How to conquer fear in writing

So I like to listen to these podcasts by Audio Dharma. It's a retreat center in northern California and the talks are very uplifting and hippie-dippie. So today I listened to a talk all about thinking of events as comfortable, neutral or uncomfortable. So instead of turning a bad event into a bad event, maybe it's just something that's uncomfortable. Get it?

So it got me to thinking that when we as writers put ourselves into some event or moment that is going to make us grow as a writer, it can cause a moment of panic. Many tend to just give up, or put road blocks in our way, and just plain cop-out. But what if, instead of thinking we can't overcome these fears, we just noticed it was another moment of being uncomfortable. I mean, pitching to a high-powered producer is hardly dangerous. At least not usually! LOL So if we were to just acknowledge that yes, we are feeling stressed over a big moment in our lives, but it's just uncomfortable, then I think it would lessen the fear. And if we could lessen the fear then we could actually accomplish what we are trying to accomplish in our writing careers and move towards success.

I have mentioned before that I have seen numerous writer friends tell themselves lies why they can't be involved in a project or why they can't do a rewrite or why they are not right for a certain pitch project or development. And it just baffles me over and over how these talented writers can let fear get in the way of their success.

But now I get it. Now I see, we let this uncomfortable moment stop us in our tracks because we are labeling it as painful, as bad. And many would rather walk away then face their fear. But if we know it's just uncomfortable, we know that something that is uncomfortable will mostly soon become neutral or even comfortable once that event is over. And that my friends, is how we can face our fears and prepare for the next big writing moment in our careers. You put several of those moments together, over and over, and you've reached the success you've been dreaming of.

The nose knows

So for first time writers, or newbie writers, they will hear a lot of "it's on the nose" when people read their scripts. And when you're a new writer you're not always sure what that means. Recently, a new writer reached out to me in need of some explanation so I thought it might be a good post to help other new writers in this position.

I asked him to read as many articles on what "writing on the nose" meant. I also asked him to rewrite a scene of his once he thought he knew what it was to see if he had applied what he thought he learned. Even with that, it still turned out he was in the dark.

What I did notice is that he thought to fix writing on the nose meant to write everything shorter. Dialogue. Narration. Descriptions. Now sometimes yes, it can mean writing less. But not always. He cut out so much I no longer could tell what the characters were saying or meaning. So don't cut just to make things shorter. Cut to make things less obvious.

See, people in real life never say what they mean. So our jobs as writers is to not be so obvious. It's to play what is going on underneath what the characters are saying but leave things hidden and to let them come across in other ways. For instance, if a character has a bad day at work and that scene was written on the nose, we'd hear exactly what the writer intended. For instance, the character would come in from work and say it all, "I had a bad day at work! I don't like anyone right now." Wife, "Why do you have to yell at me for having a bad day at work?" Man, "I'm going to go sit at my computer and ignore you because I don't like myself or anyone right now". Yuck! Not a good scene is it? Now if it wasn't on the nose it could be written more like this...

He comes home but doesn't tell her, she kisses him but he just brushes past her, says he's not hungry for dinner and goes to hide at his laptop. Then when the wife asks if he's hungry after she's cleaned up the dishes, then he could snap at her so much that they get into a fight. But maybe he yells at her for the way she parked the car. And how she always parks the car that way and he can't fit in the garage. And then she's annoyed he keeps bringing that up so they fight over the car instead of what really happened at work. Then when going to bed, both ignoring each other it might finally come out, "Sorry I got yelled at by my boss for messing up. I guess I took it out on you." So that scene would be so much more interesting than the first. Don't you think?

If you need to write a scene really obvious the first time you write it, that's okay. But once it's on the page, ask yourself how else can I write this scene? Can I write it with no dialogue? What could I have that person do instead of what I actually intended him to do? Is there another character he could interact with that will show off the scene much better? Is there an object I can introduce to the scene that would make it less on the nose? There's many ways to hide what the character is thinking. But it's up to us, the writers, to figure out the best way it is to do that.

In honor of Syd Field

So there was news today of Syd Field passing this weekend at the age of 77. I never met the guy, but read his screenwrting books. And it wasn't till I heard he passed, that I realized I owe the man a lot. It was he and Robert McKee that taught me my very first steps in how to write a script. I remember sitting by my computer, with Syd Field's books open next to Robert McKee's as I typed what I thought would be the best thing ever written. LOL Okay, maybe I didn't. But I thought it might be worthy of something. Turns out it was only worthy of teaching me how to write a script. But we all have to start somewhere. And if it weren't for teachers like him, we never would have had something on the page to do our first rewrite, or to get comfortable enough in the craft to learn new styles, to learn our voice. So the news of Syd Field passing is a sad one for me. I wish I had thought of taking the time to thank him. I'm sure many will feel the same. RIP.

Do you take chances with your writing career?

When it comes to genres, we writers tend to get stuck in a type or genre of writing. Especially when it comes to film and TV. We hear that we need to form a body of work in order to sell and to have a career. But what if other opportunities present themselves? I'm one who believes that you just don't know where the next opportunity is going to come from. So I'm the last person to not try a new genre. So although comedy features were my favorite thing to write at first, I'm game to write just about anything! So when I found out someone wanted to read a sitcom from me, I partnered with a TV writer. I learned that I loved writing sitcoms and in fact it seemed easier to me than features! Then I found out someone wanted to read animation, so I partnered with someone who was good at this, learned how to do it. Now we're pitching animation shows and features. Then I found out someone wanted a sci-fi. This definitely wasn't my forte, so partnered with some sci-fi writer friends. So as you can see, it's okay to try new things. If worse comes to worse you find out for sure it's not your thing. But you grow as a writer, and there's nothing bad about that. We're writers. We're meant to be creative and try new things. There's nothing worse than seeing a writer stop themselves from success because they fear that can't do something new! In fact, I've seen it many times where a writer will have an opportunity and they say, oh yeah, I don't do that. In my mind I'm thinking, really? You could get a deal out of this, but you don't do that??? Just recently my new manager wanted to submit me for a TV show. Although it's something I love to watch, I wasn't sure I could write it. But I figured, why not? I was up for the challenge! So I told her yes, I could do it. And guess what, I've learned so much about myself as a writer. And I can already tell I can write this! Just because as a writer we haven't tried a genre, doesn't mean we are incapable of it. SO please, don't shoot yourself in the foot till you've at least tried! If someone is giving you the opportunity, do it! Take it! We only live once. So go for it! You just may surprise yourself.