Open Forum X response: Insomnia and Coffee are a Great Combination

My best bout of writing came last summer, when I wrote five feature-length screenplays and two one-hour drama tv specs (their quality is yet to be determined). So what did I do when I was writing last summer? 

1. I had jet lag/insomnia.

I had just gotten back from India in May, and I was still on the other side of the clock, so for most of the summer I had a solid block of time from, say, 1am-6 or 7am, when no one was awake except for me.

Night, whether it was last summer or now, is the only time I can really write. Sure, if I have something already outlined and ready to go, I can sit down in the afternoon and get the scene on paper, but I can’t really think through stories, events, or beats, creatively, unless it’s dark outside.

2. I felt like an underachiever… and I was bored.

I was feeling a little self-conscious about the fact that I hadn’t gotten my work visa in Mumbai, so I couldn’t work in India and had to move back home. Going from living it up in India, to returning to the boonies of Williamsburg, Virginia, was pretty depressing.

So this feeling that I had accomplished much less than I had set out to sparked me to write. It was at least something I could do to make up for what I hadn’t done, right?

Also, there is NOTHING to do in Williamsburg. My friends had all moved away, and the Green Leafe Bar is only fun so many times.

3. Malcolm Gladwell

I had just read Outliers recently, and Gladwell said I needed 10,000 hours of work at anything before I’d be really good at it. I freaked, because I definitely want to write and direct my own movies. How would I do that if I was no good at it. So I wanted to put in my time.

4. Coffee and alcohol

My rituals. I love drinking coffee, even though it exacerbates that whole insomnia thing, so I would always have a cup next to me.

Alcohol I usually drank previous to my sitting down and writing. I think it’s great to be a bit inebriated before writing, because it lowers inhibitions. Many scenes I’ve written came out of an intoxicated ‘why the hell not, I can always take it out later.’ Sometimes I do take it out later, sometimes I don’t, mostly I have to proofread for spelling. 

5. Itty Bitty Living Space

I have this… eave, in my bedroom. You know, those slender hallway/slanting roof things that lead to windows but are pretty much useless? I stack books in my eave, so I got in this habit of sitting with my back to the open window, and all my books for research, etc, within arm’s reach. It was convenient, and I couldn’t move too much, which was perfect, because it kept me focused.

When I got tired of sitting against the windowsill, I’d move to my bed to finish up my writing for the night. (By the time I had to move to my bed, I knew I didn’t have many more pages left in me.)

But that is what I do now, at school. I do all my work (except for editing) on my bed. While I’d like to say that it’s where I’m most comfortable and where I have the least distractions, that’s not really the case. I live in the graduate dorms, which have teeny square rooms (if you went to the U of C, think Pierce Tower). So the only real place I have to sit, other than my desk (I hate sitting at desks) is my bed.

Personally, I prefer to be somewhere comfortable, like my room, or at least my house, when I write. I think I’ve only ever written like two pages on a bus, or a plane, and then I get anxious or something. I can never write in a library. I like the comfort of a place that’s mine, where I feel like I can let my hair down, so to say, or, let my mind open up. It sounds weird, but it’s the only way I can explain it. 

6. Music!

When I do anything- cook, clean, work out, read, work, or write- I need music. I like to have a constant soundtrack to my life. When I was writing during the summer I would listen to whatever I wanted while I outlined each of my projects, and then when I knew what I was writing, and I knew what tone I wanted, I’d make a playlist of songs.

The songs usually reflected the tone of the screenplay, or I’d play a specific song, if I wanted to be inspired by a specific mood. Often, I’d put the playlist on repeat while I wrote. I’d get to know the songs so well that they’d become background noise.

7. Outlines

Usually my outlines aren’t very structured, but before I write, I always come up with a numbered list of scenes I want, and then drag them around in different order to see how they’d work the best. It’s always good to have a full page to-do list sitting next to you when you face that oh so blank page.

Internet is definitely a distraction for me, or tv shows, or, the worst, streaming tv shows on the internet. I don’t know how to get away from that. Usually I watch Megavideo until it cuts me off, and then get down to business. Or if I’m just being impossible, I’ll go check out Hulu.

Some of these things have changed since I started school, of course. For example, I haven’t written ANY features since I got to CalArts. Bad Mead. But I have written three shorts, and heavily revised one that I’m going to shoot next semester. I’ve had my hands full otherwise with classes, production, etc, so I’m not going to hate on myself for not doing as much writing. 

But if there’s one resolution I’d like to make for next year, it’s this: I’d like to write one feature per month. That’s not so difficult. If I can write a draft in a week, I can write one in a month. It doesn’t have to be the best thing in the world, it just has to be an idea on paper. 

I’m learning more and more from being in school that everything I do, everything I create will be critiqued, revised, changed, attacked, or in some way made different than the way I imagined it or valued it when it first came out of my head. And that’s okay! The less precious I am about my work being taken apart, the more I can learn, the more I can better my work. And the more work I have, the more material I have to make better.

This is a response to Open Forum X: Searching for the ideal working setup.  Readers are encouraged to pipe in in the comments or at mailbag@stilldependentfilms.com.

Other responses:   Joe