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11/12/2006: Fun? Really? Oh, yeah...


Yowza! ANOTHER "I wish I'd written that" situation. This time, it comes from Friend-of-the-Blog Maggie, who posts this wonderful entry about jumpstarting the creative process. This list is so good I'm going to go do all of these things at once -- you'll find me asleep on a train. Seriously, check it out.

And while you're there, look at some other entries too. Maggie does a great job of reminding us (well, me, certainly) that the writing process is *fun*, that there's a reason we have picked this. This is a staggeringly important thing to keep in mind.

And it brings me to something else. I've been banging my head against a certain scene in my pilot. It was just too long, featured incidental characters whom we aren't really invested in, and was so packed full of pipe that it simply couldn't get much shorter. And of course, attempting to shorten it just meant that I took out all the jokes and character moments, which made all the pipe that much pipier... oh, it was awful. And suddenly, yesterday... brainstorm. The scene disappeared. The same information is now delivered by some of our regular characters in a fast-moving series of intercuts between two separate scenes about emotional manipulation, instead of just about information-imparting. Ahhh. That feels better.

Whenever a scene fights you to that extent, when it simply refuses to get written, take a step back and make sure there isn't something you can do to get rid of the scene. EVERY scene should have a reason to exist beyond moving the story. And once you find that reason, it won't just be easier to write -- it'll be fun to write.

Lunch: Leftovers from a delightful meal I called in from Acapulco (the chain restaurant) last night... enchiladas and beans and rice. Mm.