Over the years I have learned that my mind plays games. When I work on screenplay 1 my mind is wandering on about Screenplay 2. The grand result is similar to procrastination in that you take significantly longer to finish multiple projects at once. Better to jot down a quick note about Screenplay 2 and press on doing Screenplay 1.

Everyone works differently, however.

I find that if I write down notes, and notes, and then plot it out, and write out the characters when I finally sit down to write the screenplay I can finish the first draft very quickly. Then I can move onto another project for awhile. It helps me to let a screenplay sit for a while so I can go back with a bit of perspective for the second draft. If I stop halfway it is much harder to pick up the screenplay and start going again.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

"It's a hard one to decide because doing them all at once means that I can change to another screenplay when I get bored of the other one"

Dont take this the wrong was because its constructive critisism, and I know that you have given me some good advice in the past: No offence but if its boring you then why are you writting it? If your writting some thing and its boring you, stop writting all together. Because if you cant enjoy it then your audience definatly wont. Dont ever write for the sake of it, quality prevails over quantity evey time. Granted all filmmakers have their own writting habbits and not every ones advice is helpful (MAbey this aint?) but if you cant enjoy it, no one ellse will.

For me I like to write for one production at a time so that I stay focused on the current film, Some times I think about writting the screen play for my next production. But then I think about how it would effect the way that its written.

I suppose its a question of how you work best, if to get the best out of your film you need to write to Keep pro active, then thats just how you work I suppose, but id imagine the quality of the writting suffers as a result.

I'm always thinking about good scenes for films such dialouge as well as action. Some of it I've chosen to use in this production or even another one. But I doubt if I would take it any further than that.

I think its always a good idea to have an idea for your next production, but for me I wouldnt start writting the screen play for it until I have completed the current production.

At the end of the day I suppose "You gota do what you gota do" to get the best end product.

What would you prefer to do? Cleary.

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If you do get bored during the screenplay you should consider why the boring scenes are needed. It's very possible they are not needed at all. Going from here to there isn't usually required in modern film.

The other thing to do is watch the Princess Bride. William Goldman thought about the exact same thing and wrote a book that skipped the boring bits. It was easy to do so by wrapping the story with a kid being read to by grandpa because the kid then provided the jumping point to skip and it made i sound as if the story was far richer than it was but we're learning something about the kid instead (he wants to hear about the kiss at the end after all).

Brilliant stuff.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA