As a writer, this topic is very helpful/informative so let's try and keep it going.
I also find I write best at night, when there are absolutely no distractions. Only problem is by the time I sit down to do it I am often too tired to get a hell of a lot done.
Distractions are extremely irritating. I like that idea of booking into a cheap motel room, but I can't afford to be doing that every time I want to write something.
One other problem I've had recently is deciding on what to write. When I have restrictions such as length, genre, a 'theme', etc, I can come up with an idea easily enough, but when I can write whatever the hell I want it gets harder. I don't know if I want to make a comedy, drama, western, sci-fi, action or what! I have the world at my disposal and I'm not sure exactly what film it is I want to make. So what I did was just start a whole bunch, a variety of films to see where it takes me. As for which one I'll make next, I'm not entirely sure.

Well, I'm very pleased to see this thread has helped so many people to get things done. If you ask me, on the topic of drafts, I find it's better to print the whole first draft off and read it at night, without distractions and annotate it with a pencil, giving it all a good bit of thought.
I've got to say I also find restrictions very useful in writing. 'Without freedom the rose flowers beautifully' is a phrase I think applies itself well to this situation because the restrictions usually cause a good structured story instead of simple creative anarchy.
I generally ask some friends what type of film I should write and get them to fire off ideas at me for a good story because they're the ones who generally play the characters.

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You can't keep 'em out, they're already in!

Sometimes what helps me (or it would seem to) is to think of the theme of my story (ie. something 80's, tropical, urban, country, whatever) find a few songs in that theme, put my head on the desk, close my eyes, and watch the story unfold in my mind(completely. just watch what happens until you stop seeing it). I just watch it happen as though I was watching a movie. It actually works really well for me, because I will think of a certain part in the story, and just watch it happen in my mind. Then I write it down...

After that, I re-read it and re-write it so it makes more sense. After a few drafts... Voila!

It may not work for you, but it works for me.

Teddy Danh
Ti Tech Films
Torrance, CA

I find that I like to run a marathon of similar movies before I write a screenplay. This fills my head with what's already been done so I can avoid doing the same or mock something that has been done to death. It fills my head with the bits about the genre and may even generate a scene or two if I think someone had a great idea that didn't work the way I would have done it.

Mel Brooks seems to do the same thing. Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein were brilliant parodies of entire genres that make me think he does a similar technique (or did). Later films like Robin Hood Men In Tights and Space Balls were funny, but gave the impression of picking on a much tighter selection of films (or single film in the case of Men in Tights which had no real Robin Hood jokes outside of parodying Robin Hood Prince of Thieves).

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

I have to say I do something similar to Michaelangelo too and just think about this project a lot. Even if I don't write anything down for a while and just walk around thinking it still helps tremendously.

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You can't keep 'em out, they're already in!