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More resources for exploring Themes Click HERE for New York Times list of over 100 prompts around themes Suggested reading: Chapter 2 of Save The Cat

In case you haven't grabbed it yet, click HERE for the Beat Sheet Spreadsheet

Additional reading and support for Loglines

Here's a deeper explanation of Building Boards from Save The Cat, if you choose to go that way.

Work Towards a Deadline Oh the dreaded deadline! Sounds so uninspiring doesn't it? In fact, for most it likely conjures up a whole lot of feelings/associations that often have absolutely nothing to do with Loving The Process. But I am advocating for it anyway. Why? A couple of reasons. But first let me redefine it for you. The way I'm choosing to define a deadline here at LTP is: an actual, achievable goal that you believe you can fairly reasonably hit, based on the current reality of your life. An intentional rigging of the game in favor of your own success. Obviously if you've got 2 kids, a husband and a full time job, the "achievable" deadline you set for yourself should look a lot different than for the person with a part time job, no kids and all the time in the world. This deadline needs to be not just achievable, but also humane. Writers have no choice but to be long distance runners, which means, when creating those reasonable goals/deadlines, you have to factor in not only time for money making ventures, but also the fact that you actually do need sleep and rest, and pleasure in life. If you are going to succeed over the long haul, you can't treat yourself like a machine. Inspiration needs fuel. If you don't create space for the proverbial filling of the well, then your craft will suffer. If a half hour a day dedicated to writing is all you can healthily afford in your schedule right now, then it is what it is. Make the deadline accordingly. And if you find that doesn't have you moving as fast as you want, then you'll know you're going to have to cut time from somewhere less important, like surfing the web. Or maybe even start making some big re-negotiations with yourself, like finding a job that requires less time commitment. Writers also need to factor in that shit happens. Again, we are not machines. Just because you've created a deadline for yourself, doesn't mean life will cooperate. Cars break down, friends get sick, work schedules fluctuate, we go through waves of emotional upset or uninspired funks, and the way to deal with that, is simply to acknowledge that shit did happen and readjust the deadline accordingly. Be a nice boss. Yes, you may have lost time. It's not the end of the world. Don't waste even a second more of your time making yourself feel un-necessarily bad about it. That is a recipe for eventually just quitting altogether, because you've turned your creative process into another "should" that you've failed at and now want to avoid. Don't do that. Reset it and forget it. Back on the horse. Go. Examples of Deadlines A deadline should be one big goal you want to hit (for e.g. in this case finishing your Shitty First Draft), made up of a whole bunch of daily mini goals (for e.g. a daily page/word count you want to hit) that you impose upon yourself to ensure you are always moving forward and will eventually reach that big goal. For example, when setting a deadline for writing a Shitty First Draft of a screenplay, I always take a minute to do the math. I typically will make a goal of writing 2 pages a day. Some days I end up writing more, but I like to make a promise to myself (unless shit happens) to never write less. Given that a screenplay is typically about 110 pages. If I write 2 pages a day, 5 days a week (because that's something I can reasonably accomplish by devoting an hour a day) then I can expect to complete my Shitty First Draft in just under 3 months. There's nothing wrong with that. It's something I can actually put on my calendar and live into. And now I have my writing work schedule. I have a beginning and an end. If you're a professional, and you have for example a deadline of 3 weeks imposed upon you, you can still choose that deadline and take your power back, by choosing the way you're going to meet it. A quick bit of math will show you that you need to write approximately 7 pages a day. Or even 9-10 pages a day if you want to give yourself a little - shit might happen - buffer. Now you're in the driver's seat. You have a plan for how to meet the goal and you simply work the plan. Either way, what you're doing is embracing your own deadline. You're becoming the boss of it. You decide the hours you keep and when it is finished. Satisfaction The reason I advocate for working towards a deadline like this is pure and simple: satisfaction. One of the dangers of being a writer (or an entrepreneur, or a Mom, or anyone, really, that works on big, long term projects) is that we can get trapped in feelings of never enough-ness. We feel disempowered, and eventually sometimes un-inspired because satisfaction feels like something way too far down the road. A place we never get to. In fact, once we get there, we often find there is a whole other mountain to climb. There's never this feeling of being finished. Always something more to do. We might have written a lot today, but there's so much more that we haven't yet done. This can lead to all sorts of yuckiness like workaholism, depression, feelings of futility and the desire to give up and this is just not necessary. It's a problem we've created for ourselves. The irony of all ironies is that that thing most of us have avoided/feared since we were kids, the ole dreaded deadline, can be the solution to dissolving all that yuckiness. By setting those truly achievable daily or weekly deadlines, you will actually know when you are finished. You'll be able to celebrate your wins on a regular basis. You'll know when you have done "enough". You'll have a way to keep score. You'll ensure that you've embedded some satisfaction into your daily writing life and this way, no matter what happens, you always win. So set some deadlines. And then get started writing that Shitty First Draft. One day at a time. Never Stop Not Stopping Once you've got your deadline (which is essentially the page/word count you want to get to each day) the key is just to keep moving forward no matter what. Some days it will be like pulling teeth to get to that page/word count and you will be absolutely sure everything you've written is useless and terrible and other days it will be inspired. You feel like you can't stop and the genius is pouring out of you. No matter which type of day you are encountering, just do it anyway. Your Shitty First Draft is the lump of clay that you will get to mold and shape into the absolute perfect sculpture, but you can't mold and shape what isn't there. You need that initial shapeless lump of clay. Get it out. Trust me on this. Even your worst day is better than you think because it is leading you to finally having that necessary lump of clay you can work with. In fact, some of those especially shitty days will turn out to be the catalyst for some of your best writing or discoveries in other parts of your script/book. If you're really feeling stuck, to the point of counter-productive, then I suggest you use the yada yada technique. The yada yada technique is a handy dandy tool I like to use where you just type in the place where you know a story element is supposed to be, something along the lines of "and here is where something needs to happen to make so and so feel such and such yada yada in order to get to this part where" and then you just keep moving on to the next part where you feel more comfortable. I use this technique when I encounter parts of my story where I realize a little more research is needed as well. I will simply make a note to myself, right inside the draft that says "research this" whatever this is, and then just keep on going with the flow of the story. There will be plenty of time to go back and flesh out details and scenes you couldn't figure out, and finesse the way you express things, after you get the meat of the story out and onto the page. In fact, making those additions will become easier and easier once you get a chance to see the story on its feet and start to feel its rhythm and style. So let it flow. Let it be messy. Remember you have a delete button and that you won't be showing this draft to anybody. This draft is for you. So that you have a base to work with. Nothing more. Nothing less. Get to it. And never stop, never stopping.