I’ve been sitting at my computer for probably an hour. The screen is a white blank document and the key keeps flashing telling me to type something. I try to think of what’s new going on in my life. Do I talk about my back pain? Nah, too soon. Do I talk about bringing my girlfriend home from college? I should, but I’m going to hold off on that for a special occasion. Maybe I could talk politics……
Fuck that. I’m not THAT desperate.
Ugh, the stress is killing me. I am just a boring person? Whatever it is, everyone always has a story to tell, so it can’t be THAT bad.
Then it hit me like a wave crashing over my head. How do you approach writer’s block or facing a brainstorming issue? How do you approach trying to create something when you can’t think of that idea that will be the inception of your project?
Looking back on my time in high school and film school, times where I’ve been challenged to push the limits of my creativity, there have been one ingredients that my instructors have provided me with that has helped me each time. As ironic as it sounds, it’s simply rules.
Don’t get me wrong, some rules are meant to be broken while others are simply golden rules and MUST be followed. However, having rules or limits can help us narrow down the wide range of ideas that we have going in our heads. Constraining one’s self to certain rules and limits help us become more imaginative and creative. It helps us understand what will work versus what doesn’t work. It makes us ask, “What are my options?”
I think about one of my first assignments in my screenwriting class in college, and the directions were that we were to come up with a script less than 5 pages long that had no dialogue. I was able to complete the assignment, but after long contemplation on what I could do and executing how practical it was did I only come up with the end product which was a story of two brothers helping each other reach the cookie jar in their kitchen late in the middle of the night.
Do you have any examples yourself? Feel free to comment below or e-mail me below, as I would love to compare stories!
