By
Che’Rae Adams
Sometimes getting started is the hardest part
of the writing process. Writers will do anything
NOT to write! We will clean our house first
because we think we can’t write unless the house
is in order. Maybe there are some really
important phone calls that we have been putting
off and we could not possible begin a new
project until those calls are made. If this
happens to you, you probably have a fear of
beginning new things, or perhaps the fear that
you will never finish it?
We are the world’s worst procrastinators because
getting started can be the hardest part. Jose
Rivera says in his “36 Assumptions about writing
plays” that you should embrace your writer’s
block. “It’s natures way of saving trees and
your reputation. Listen to it and try to
understand its source. Often, writer’s block
happens to you because somewhere in your work
you’ve lied to yourself and your subconscious
won’t let you go any further until you’ve gone
back, erased the lie, stated the truth and
started over”.
Here are a couple of suggestions for getting
past your writer’s block and moving forward in
the creation of your next hit play!
1: Tell Your Story
The first thing I like to do when I meet a
writer is to ask them to tell me their story out
loud. I like to do this because often people
become very animated and entertaining when they
tell stories and they therefore include
interesting details that might otherwise have
been left out in the writing process. Something
happens to us when we go from telling the story
outloud to writing it down that gets lost in
translation. So, tell your story to someone you
trust, and then pay close attention to those
details. You can even ask them to repeat what
they liked about the story or what they thought
the highlights were so that you can put your
story in perspective. Sometimes the parts that
grabbed your listeners’ attention aren’t even
the things that you thought were important.
2: Write it down
After you have told your story to someone you
trust, try and write down what you told your
trusted listener, word for word. Make sure to
include those interesting details that you so
animatedly told your listener. Always write in
the stream of consciousness style so that you do
not edit yourself too early.
Stream of Consciousness: Writing free-flow
without editing yourself
That’s right – no editing! Not yet anyway.
Editing yourself too early could lead to cutting
out some of the best parts of the story. I
prefer to hear or read the stream of
consciousness material from thought to page so
that I can get a sense of the whole story before
the writer becomes insecure and starts cutting.
Do not judge yourself during this phase of the
process, just write down what is in your head
and then let it go. Editing should only be done
during rewrites. More on editing next month…
Che’Rae Adams is the Producing Artistic Director
of the Los Angeles Writers Center
Che’Rae
Adams
http://www.cheraeadams.com
