When You Need to Write a Lot Right Away—Remember Your Power Spot

I don't know about other screenwriters, but I often find myself unable to write anything. Even though I really need to.

The producer and director are waiting at the door, breathing nervously on the phone. I'm literally banging my head against the wall—there's nothing!

In this regard, beginner screenwriters are lucky—they have fresh ideas, and writing is easy for them. That's why I enjoy teaching my screenwriting course; I mostly work with fresh authors. Except, of course, those authors who aren't writing their first screenplay with me.

There are ups and downs in screenwriting. You're typing like a machine gun. The keyboard clatter only stops for you to go to the restroom or quickly grab a sandwich. As soon as you're back at your desk, ideas start flowing in all directions. Hurry and jot them down!

Maybe every profession has such joyful ups? But there are moments of decline. You may think you've come up with something fresh, for example:

“I remember a wonderful moment
Before me you appeared,
As if it were fleeting...”

And suddenly you find out that it's been done before! Someone else has already written it!

What to do?

There's a universal principle in moments of decline—go to your power spot.

For me, a real power spot is a tree. How wonderful it is to embrace a big tree at sunset and think about how its roots go deep into the ground, how its leaves rustle in the wind, and birds have built nests in its thick branches. Such thoughts immediately refresh the mind, and the next day, I start writing just like a beginner screenwriter. Without any discrimination, everything all at once and many pages.