Finally back behind the pen. Need help filling in the blanks! Please

So you have your beginning and end? Why not do some character work? Get to thinking about your characters a little. Make some notes on their background. This will help you discover the information that will be explored in those gaps. I'll copy the questions I work with below. I'm no renowned writer but its a start

(I have two versions, depending on how important the character is or the general mood of the day)

LONG VERSION:

CHARACTER BIO
Name
Age

1) Role in the Story:
2) Key Relationships in the Story:
3) General Appearance/Style:
4) Style of Speech:
5) Social Class:
6) Education/Skills/Work History:
7) Goals/Motivations:
8) Interests:
9) Quirks:
10) Pet Peeves:
11) Sex/Romance:
12) Greatest Fear:
13) Deepest Flaw:
14) Principle-Forming Childhood Experience:
15) Lowest Point in Life Before the Story:
16) Morality/Ethics:
17) Personal Heroes:
18) View of His/Her Self:
19) Views of other Characters:
20) Wants vs Needs:
21) “I Want” Speech: <-- this is an exercise you write a speech that can be on the nose, something that won't be in the script, but the character gets honest with them self about what they really want out of life, pretty cool exercise I learned from one of my old professors



SHORT VERSION:


CHARACTER BIO
Name
Age

1) Role in the Story:
2) Key Relationships in the Story:
3) General Appearance/Style:
4) Style of Speech:
5) Social Class:
6) Education/Skills/Work History:
7) Goals/Motivations:
8) Greatest Fear:
9) Deepest Flaw:
10) View of His/Her Self:
11) Views of other Characters:
12) Wants vs Needs:


I hope this helps.

718films said:

It's becoming so hard to sit down and write!!

Click to expand...

It's the discipline that counts. Write every day, even if it's total dreck. You'll hit a day (or days) when it all comes together, then it becomes elusive again. But as you continue with the discipline the better days will start to add up, and all of a sudden there's some really nice stuff in there with the trash, and you'll have more frequent better days.

Another exercise is to pick names from the phone book or faces on the street and make up brief bios/stories about them. Do the same with locations; what happened there? And there are the usual "break out of the rut" diversions - go to museums, historical sites, live theater; go places you normally wouldn't go, do things you normally wouldn't do, etc.

Creative constipation is always a trial.

Your film narrative will probably be linear but, as you suggest, writing doesn't have to be. What works to motivate me is to choose a few juicy, super cool scenes I know you have in your head and can't wait to write, and write those first. Now you've got a goal: catching up to that scene with your writing. Sure, the cool scene will probably have to be revised by the time you get to them, but at least it's a goal.

And don't worry, the middle of a script is always the swamp you're trying to drain while up to your asshole in alligators. That's true of almost every writer. Push on through!