March's Buzz:

BLOCK BREAKERS

By

Kathryn McCullough (copyright 2001)

The inability to sit down and face the page.  The continuous need to take a nap.  The certainty that the idea you came up with in the middle of last night is definitely a better idea for a screenplay than the one you are working on now.

These are all signs that you have hit a roadblock in your story.  Giving up is always an option, but not a good one, because you’re going to hit a roadblock on your next script, and the one after that, and the only way to get past them is to learn the tools to break them down.

Here are some exercises that can act as dynamite to those roadblocks all writers face.

1) The List

The list can help at any stage of writing, from brainstorming to final polish.  You simply make a long list of possible solutions to your problem -- the longer the better.  The ideal length of the list is too long to ever finish.

For example, if a scene isn’t working, write a list of twenty different directions the scene could go in.  In addition to plowing through the clichés, the long list quiets the inner censor.  Since the list must be long, you are forced to write down bad ideas, stupid ideas, trite ideas and silly ideas, because you need to fill the list.  When you write down a bad idea, you get it out of your head, and this allows you to gain access to your subconscious ideas -- the more original choices that are unique to you.

2) The One-eighty

You may find yourself endlessly polishing some scene over and over, moving commas around, exchanging lines of dialogue, and yet the scene still does not quite work.  Making a list has resulted in five or ten subtle variations of the same action.  It’s time to try flipping the action around 180 degrees.  Try having one of the characters act completely out of character.  The sweet love interest, for instance, displays a tough side.  Or try having the result of an action be the opposite of what you have.  Instead of the protagonist’s act getting him fired, it gets him promoted.  Even if this opposing idea is not ultimately right for your story, it can shake up your thinking, and help you see a myriad of new ways into the scene.

3) The Deletion

If you have been struggling over a scene or sequence, try dropping it from the script completely.  Keep writing.  Don’t even look at the deleted section for at least one week.  You may find that you ultimately didn’t need it, or that a better scene or sequence has sprung up to take its place.

Try this with dialogue you can’t get right, or characters who have not quite gelled.  You may find that excising a line makes the rest of the dialogue in the scene stronger, and that removing a character makes the remaining figures more significant and richer.

4) The Blind Rewrite

This is a scary one, but it can work wonders.  Take what you’ve written so far.  Lock it up in a drawer.  Go back to the blank page.

And start again.

By endlessly rewriting and reworking the words you already have in front of you, you risk getting stuck seeing a scene, character or plot point only one way.  By starting over from scratch, you may discover that the story should really begin later, or that a principal character should enter earlier.  You are not trapped by the flow of action you have already created.  You can view the story anew, and very possibly discover a better way of telling it.

5) The Stream Of Consciousness

When none of the above tricks works, and you are completely stumped, take a pen and a stack of scrap paper and just write longhand.  Write about the character, his background, what he wants out of life and out of the story.  Write about the setting.  Write about the themes you are dealing with in your life.  Write about the themes you feel you want to explore in this screenplay.  Write about why you write.  Write about why you don’t write.  Do this for your entire day’s writing period if necessary.  Eventually, you will break down your internal barriers, because the endless tape loops in your head will have transformed into linear thoughts that end on the page.  New ideas will come to you, and new ways of looking at your character and your story.  You will discover that you have left that roadblock far behind as you race forward with your newfound passion for your story.