hi, just wondering how alot of you come up with your ideas, where do you get your inspiration?

Also how do you get in the correct 'mood' to write, most of the time i just cant bring myself to write. Do u write on laptop...notepad? while you write do u eat anything..drink tea or coffee? yeh that question was pointless. Do u always write at home or do u go out 2, i dunno..the beach or something and write there.

Also do you sit at a desk, lay on a bed? i can just never get comfortable when writing, ah its annoying

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dylan232,

I usually find it best to write (oddly enough) all over my pay stubs from work or on left over photocopies oif paper work from the job i do. I guess it kinda makes me think that the job I do isn't all for nothing. And I usually write out only dialogue and monlogues abd form them into characters and a plot later when things bring themselves to dinner. if I'm not working on a "story" or :idea" in particualr I just take whatever comes to me down. And if I have nothing to write about then usually nothing is bothering me, so there's nothing I really need to question or fix in myself. I also sometimes use scrap paper from old homework outlines assignments and handouts. Only then, once I've decided and formed up what I'm gunna do do I type it.

I sit in front of my computer and listen to the score I've made for the project. That comes before the script, usually. New music will be made if necessary once the project is in the can. I also have a glass of water nearby.

quote:

Originally posted by Evan Kubota:
I also have a glass of water nearby.

Evan you fuc*ing hardass.

I don't really like to eat or drink anything other than water when I'm engaged in the creative process. It's not that I don't like to drink, just that it doesn't mesh well with my writing.

Simple. AC/DC for comedies, and Killswitch Engaged for anything else. Music plays a pretty big factor, but not too much. You can get over emotional in your writing if you focus on the music. For example, you may drag out a death or fight scene just a little bit too long and harshly if you're listening to some Slayer or Pantera.
And some booze usually helps out the frame of mind too, depending on what you're writing.
As for inspiration...I don't know. I'm an ex-artist and musician, so I just take what used to inspire those projects and turn it into film. But I'm a metalhead, so that doesn't always work. I write lots of comedies, so I have a big sense of humor, that helps alot too.

Music. I always listen to music when I'm writing. I listen to everything from Bach to the The Who depending on how I'm feeling and the mood of whatever I'm writing. Pretty much everything I've written is built off one scene. I'll think of a cool scene and then go from there. Its a pretty sparatic way of writing but it works really well for shorts. I've tried writing two feature length scripts that way and they've both hit a dead end at around 45 pages. But no matter what music is almost always there. I usually have some sort of snack food and something to drink handy because when I realyl get into the zone and have a good idea of what I want I'm moving at about 7 zillion miles per hour. If I hit a small snag I seem to need to keep doing something so I take a drink or grab a couple chips, etc.
Also, I've never written a screenplay away from a computer. The first thing I ever started writing was a feature length screenplay based off a short story I wrote for a final in my comp class. The short story was how the movie opened and I just went from there. I can't keep up with myself when I'm typing and I'm a pretty damn quick typer, so I can't stand to try and actually write a script with pen and paper because I just couldn't come anywhere close to keeping up with my head.
Plus, I have a lot of music on my computer, and music is a must while writing for me.

Music and late-nightisms, two volatile ingredients that aid in my writing process. Ideas which suddenly spring to mind are written on a nearby piece of paper and subsequently developed or stored. Most ideas come to me in the bathroom I find that washrooms are areas where one is at inner peace and freedom to think. Then eventually when I feel the time to exert the effort, when the lightning strikes I write it down on computer - under the influence of cafiene power I begin my work some time between midnight (on school nights) - as late as 6:00 AM all of which for the whole time I am awake. The writing spells usually last until I'm ready to or convince my self to sleep, then the next day/night/morning-thing (my sense of time is gone anyway) I do it again, a vampire biting and bleeding words onto a catho-ray page.

For features I use either a short/music piece, write a scene or develope outline, then proceed to write. The second last feature I wrote took 24 hours in which I worked from some time around 8PM-5AM in two 8-hour on/off sesions to make it for the deadline for my film class, I did 2 hour think session a few days earlier. Procrastination is a key thing in my mental state about writing, I like having a think train where I can get things done in one shot or so, plus I just haven't trained myself to commence things early so that I would have the last day off - plus my ideas don't seem to form until the very end when I can take out a semi-automatic creativity cannon and fire rounds into my subjects... unfortunately it is a very, very, very, bad habit but so is everything else.

Dylan,....what you are expirenceing is nothing uncommon. It happens to me all the time. I get inspired by random scenes that pop into my head and then i start to write. I write whereever whenever on whatever as long as i get the idea on paper....then if i try and force it...i get crap on paper. It needs to happen. You just need to be inspired completely....when that happens,...no conditions can stop you,...its a force of the mind,....music, art work, these things are strong spring boards for imagination. But life is the biggest of all. I always hear people say and do funny, rediculus things,...and then I get ideas. I was once inspired by a voting poster to create a film. My friends who are the weirdest are sometimes who the characters are based on in my films. It will just come when you are inspired by the write things. its ok if it doe'snt all come out right away....let it happen as you feel it right to...creativity works in mysterious ways....

quote:

I can't stand to try and actually write a script with pen and paper because I just couldn't come anywhere close to keeping up with my head.

I totally agree with that.

i think everyone so far has said this but i music is definitely a factor in getting into the mood of writing, but i also find anger to be another one. i find that if i'm not happy i can write so much better than when i am happy or excited.

i need to be pissed off, with my guitar next to me. then ill play on that for a few, and then start writing a screen play. sometimes i like to have a few glasses of wine first, and watch American Psycho or Vertigo. that helps too.

Beer and pot help a lot. I can't get myself into a creative mood when I'm stoned, but if I'm already in the mood, then I get stoned, I find that's when I come up with my best ideas. Drinking, on the other hand, doesn't help with quality or creativity (in fact it sort of hurts it) but I can write for long periods of time without stopping for even a minute when I'm drunk.

I'm not into hard drugs, but lots of people have told me about times they've done meth and stayed up all night (I don't mean untill 2 in the morning, I mean ALL night) and stacked up 20 to 30 pages. Longhand.