What is your creative process?

Jared Isham

Member
Each of us probably have our own unique creative process that we use to write our screenplays. The important thing is knowing your process so that you can repeat the results.

I would love to hear what process all of you have to get your story to paper and ready to be read. Let us know what works for you? Maybe someone will share an idea that will help you get passed the hump.
 
I may as well go first.

I usually spend a good amount of time listening to music, reading about new topics or just observing everyday life. I jot down ideas in evernote or some note taking device...i have things scattered all over...even in actual paper notebooks. I actually got an idea for a story today based off a song title I saw when looking for music for a client edit.

Listing everything, even things I want to try or experiment is my approach. When something sticks I go to concept phase and start brainstorming lists of possibilities based off of my original idea. When i feel i have something, I figure out my characters. I have started giving my characters goals and defining their character traits before I start writing a word of the actual script.

Once that is done I move on to the outlining stage...I am experimenting with what I call a story map for a rewrite so we will see how that goes.

When my outline is done then i start writing...sort of. I try to figure out the scene level goals before writing the scene and I make a list of escalations. If I'm feeling anxious I may write the scene with a note to revisit it if I feel it was week.

I do this until I finish, then take a break before going back to reread what I wrote a start rewrites. This has worked for me so far but the hiccup I mostly have is in my rewrite phase. If you got ideas I'm willing to give them a try. My problem is I get sidetracked in doing something else...oftentimes a new idea.
 
I guess I need to have a creative process for writing. I have one for music. Writing is something I have to discipline myself to do. I have to break my habitual behaviors and routines or development new ones. I wake up. Make coffee, read the news, check for spammers on the websites, .... on the weekends it varies but there is a pattern. If I want to get any real amount of writing work done I need to change this. I have a few ideas that I think make great stories and movies and I know the beginning, middle and end but I have only a few pages done for each actually done and they need to be edited.
 
Last edited:
I keep thinking writing these stories out should be like I read books. I will read some one day and then a little more and once I get into it I will read it faster and read more of it each day until it's finished.
 
I don't have a process for getting an idea, but when I do, I do to my basement and act out the story with myself. I usually start at the climax of my story. As I figure out the climax with these characters I get all these ideas for plot points and things that can happen, as many of them are being resolved in this point. Then I go and I figure out the beginning of my story, and fill in the gaps. I don't go through it chronologically when I am figuring out the story, I just work on different scenes, and then I will act the whole thing out to myself. Then I go and write it out.
 

Network Sponsors

Back
Top