Be Committed To Your Screenwriting/Film/Life Dream

"Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than to your comfort zone" -Filmtrepreneur Podcast with Alex Ferrari.

Dreams will not manifest out of thin air. Wanting to accomplish a dream without taking serious actions to move forward is basically living in a fantasy. We should never get rewarded for complaining about successful people. Positive people walking the walk deserve credit for investing their energy, effort and time into advancing their dreams. Instead of envying, we should practice respecting.

Envy is dangerous. If we resent what other people earn, we will believe we are entitled to get what we believe we deserve. Judging people for getting ahead can make us cynical. This is a major problem that resides deep down in our core. Jealously is such a negative emotion that creates so much hatred. Blaming other people for what we're not doing will turn us into negative people. Don't live your life having regrets. It is no one's fault that your dream sits on ice.

We must change the way we think to make progress. Allowing comfort to become a mainstay in our daily lives can sink everything. Placing comfort on a pedestal is a dream buster. Complacency is a confidence killer. The moment we fail, we will fall apart. Given this widespread problem, we have to shift our focus away from comfortability to boost our confidence.

Knowing our true identity can unlock everything. Why do we do what we do? Do we have passion? What makes us wake up in the morning? What do we want to accomplish in this life? What will we do to get there? Are we making progress? Is this dream a good fit for us?

Truth is, time is definitely not on our side. Time does not care to wait for us. The world will move ahead without us. If we empower our time, we can transform this life into something truly amazing.

Waking up every day with a purpose to make a true difference in this world can give us a competitive edge. Our heart must be into our dream. Passion and drive must remain constant. Maintaining discipline, determination, resilience, consistency, integrity, persistence and patience will move us closer to our dream life. Committing our time and energy to fuel our dream will put comfort to rest.

Happy screenwriting!

The End. Closure in Your Script

The end of anything good is never fun. Reaching the end of something bad can give us great relief. Sometimes we are not ready to leave our past just yet. We need extra time to heal our hearts and minds: Closure. If you are a screenwriter, “The End” represents a powerful moment to celebrate.

“The End” of many ends... Draft after draft... Sleepless nights.... Many creative thoughts... Lack of support... Criticism... Eventually, there is an end to your screenplay. Screenwriters ponder on that last moment to finish their screenplays. The ending is so important because it can leave an everlasting impression on viewers.

How will you end your masterpiece? What is a good movie ending? Cliffhanger? Happy ending? Sad ending? Bittersweet ending? Redemption ending? The ending is the resolution that ties your story together.

The Third Act should be impactful. Reward the audience. Make “The End” count. The Green Mile has a tearjerking ending. We remember emotional movies that touch our souls.

Spend extra time on the ending. Think of clever ways to close your script. However you choose to end your screenplay, just know “The End” can make or break your story.

The End.

Happy Screenwriting! 

I went to these top Film Schools, so I matter more?

Some film school graduates enjoy reliving their glory days. They believe their film degrees earned at prestigious universities give them the right to put people down. Meanwhile, these so-called filmmakers keep reminding people of their brilliance. They never stop short of insulting people just for the fact that they can. Superiority is a cancer. This condescending behavior is unacceptable.

If you experience negative encounters with film school graduates who have yet to accomplish success, just move past these miserable human beings. Truth is, miserable people are energy vampires. They need your attention, your focus, your life-force to exist. Without your good energy, they lose their power to create conflict. 

As aspiring filmmakers, do not accept negativity in your daily life. You have a choice to live life the way you see fit. Other people can hold you back. They can block your dream. Beware of people who want to ride your wave to success.

I rarely mention that I attended film school. I listen to all people. I never make myself out to be bigger. 

Some people will make you believe that they are the only support you have in your life. They assume. They control. They can acknowledge you one minute, but will break you down the next minute.   

Protect your dream. Remove people who give you daily pressure and stress. Once these people are gone, you will restore your freedom. Believe in yourself. 

Happy screenwriting! 

Humility is A Dying Breed: Social Media Is Ruining Screenwriting

Only a Film Degree--We must work to be screenwriters

We all know humble. We all know braggers. We all know action. We all know inaction...

