So How Do You Write?

A friend of mine asked me recently, “How do I write?” And what she meant by that, is how do I choose what to work on when I come to one of my Mobile Offices… like today.(05.14.05)

Well for me it’s all about writing when you feel like it. I am a firm believer that you have to write when you feel it, when you have that muse and you want to sit down and spend some time hacking away. Now there are others who believe you need to sit down every day and hammer something out, but that for the most part doesn't work for me.

(The tools of the trade, computer, drink, Ipod, view)

Now when I’m rewriting something or near the start of production and I have to tighten a script, I can write that way, but we’re not really talking about that here.

So for me, what usually happens is I come to my office, sit down and start looking at my projects that I have in various stages and whatever one speaks to me that day I start working on. Now this is for the first draft usually. The first draft is always the hardest for me to complete, but once I’ve done that, then I start working that story over and over again until it’s ready to show someone.

Once I finally have one or two people that I trust read it and I get their notes, I’ll work it over and over again until it’s, what I call “production ready.” And for me, that means it’s time to try to pitch it to someone or in most cases it’s time for me to start putting the film in production and making it.

I’ve often wondered what it might be like to be on the staff of a show or something where you have deadlines and had to write to get things done at a certain time. I do think I probably would be pretty good at it, because I can write under pressure, but in my own way. I could probably hammer out a full version of a film script in less than a week, but I also would probably be a mess by the end of it and a lot of it would be written at home… you know... where I can write naked… one of my favorite things to do! Just keeping it real folks!