Scriptin’ Fancy Like : Dangers!

It’s a simple enough problem. I know what scene 3:1 is and I know what scene 3:2 is. But the only way I can see to get the characters from one to the other feels a tad implausible. I’ve got the broad strokes of the entire rest of the treatment for Archbrook done and I know I’d whip through them, but instead I’ve let myself get hung up on this one part at the start of the third act and as a result the script has stalled. Today I’ve resolved to just sort of say “To hell with it” and write out that less than satisfactory scene bridge so as to let myself progress with the rest. It’s the first draft for heaven’s sake; I can always come back and change things. That being said, this has put my mind onto the topic of that which can hinder and halt the writing process. I reckon now is as good a time as any for another SFL supplement.

Getting Hung Up On One Stupid Thing
Partially covered in the previous paragraph, this is essentially when you get stuck on writing the story in chronological order and you've reached a point you're having trouble with. The two solutions I've found are to either write a placeholder (if it isn't a terribly important moment) or to just write pieces you want to include later. Having to make those later parts fit into the continuity can often give you ideas for how to settle that part you got stuck on in the first place, now that you have a better idea of what it is leading to.

Fear of Cliché
This can be a big one for me sometimes and I've honestly gottan a tad neurotic once or twice in my desire to have a story (or just story element) which has never graced the minds of mortal men before. Attempting to actually create something 100% original is akin to trying to create a new primary colour or musical note. If you can get yourself to remember that you are working with a sort of "reality palette" and that it is the arrangement of elements which makes a story original, then you can usually deal with this pretty well.

Writers Block
Write something else, anything else. I always think of writers block like a cramped up muscle and if you can just limber it up then things will soon be alright again. Even if it's just nonsenical gibberish that makes you laugh, it will get the pencil moving and get you closer to where you want to be.

Just remember to come back to what you were first writing before you’re not only stuck but you’ve lost interest. If the worst happens and you lose interest, then never, ever delete or throw anything out. Ideas can lay fallow for a long time before something will happen in your life that makes them interesting and relevant again.

Unintentional Idea Theft
Trying to come up with a name for the deity which the religion/cult in Archbrook worships, I really tried hard not to be derivative. I didn’t want to just slap some consonants together or do something in the vein of Lovecraft or anything that sounded like a guttural Klingon burp. So I experimented with different sounds and their combinations on a page of one of my notebooks. I experimented with syllables and how pleasing or frightening they were – trying to aim for a name which could be either terrifying and enticing, something context-sensitive, which would also easily translate into the term for it’s followers (ex. Christ = Christians). I let myself sleep on it several times and returned to the page again and again over the course of a month until I finally arrived at something I felt satisfied all my criteria.

“Hylia” I thought “That’s pretty damn good”

Too bad it turns out my subconscious fed that one to me from when I was ten years old and playing Zelda on the SNES with Rob after school! I haven’t played a link game since and I would never have thought I’d been a big enough fan at the time to remember such things (the coincidence was pointed out to me by Tom, otherwise I don’t ever think I would have realized). Now I’m not sure what to do, I’ve held onto it for now since I don’t want to further gum up the works by spending time going back over this draft and subbing something else for Hylia, Hylian and Hylians. But will I ever replace it? Should I ever replace it? I can’t say as I’ve answered these questions yet – though I keep thinking about how there is dick all connection between my Hylians and the other kind.

Placeholders
In the spirit of just getting on with the story, it is often tempting to just name something anything or to write a part of a scene that you don’t like but will get you to the next one. These kind of placeholders, particularly when it comes to the title of the film itself, are very useful in getting past the first problem I’ve mentioned here. There are two dangers with placeholders, however. One is that if it is a one use affair, deeply embedded in the story, that you might forget about it. That is also why I've stopped leaving sarcastic notes to myself in my stories! I don't want people who are proofreading my work to come across "Oliver! Get your dick out of your ear and re-write the ending to this scene!".

The other is that if it is something which occurs many times, like a name for a character, then you will be creating a very large chore for yourself in having to go back and change every single instance of that placeholder when you figure out a higher quality replacement. But hey, better that you have to go through a script with a fine-toothed comb then to never have finished a script to...comb....in the first place, right? Right?

I am right.

Your eyes look like two slabs of fudge with a streak of caramel going across. Also, your hands have a darker skin tone than your face.

I have yet to find a way around this problem.