Stop thinking and start doing Eva Madden
Industry Centre > Blogs > Stop thinking and start doing | Eva Madden
Posted by Eva Madden
on Friday, July 03, 2009.
Categories: Writing, Film, Alumni
Okay – this is ridiculous.
I haven’t been keeping up on my blogging.
I wrote one – a year ago! - and then…nadda. Which got me thinking about good intentions and motivation.
Sometimes it’s easy to come up with ideas, to make plans and to formulate dreams. And sometimes the first step of the journey is NOT the hardest. Sometimes it’s the second step, and the third.
As filmmakers, and artists and creative-type folks who work in a rather unstable, 
non-linear kind of business, we are constantly challenged to keep a lot of balls in the air. We are constantly looking within ourselves for motivation. We make lists, we plan ahead and we are always always looking for the next thing. It can get overwhelming. Sometimes it can get so daunting we ignore it and put it aside and then we notice a year has passed and nothing has been accomplished. Like this blog, for example.
Every time I tried to write a new blog, I would approach it with an over ambitious goal – to write something clever, concise, complete and perfect. I was dooming myself before I even started.
The same approach for a screenwriter can be just as dooming.
If you sit down to write and think you must complete something, you must reach a certain goal, you must write the perfect scene, you might not get past the blank page.
A few weeks go, thanks to the good folks at Film Nova Scotia, I had the privilege to sit down with two working Hollywood screenwriters, Howard McCain and Dirk Blackman. They generously shared their knowledge, some insights into the business and a few great stories with myself and few other writers and producers here in Halifax.
One of things that impressed me the most was their attitude about approaching the page. Don’t go in with any expectations – just write. See what happens. If nothing happens, that’s okay. Make a phone call, read an article about writing, scribble down ideas on a cue card. Just do something. Just practice. (Five days a week if you can.)
So I tried it. With my own writing. And then with this blog. I just sat down, with no expectations. And ten minutes later, I had this entry. So far, it seems to be working.
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Views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).
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The views expressed here are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).