Just do it!! Otherwise...

Do you know how to tell a successful person from a unsuccessful one? The main difference is the way that they speak about their goals. And this applies to anything! This is about screenwriting but can be about wanting to lose weight (going to the gym or going on a diet), writing on a blog or any goals you may have. The difference between both people is that the unsuccessful ones say: "One day i will do this" "I hope to do this" and the winners set a time limit on their goals.
You wanna know something, that day will never come! The reason people say it is to not be responsible for their words, gives them a way out. There's never failure in "someday", that's the way out, but in return, you'll never be successful!
Now, if you place a time limit on the goal you want to achieve, it's the first step. Losers hate this because they hate failure, successful people are not afraid of failing because that's what they learn from. Every successful person will have allot of stories on how they tried and failed and how they learned from it.
So my advice is for you to just stop talking about how you want to "someday" do it, and start now. Go to one of my previous posts about how to start with your ideas and turning them into something. Just plan your goals, set a time limit/ deadline and get right to it.
Failure to plan, you're planning you're failure.

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Great Screenplay Story Ideas - Now what?

So, you have this Idea that just hit you for a movie screenplay. It interests you and you know exactly why it would interest others. You know the genre you're going to write about. But, before you start writing the draft, you have to analyze the Idea you had in the first place and think about the possibilities and other details to take in consideration.

-If your idea was sparked by an event, how did you find it? Was it reading the local newspaper? a magazine article? Your friend told this story? It can be anything, anything out of the ordinary that you could make it work cause everything happens for a reason, and by using your imagination, just wonder with the possibilities.
-Was your idea about a character? Well, research is needed: Someone caught your eye that you thought was intriguing? If you read about a character in a book, you may do some historical research and find fact about her. If it's someone you know, you may watch that person closely or you may even try to schedule an interview.
-Did your idea come from a conversation with a friend? or just something you overheard while sitting in the park? It doesn't matter if you overhear something from someone that you don't know or with a friend, conversations are always a great way to have your imagination going with vivid images of the situations that are being chatted about.
-Was it sparked by a location? A great scenic view of a lake or river, mountains or even a city can always trigger something. When i talk about location, i mean anywhere. something funny that happens in your office, A proposal at the rooftop of a 13th floor building while the sun is setting etc... Just note all the little details of that image: smell, layout, lighting, colors and sounds.
-Maybe from other art related material like pictures, paintings, museums, books, poetry... What inspired you by it? the poet that was spilling his heart on the paper, the tight streets on a small street in a small town of Italy...

Your work may start where another artist ended.

Also visit: http://www.armandocabral.com/2009/03/getting-idea.html for some great additional information.

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What is a Treatment

You have an idea for a movie. A good idea. Maybe the best anyone's ever had. You've seen what's showing at the mall and, Lord knows, you can do better. You'll raise the money and produce your own film! Overwhelmed by your own ambition, you decide to just write it and ship it off to Spielberg. Yeah. He'll love it.
The storyline has been brewing for a long time now in your mind. The couple of friends bright enough to comprehend the significance of your idea have agreed that you've got a real winner. But they're gone now. They're home watching a game on TV, or cuddling it up with their special cozy while you, driven, misunderstood and lonely, sit and stare at your cold computer, willing something to happen after those magical first two words: FADE IN.

Agents, producers and movie studios receive hundreds of screenplays every year. Because of this, rarely does the buyer have the time to read each one without having some idea of what they are about to look at; hence the treatment becomes a very important selling tool. Atchity and Wong state that "second only to writing an entire screenplay or teleplay on 'spec', your treatment maybe the best tool for getting a foot in the door of moviemaking.
You need to write a "treatment". It's your first step and Step #1 is so simple you're going to feel embarrassed that you ever let it intimidate you. You wouldn't start assembling ingredients to cook a dish unless you knew what dish you're preparing; you wouldn't start out on a trip without knowing your destination. Don't start writing your screenplay until you know how your story ends!
TALK YOUR STORY OUT ON PAPER. That's all there is to it. Easy? Sure it is. You just start talking it out the way you'd talk it out with your best friend, letting it flow onto the word processing screen, or onto paper, or whatever. Don't worry about how it sounds or about the words you're choosing and, for heaven sakes, don't worry that it doesn't look like a script. That comes later. Right now, it more resembles a letter home. Once you get the entire story on paper, the beginning, the middle and the end, go back and edit. Spruce it up, tighten it, make it glow. Make sure it sounds a lot like what you'd say if you were telling someone about a wonderful movie you just saw. You wouldn't burden them with tedious he said-she said details. They'd fall asleep. And so will your reader. Just hit the glorious highlights, but in a logical sequence of events.

Go here for a sample treatment(they're not that easy to find online):
http://members.tripod.com/~e-luttrell0/scripttreatment-2.html

Another Treatment sample website (this one is my favorite because you can actually download the PDF!!):
http://www.scripthollywood.com/id28.html

Go here also:
http://www.filmmakers.com/features/screenwriting/treatment.htm

Hopefully this will be helpful to you!

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ScreenWriting Motivation

A nice video I found with quick tips and advice from Mr. Ackerman. Motivation is always needed for us writer with limited time.

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Prioritizing

You're working a full time job and have alot of responsibilities in your daily/personal life. At night, after a long day at work, run errands etc... you doze off on your couch watching TV. And you dream of being a writer, 24/ 7 365 days a year? I do too.
All day we tell ourselves that we're going to write when we get home but when we finally get home from work, we're tired and sometimes de-motivated. Trying to arrange some time, but it's never enough without dropping other responsibilities.

Here are some tips, to, use any and all time that you may have available whether you're at work or other places where you could be jotting down ideas:
-Carry a notebook with you at all times. Sometimes the bus can be late, the client doesn't show to a meeting or you are stuck in traffic and a great idea pops into your head.
-Get a voice recorder.
At home:
-Write when you can. Prioritize your free time. Instead of watching tv or doing useless internet browsing just finish that outline, read your draft again, research your character's backstory. Basically, use your time wisely and work on your project. Everybody says "write everyday" but it doesn't happen that way. Write often as you can. Try to block your time
-Schedule a time block to write and let everybody in your family and friends know that, for example, sunday mornings from 8am to 11am you are writing and yo cannot be disturbed.
-Read other screenplays. READ!!! Read books about screenwriting. READ!!
-Don't lie to yourself. Just do it.

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ScreenWriting

I always wanted to start this sort of blog.
One of the purposes is to help people with their own screenwriting, or any writing. The reason is, when doing my research, i found that the internet has any and all information that you need but the problem, is that, it's scattered and is very hard to find stuff without wasting time, and like me, i know that time is not on your side and that any minute that we could be writing instead of browsing for useless information, is worth it.
In this blog i will have tips, techniques and other stuff that helped me write in several situations and in different projects.
Hopefully this will be helpful to you.

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