Read lots of books about many topics. take the bus / walk. Avoid driving. Watch thousands of films.
Do you mean after an idea has presented itself, what next? I ask questions. Who is this person? Biography. What is her predicament? How? Why? What does she want and what/who prevents her? I’m making notes during this phase. I need to see her. I need to feel her coming alive and existing as an independent figure in my imagination. Then comes the moment when I try to sketch the story, broadly, in prose. I’ll look at photographs for inspiration. Of course, I listen to music. Seldom watch other films. All the while asking those questions, and refining and introducing additional characters. I’ll return to my synopsis and embellish it. I usually just know when I’m ready to begin writing in format. This part presents itself as a leap of faith- I’ve done the groundwork, so all that remains is to begin the first draft.
That’s usually how it goes.
Wake up early. Take a shower. Half sleep in that shower. Let the reality part of your brain and the dream part mix. Great ideas will result.
Ride motorcycle. Listen to loud music. Read UNRELATED books. Repeat…
The best thing to help me write anything is to start at late night/early morning (2 am or so), listen to blaring free jazz, and type whatever the hell I can spurt out that sounds good. The only inspiration you need is yourself, if it doesn’t come then, well…
I am normally not in a place where I can actually write ideas down when I get the eally good ideas, the ones that actually sound interesting. Normally, I don’t come up with a plot, or anything, until I’m already writing the movie. Normally, I just begin with a character, which is, of course, devastatingly important, since the character is the one that most films hinge on. Well, I com up with someone that I consider would have to have a story told about, and then I just work off that. It’s been very difficult lately, though, to come up with anything. Maybe my brain has just not been stimulated, or maybe school and work are colliding in such as way that destroys my creativity. Who knows?
Savvy
i look into a lot of true stories from history. weird/interesting things that happened that most people haven’t heard about
Discipline is all that is required: what the Germans call sitzfleisch. You have to force your mind to occupy the imaginary space of your story; do this long enough and it will all slowly leak out onto the page.
Music, books, and movies can all certainly catalyze ideas, but I find that’s only possible when I don’t have the project too much on my mind going into the book or movie.
JP, free jazz does work, doesn’t it? Albert Ayler: Live in Greenwich Village. A massive rec on this one.
Orpheus, sit flesh? Seat glue. Yeah, it works.
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Writing isn’t easy. You’re lucky if you find that words simply spill onto the page, or if you even have one day of true inspiration to write. I find this the hardest thing. I need to chain myself to my desk and force myself to write, otherwise my mind wanders. I suppose it’s because I already know what the film is going to be in my head, and writing it down seems like the long way. But, unavoidable.
I guess it really is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration.
I try to just absorb as much information on everything by reading as much as possible and seeing as many movies as possible when trying to form everything in my head, and then when writing just cut down on all those things and listen to a lot of music.
CLASSICAL MUSIC
I never actively seek out inspiration. It either comes or it doesn’t. The same is true for my writing. Since I don’t write for a living, I don’t have to force myself to write for some deadline. I write when an idea comes to me. It’s as simple as that.
When I start working on a film, I try to watch films where I might find some inspiration. The film may have a completely different plot or story but I find myself finding great ideas from the most random films. Absent that, I don’t actively seek for inspiration because I’ve found I get most inspired or come up with the best ideas when I least expect it.
just write. continue. one foot in front of the other. there’s no mystery.
inspiration comes more from an act towards creativity than the reverse.
Write when you feel like it. Don’t force it. The moment it becomes “work”…it loses all charm for me. I mean…it is work…but you know what I mean.
Fredo, I am the same way. But what happens when you don’t get inspiration for a very long time?
Then you don’t write. Unless you feel compelled to or it’s your job and you’re forced to. There is something to be said for just writing every day, no matter how crappy it is. I’ve never done this but a lot of professional writers are like this, particularly ones who write for television and don’t have the luxury of “inspiration.”
No wonder TV writing is so crappy. I started realizing that when I wrote without interpretation it was just awful so I stopped. It is just a bit unsettling when inspiration doesn’t come for long periods.
Usually when I’m writing it’s because I have something that I cannot contain, that is literally pouring out of my fingertips and forcing me to type. I can write pages and pages and not even remember writing them.
If I don’t feel that, I don’t even try. It won’t be good.
I remember a professor of mine once saying, “Procrastination is sometimes genius festering,” which is helpful for deadlines, and true. But if it’s a personal, creative venture, I have to have that immediate feeling that I’m going to lose my mind if I can’t put some words down right this minute.
There’s nothing in the world like that feeling. Zen.
Put it this way, “inspiration” is a luxury most people who get paid to write don’t have. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be good.
Josh, Nothing nothing nothing at all in the entire world is the same feeling as that AHA moment that leads to pages of writing.
Well one thing provides this feeling: actually finishing a film.
You’ve got that one on me, but I have one for you: actually finishing a novel.
To be honest I’m rewriting the hell out of it, but getting to that final scene and writing the final words (which aren’t changing with the rewrite) was unforgettable.
For me, movies are terrible for me right before I write. I get too persuaded, it feels like I lose a since of who I really am. It’s like I have to be away from films and books completely before I write in order to conjure up something I am satisfied with. I want to examine and conjure up original images in my head rather than a still I saw in a flick that I’m inspired by at the time.
My advice is to put down any book or movie that inspires you and just think up personal shit that drives you and not to get caught up or emotionally invested into something else. I mean it won’t destroy your flick if you do… I just feel, in order to get a true ‘blank canvas’ to lay out your ideas on, you can’t have anything in your head persuading you one direction or the other.
Yeah, all my best ideas have come about while taking a shower or while on a long car ride.
open the window and lie in bed. Then just think. Or dream.
I keep a journal next to the bed. One in the backpack I take to the office. One in the car. You never know.
I go for a run. Works almost every time. You’ve got to tap into the subconscious.
On the nose, Scooter.
It’s finding that moment where your body is doing something without your mind really thinking about it. It’s the closest you can get to dreaming while awake.
Hans Lucas
What do you find the most helpful to fueling your creativity? What I mean by this is do you try to see as many films as possible to try to learn or try to avoid films and to make it with as little foreign influence as possible. Or do you read as many books as possible. What works best to help you write or conceive an idea?