

Welcome to the community, Maureen Vantrease. I've done that. At first, it feels like, "Man, I don't want to do this," then it's, "I don't wanna stop!" :) What genre is your short?

Hey Maurice Vaughan! It's a dramedy about dealing with dementia and Alzheimers in a rehab facility.

Hi, Rob. I've got Final Draft 12 and have done a whole character chart, and treatment. gonna take the logline to my NYWIFT Writers group on Thursday. I just find it hard to get started, some days. I find stupid distractions to do instead of writing.

Yes I was given the advice allow yourself to suck and also when you are writing don't keep going back over what you just wrote , keep writing forward, then once you finish your first draft you can go back and edit, that was very helpful for me. It also helps to stop when you are still excited about what you want to get on the page because it will encourage you to keep going next time.

When you cannot stop and your fingers fly on autopilot, I see that as a "sign" you should keep doing this. My first "sign" was turning randomly to Psalm 45 in a hotel room the night I wrote my first word. It has been a long and difficult journey but I enjoyed writing every word. I have fifteen screenplays since that first word and just finished my first book. Publishing is also a very tough endeavor. Writing is the fun part. Have a good lawyer at all times, too. There could come a day when your lawyer is your very best friend. Best to you, Maureen.

I call it the time machine - when you're in the zone and what was once morning has become the afternoon and you haven't noticed. I think it's the most positive state to be in as a writer, because it means not only that you're concentrating, but ideally you're deep in character too. It's all too easy to skate over the top of characterisation. Deep character needs deep concentration.

Give yourself small goals. Write for 7 minutes, 10 minutes, or write 3 pages, or 2 scenes, whatever works for you. You can make them daily goals or weekly goals. None of it has to be any good, just write. You may find that you'll be writing longer and more often. It also may help to pick a time of the day to set aside as your writing time.

I have no problem opening the computer, but ironically it’s not to write music - it’s all the other, tedious stuff: marketing, cold calling, emailing, researching, content creation - sigh

Toby, I'm sighing with you. Thank you everyone for your responses!

Your short sounds interesting, Maureen Vantrease. And it covers important subjects. I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Time Machine. Love that term, John Clive Carter!