I don’t believe in writer’s block.

Maybe, maybe, a very limited number of people have suffered from a real inability to write anymore. Like a loss of that specific brain function, which sounds like a much more serious problem than a lack of inspiration.

Writer’s block, for most people, is merely a deficit of motivation and a surplus of good old fashioned laziness. But that’s not a “block.” That’s not an inability or an impairment. That’s procrastination.

So what if you’re suffering from my definition of writer’s block, one where you know you should be writing, but don’t? Just like you should be cleaning your house, walking your dog, or calling your mother, but you just can’t bring yourself to do it.

What can you do to get past that sort of block?

Research.

It feels like you’re working, but you still get to avoid real, actual work. Instead of writing, look up some information that will help you once you do start. Feel like going for a walk instead of writing? Walk to the library. Just think about your writing project while you’re walking. Call it outlining.

Just do something even tangentially relevant to your project. At least you’ll have accomplished something. And chances are you’ll start feeling a lot more prepared to write. Which may have been all you’d needed in the first place.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some reading to do.

Here’s another simple tip to make your editing a little easier:

Print it out.

That’s right, print it out. Get a pen and mark up your document.

Editing onscreen is hard, and you’re likely to miss so much. When reading off of a screen, we read quite fast. We have to, because there’s so much information that we have to get through every day on the internet. If we read at a slower, more careful pace, we couldn’t possibly get through it all.

So when you go to proof your document, you might try to slow down, but it’s unlikely you’ll be able to read slow enough and careful enough to catch all your mistakes.

Print it out, and make your edits with a red pen. You’ll find yourself catching so many more mistakes than you would have if you’d edited solely on your computer. Eyestrain won’t make you have to skim the document, and you’ll find yourself much more able to focus on individual words, instead of full sentences and phrases.

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple days. A few writing gigs came my way at the same time, so I’ve got a number of deadlines to meet. But I figured I could contribute here at the same time by giving a few writing tips while I’m, you know, writing.

I linked to some great rewriting advice a few days ago, but here’s a tip that works for me:

Start each draft in a blank document.

Especially the first rewrite. This is more easily applied to shorter works, like a screenplay, article, or short-story. It obviously might not scale if you’re writing a novel.

But if at all manageable, when you go to rewrite, don’t just make edits to your first draft. Take a fresh look at your structure, at every idea and sentence. Editing a draft will only make you catch the smaller mistakes or the odd poorly phrased idea.

When you start a new draft in a blank document you’re not starting over entirely. But it’s like your first draft was the rehearsal and now, after you’ve got everything planned out, you can perform it for the first time.

This also frees you creatively on your first draft. You don’t have to be overly concerned with your structure, you can just get all your ideas out without stifling yourself.

You can repeat this process for as many drafts as you like, but after the second one you’ll probably be comfortable with copying and pasting more and more from the previous draft. And that’s okay if you’re satisfied with those portions.

Now, back to work…

Rewriting is hard, but crucial. It’s often really difficult to part with things you love about your script/story/blog/etc even if it’s for the good of your work. So Justine Larbalestier has written a fantastic piece about how to rewrite. She gives some great, practical examples, including how even Snakes on a Plane could have been a better movie with a good rewrite.

Snakes on a plane spoiler alert:

“In one scene Mr Jackson has to go down into the snake-infested part of the plane to flick a switch and save the plane from crashing. But it’s all too easy and he returns unscathed. Boring!

I would have introduced the snakes more gradually and would have had Samuel L. bitten by one with a slow-acting venom very early on to make the whole movie a bit more DOA. Can he save the whole plane and himself? Will there be an anti-venom waiting for him if the plane arrives?”

Link. via John Scalzi

via Kottke

Alec Baldwin, In his article at the Huffington Post, offers a brilliant way to end the Writers’ Strike:

“I want the WGA to set up a website and on that website we can all post stories about every no-talent, idiotic, amoral producer and executive we have ever dealt with. Just like they do to us on shows like Extra and sites like TMZ (owned by Warner Brothers.) Set up a website and tell the entire world, via the internet, your own anecdote about some of the witless boobs you have endured in Hollywood and beyond. The strike will end in a week.”

His article skewers what he calls the “lawyers and marketing executives who lord over the worst creative decline [he has] witnessed in a long time.”

It’s well worth a read, to see a popular actor’s uninhibited take on the strike.

While the Celtx team were at Creative Screenwriting Expo 6, they put on a seminar about their software, and how its unique approach to script-to-screen makes it the best tool for screenwriting.

We’ve discussed Celtx before. Beyond it being free and open-source, it really is an incredible tool. The mere fact that it makes collaboration between team members of a project incredibly simple and useful puts it ahead of its competitors.

And its eschewing of WYSIWYG for a style that embraces digital makes it far more powerful than any piece of software that tries to emulate writing on a piece of paper.

It’s simply full of countless tools to make writing, not only easier, but far more productive. And I use that word, not just in the sense that you’ll complete a lot of work, but you’re also always working towards real, actual production with Celtx.

Listen to the seminar and you’ll hear what I mean.

Part 1

Part 2

This is not an ad. I’ve just used Celtx for a long time now, and it really is a great product.

Recently, Peter Upfold (of our sister site, FOSSwire) and I interviewed Mark Kennedy, CEO of Celtx, a cross platform program for developing a production that I have reviewed favorably in the past. To use their words:

Celtx is the world’s first fully integrated solution for media pre-production and collaboration. It replaces old fashioned ‘paper, pen & binder’ media creation with a digital approach to writing and organizing that’s more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share.

The interview, which we have been planning for months (and finally got to do this week!) talks about Celtx as an open source project and the impact of Celtx to a typical production workflow. It’s around 20 minutes long.

You can download the podcast here as an MP3. Enjoy!

On their way to 1.0, Celtx released a brand new version of their free and open source screenwriting application.

The new version is incredibly exciting. The fantastic, new dark interface is a refreshing change for the usual Mozilla-esque app. The icons are totally redesigned and more descriptive of their functions. Everything in the app screams polish, and it’s much easier to use overall. Some of the core UI elements have been restructured too, making the app simpler.

One of the biggest changes is the modification made to Project Central. Maintaining your project’s online presence is now done via a “Web Services” tab. There, you can also manage your project’s project page, and determine who is allowed to view it. Further, this is where slogans, project images, and that fun stuff is all managed. You can also add and remove project collaborators here.

You can now add storyboards. It’s barebones functionality, but it works as advertised. There is functionality for sequences and then shots, the basic stuff you need. I’m sure the Celtx community will have ideas on how to tie this into the other parts of the app soon! There is also the ability to play back your storyboard, which I demonstrate in an upcoming YouMakeMedia video review.

Be sure to check out this new release of Celtx, and check out the full list of new stuff at the Celtx Blog. I only went into detail about the big stuff, but there are a lot of little improvements too!

Congrats to the Celtx team, at this rate, 1.0 will be a killer app, no doubt!

Hey international readers: I missed this in my first pass of the press release earlier, but the new version also features A4 support. To quote you all: “FINALLY!”

We are working on getting a YouMakeMedia video review published, I’ll post the link as soon as I get it online!