Social media has casted a negative light on the writing world. On social media platforms, more people talk about the act of writing instead of waking every day to be proactive go-getters. In hindsight, writers once got work done; they completed scripts to option. Unfortunately, social media has turned screenwriting into a dream that is viewed as unreachable.

Screenwriting is an art form. It is also a discipline that requires time, energy and effort. Truth is, finished scripts are appealing to producers. There is little demand for unfinished scripts because they can't be produced. What separates professional screenwriters from aspiring screenwriters: Discipline.

Think about these comparisons: I am working on my degree versus I earned my degree. Any person can be working on a degree; however, only a select few will actually satisfy all the requirements to complete their degree programs.

Screenwriting is made out to be difficult. The real truth is that anything in life can be difficult if we fear the next step. We can make waking up on time to reach work a major challenge. We can make exercising daily an insurmountable task. We can postpone talking to someone we like over the lack of confidence. Placing constraints on our screenwriting will create fear. A large number of people worry about criticism. They automatically assume that receiving criticism is a precursor to failure. Their dream is better shared in forums, on discussion boards, on social media and in real life conversations.

Braggers need to draw attention to themselves. They need this attention to feel worth. The problem with sharing our dreams without doing the work is that we can block access to production. We spend way too much time trying to impress people with our creative ideas. We may post images about what we are supposedly doing, even if we are not actually working hard perfecting our craft. We will ask other writers/people what they think about our ideas so they can praise us. Condescending, bitter and petty attitudes can rule our emotions. We need to prove people wrong all the time. We fake being successful to create that adrenaline rush, that pure excitement of what it's like to accomplish a dream. Nevertheless, we can get carried away with all the attention that our dreams bring us.

Humble writers make movie magic happen. They wake up motivated and inspired to write. They write at their most vulnerable moments. They revise their previous projects. They don't crave attention. They already know their value as human beings choosing to be writers. There is no internal motivation to trick people, unless these themes are injected into characters.

Know the difference between being humble and bragging. If you are working hard, you earned the right to talk about your success. On the flip side, talking about the dream and not taking action to make it happen will delay the inevitable. Don't waste time. Your screenwriting dream will only come true if you do.

Happy screenwriting!


   

Write Descriptive Visuals

What do you see? What will the viewer see? Write descriptive visuals that covey actions without dialogue.

Practice writing less to show more. Cinema is meant to explore visual storytelling. Get into the habit to set the mood in every new setting.

If you follow this approach, your screenwriting will lift off the pages.

Happy screenwriting! 

Write What You Already Know

It is no secret that writing about what you know will increase your excitement to create. Many people assume they have a story to tell, so they try to become that person who will convince writers their lives can make a fortune. When writers ask them to help with the writing process, they say they don't have time. What these people really want is to ride the wave of success without doing any work. Write what you know, not what others want you to do.

We don't have any time to waste. 

Reflect back to all the moments you could have completed screenplays. I'm sure there are many lost opportunities. The past is a common psychological tool that prevents us from living life with peace and happiness. Talking about screenwriting as if we are already working writers in Hollywood will make us appear as faking it until we make it. Don't be one of these people in real life. Writing about someone who is fake in public to protect their true identity in their private life is a good story. Sharing your personal experiences with these fake people, which I have had many in my past, will bring life to your screenwriting to create a compelling screenplay.

Just imagine every situation your dream has created in your life.

Write about the life you lived over the dream you want. Without your dream, you would be living a different life. Maybe this normal life will give you a less stressful lifestyle. However, you would never know what it's like to accomplish a dream. The trap of viewing success as easy instead of understanding the hardship it takes is something to consider in your future scripts.

What events happened along the way? Did you laugh? Get sad? Get angry? Did you lose love? There are so many events in your life that can make good storytelling. We don't have to write these events as is. We all know that true life stories are modified for creative impact.

Get creative with your life stories.

We don't have to write our screenplays as real life experiences. We should use our life as inspiration to create fictional character who maneuver through our life. Teach people important lessons that you learned about your life.

Instead of looking at negative outcomes, focus on what you learned to grow into a better human being.

