Top 10 Tips to Complete a Creative Writing Project Without Losing Your Creativity

Written by Ginger Blanchette


Have you ever started a creative writing project with great excitement, only to have your interest dwindle asrepparttar process, itself, interfere with your creativity? How do you keeprepparttar 129068 momentum going and continue to enjoyrepparttar 129069 creative process? Follow these tips for high creativity, fun and success!

1.Create a writing environment that inspires you. Create a place in your home or outdoors that calls you to write. Consider light, color, sound, scent, taste, writing materials.

2.Follow The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. I highly recommend this book. It keeps you focused, observant, playful, and creative - and it keeps you believing in yourself as a writer!

3.Choose your writing project in a joyful way. When choosing a writing project, come from your heart - not your head. Be playful. Be creative about how you choose your project.

4.Make a creative representation ofrepparttar 129070 project’s ideal end. Draw, paint - use a creative medium other than writing to representrepparttar 129071 completed project. Consider, especially, how you will feel when it’s done. Put your model in a prominent place. Use this to triggerrepparttar 129072 desired feeling, beforerepparttar 129073 completion - every day!

5.Make a timeline with celebration points. Make it visually appealing. Have a step-by-step outline and celebrate creatively as you complete each step.

6.Create an R&D Team for your project. Contact a number of your friends, colleagues, and readers. Invite them to join your R&D Team. Send them snippets of what you write, questions you have aboutrepparttar 129074 process, or anything else you want input on - on a regular basis. Their input will keep you going.

Developing Screenplay Ideas ... My well runneth --- in many directions!

Written by Edward B. Toupin


Recently, I started a screenwriting and movie-making group here in Las Vegas. Our objective was to begin at, well,repparttar beginning ofrepparttar 129067 process and work allrepparttar 129068 way through to an edited movie. Sounds easy? Yes! Is it really? Not at all.

The one thing I ran into atrepparttar 129069 very beginning wasrepparttar 129070 problem of demonstratingrepparttar 129071 development of an idea into something that could be used as screenplay material. The big question is, "what'srepparttar 129072 difference between regular material and screenplay material?" The only answer I could come up with was, "a beginning, a middle, and an end." They looked at me like I was kidding, but actually, I'm not.

Put simply, a screenplay is a dramatic story told with visuals and dialogue. The screenplay describesrepparttar 129073 actions,repparttar 129074 environment,repparttar 129075 dialogue, andrepparttar 129076 situations that moverepparttar 129077 story forward. Screenplays have a formula and a format that has been in place for many decades. Yet,repparttar 129078 beginning screenwriter sometimes misses this point. I ran into one fellow some months ago who was writing a screenplay that was "325 pages" long! After further discussion, he began to realize that, instead of writing a screenplay, he had a novel with a story that meandered without end.

You can use any old idea for your story, but have a point. Don't just write forrepparttar 129079 sake of writing asrepparttar 129080 story will meander around into a traffic jam. If you have an idea, define a theme or objective forrepparttar 129081 story. What'srepparttar 129082 point? What isrepparttar 129083 main character's purpose in "life"?

Life? A character's life? Indeed,repparttar 129084 character does have a life inrepparttar 129085 world you create, but a screenplay is not "real life". It's a metaphor of real life presented in such a way as to represent a particular theme. To write about a real life situation, you have to dissectrepparttar 129086 situation and findrepparttar 129087 underlying theme. Then, using that theme as a guideline, you must reassemblerepparttar 129088 original idea to best representrepparttar 129089 theme. Indeed, some aspects ofrepparttar 129090 true-story might be fictionalized to driverepparttar 129091 story towardrepparttar 129092 point.

For example, my wife is working on a screenplay about medical debauchery in Nevada. After a few passes, she began to realize thatrepparttar 129093 story roamed around in circles because ofrepparttar 129094 many facets ofrepparttar 129095 topic. After much coaching, she began to realize that she had to define one particular point and aimrepparttar 129096 story at it. As a side-effect,repparttar 129097 physical issues ofrepparttar 129098 story would berepparttar 129099 driving force that leadsrepparttar 129100 plot around to reach "the point".

After writing and reading screenplays overrepparttar 129101 years, I've given some pointers to folks that usually help them redefine and direct their stories to a solid point. One ofrepparttar 129102 main problems, which I reiterate here, is that you have to "define a point". For example, we might come up with an idea that has a bunch of "cool" actions and situations. We then try to write a story to include these ideas because we want them to be inrepparttar 129103 story. But, this approach will usually fail because --- what isrepparttar 129104 point? Define a point, a theme, an objective that encompassesrepparttar 129105 feeling and direction of these "cool" actions and situations and aim your story in that direction.

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