My mum always used to say to me, “More haste, less speed.”  I never really got it when I was young, I just thought it was annoying!  Now I get it. Sorry, Mum. 

If you dive headlong into something without some idea of what you are going to do then you end up creating more of a mess that takes you longer to undo than if you had learnt first and implemented second.

There is a counter argument to this that I see at Rebel Business School all the time where people have been thinking and planning an idea for years without ever implementing!  I am not there yet!

There is a middle ground where you are prepared and ready to go, you know what you are going to do, and you have done the groundwork ready to start!

For me the groundwork is 3 fold:

1. Read the course to prepare.  There is an art to screen writing and I have never done it before so I need some guidance on getting it right!
2. The movie industry seems particularly anal about its formatting.  As you are probably aware if you have read any of my articles on here, I don’t really care about spelling or the formatting – I care about the message! So job number 2, which is completely against my personality, is to learn the software/style/formatting, ready to write
3. Character development.  I read today that preparation is key with the characters.  If you spend time developing believable characters with a rich backstory they will come alive on the page and when you are writing the screen play.  If you get it right then they will guide you through the scenes!  So I have to spend time developing my characters before I even write a word of dialogue!

For someone as driven as me to get shit done this is a little bit frustrating but I know I will get more out of the experience if I put in the groundwork!

Day 5 – Friday
I really got into the writing today and found a glimpse of what I could really achieve!  I managed to get myself to 30 pages of a screen play!  

There is a rule of thumb in screen writing that it is about 1 minute per page so if you are looking to write a 90 minute screenplay then 90 pages should be there or thereabouts!  I was so pumped; a third of the way there!  WOW.  I didn’t want the weekend to come.  I just was buzzed to keep writing!  It took 4 days to really get going but once I had started, I didn’t want to stop!

It has been an intense first week with a lot going on!  Reflecting back, here is what I have learned:

1. There is power in just starting – the moment I actually got down and wrote was the moment it flowed.  The pre-work of creating the characters and having a direction helped massively but the progress came when I just sat at my keyboard and started typing.  The first day I actually started writing I created 10 pages, which was my daily target to have it done in a month!  Starting was painful but once you get going………..
2. Slow down to speed up (but not too much) – you can read about this above
3. Overanalysis is paralysing – I was starting to talk myself out of doing this by studying too much, reading too much, learning too much.  The more I studied, the more I realised I didn’t know and the more my confidence got hit!  I started to really get myself nervous that I couldn’t do it!  This all changed in the power of starting. 
4. The cognitive load of moving to a new place – it is amazing the energy it takes just figuring out how to get around, where to buy groceries and stuff when you move to a new place.  Routine keeps you safe and allows you the mental space to make sure you focus on writing.  The first few days I was exhausted just working out how to operate in a new place!
5. You can get sidetracked so easily – it is SO EASY to lose focus.  There were so many shiny new things this week to take away my focus from what I came here to do!  There was Rebel blowing up with PBS News Hour, deals in France, Morocco and then the offer of a TV show as well!  Staying focused on the most important task at hand is really, really tough!  I wrote a whole blog post here on staying focused. 

I think it has been really good for me to start something completely new.  It has shifted me out of my comfort zone, allowed me to experience a beginner’s mind again and I have developed a whole new appreciation for how hard it is to get going on a new project.  I think all these things will help me in my work at Rebel and give me new content and ideas to share with you. 

• Number of words: 5,487
• Number of paragraphs: 671
• Number of Pages: 30

That is nearly a third of a screenplay, baby! 

I feel like I have made good progress but I am worried that the days are slipping away.  Maybe my expectations are too high but I thought I would have been further along already.  Why haven’t I written a whole script yet!?!?!?

I will report back next week with more. In the meantime, if you would be interested in helping me with comments on my script then I would love to hear from you.  I think I have realised that I am going to need help to make this script as good as it can be!

If you are up for having a read and passing comments then let me know.

Have a great week and I will write more next week.