Tell people about your life. What are you about? Who are you as a screenwriter? What type of stories do you like to tell? What is your message to the world? Write these stories. Share your creative energy. If you learn something new about yourself after writing a script, you did your job perfectly right. Make screenwriting a transformation process. Writing what you already know will light a flame that can help your creativity burn brighter.

Please share your screenwriting experiences in the comment section below. 

Happy screenwriting!

Writing is The Best Practice to Get Better: Overcome Writer's Block

Struggling to work on your screenplay(s)? Lack of motivation to write? There are many screenwriters who experience writer's block. Procrastination is a common problem in the writing world. Don't panic just yet. Don't fear the next word. Everything will work out nicely. Stay true to yourself to trust the writing process.

Why do we experience uncomfortable challenges to do screenwriting? Simple answer: Too many distractions. If we want to delve deeper into writer's block, we can point to confidence, fear and psychological setbacks. We are human beings. We must work to survive this life. We have a past. 

Never allow your mind to control your actions. If you do this, you will reflect back to the past to block yourself. You will self-doubt. You will not believe in yourself. You will find reasons to be unhappy. You will forget about the people who matter most. You will repeat bad habits. Our mind can be our worst enemy--it can stop us from achieving what we believe is possible. 

Writing is the best practice to get better. I didn't learn to write in college. During these educational moments, I did write a lot. However, daily responsibilities would distract me. I continued to push through these barriers, writing more and more to share my passion. I didn't learn to write better without choosing to write daily. Good or bad material, I wrote all of this to remain active. Truth is, we can become our worst critic. Don't judge your screenwriting during the writing process, just flush out all your creative ideas like a fast moving stream.    

My professional writing jobs prepared me to live my future screenwriting career. As a clinical content writer, I took some important lessons my program manager shared with me. He taught me an important lesson about deadlines. I never learned my lesson until I lost this great writing job over procrastination. The program manager made an example out of me. His solution after my big failure: I should be honest to review the project by spending a day on this process to determine how much time is required to complete it. Our word has a lot of weight. If we lack integrity, we will not gain and/or maintain trust. 

While writing academic content, I noticed the value of deadlines. To be truthfully honest, I made my fair share of deadline mistakes. As a result of these challenging moments, I experienced many financial setbacks. I lived a difficult life. For the most part, I needed these failures to help me become self-aware. I now take personal responsibility for my past actions. Nobody is to blame for me postponing my screenwriting goals. I am responsible. I know what I need to do to succeed.   

Admitting that we have problems can save us time. Blaming everyone for our dreams not coming true will delay us. Living with our problems will not advance our dreams. Being brave to confront our problems to resolve them show we want more in this life. Writer's block is like a friend zone. We have to be honest with what we want at the beginning. Our mind can block our passion. Our mind can reject the love we want to experience over unresolved issues. We must realize that we deserve success. 

Writing daily is the key to unlock your screenwriting dream. It is that simple. Breathe screenwriting daily: It is your oxygen to remain alive in a competitive space. Fear blocks most dreams. 

Don't fear the competition. Don't fear success. Don't fear criticism. Don't fear losing your privacy. Don't fear failure. Don't fear writing a bad script. Don't fear that you can actually become someone influential. All of this fear is unwanted pressure and stress; it does not belong in our daily life. We can only control our own actions. Everything above us is out of our hands. 

Lose the need for perfection. Nothing is perfect; everything is flawed. Understand that we can get better at screenwriting by giving extra effort. People who fight back after criticism lack confidence in their dream. Take serious actions to set a schedule. Set goals. Accomplish them. Stephen King writes 6 pages a day. He is consistent to deliver. He does not make his fans wait for his next great story. 

Writing is best done every day. Writer's block happens over distractions that block our mind. There are kinks, tangles and total blocks that restrict creative impulses from flowing in our brain. Unblock everything that is bothering you to realize your greatest potential as a screenwriter. 

Don't think about the next word. Keep writing no matter what, even if it feels totally uncomfortable. If we follow this writing system, we will find the words that we need to write a compelling screenplay. Let writer's block go. 

Happy screenwriting!