“How To Beat Writer’s Block”

I am currently working on a short film script, but I’m unable to complete it. What should I do?

Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek on Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado
Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek on Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado

If you want to continue your career as a writer, then you need to go back into your script. Make sure your main character has a goal. Organize it so that you have a unifying theme, a main character, an antagonist (can be a person or a volcano or a radical political leader, etc.) or villain (in fiction, villains represent evil without any redeeming characteristics). The antagonist or villain must seek the same goal your main character is seeking. The difference between them is that the antagonist or villain represents a negative or evil way of doing it. Also, make sure you have a beginning, a middle and an end to your story. This doesn’t mean that it has to be in chronological order, just that you must have this in your script. Also, read your dialogue. Film is a visual medium, so you should strive to show in place of telling. Some dialogue can be changed to visuals in place of the dialogue. During this process, you will find that you will be able to complete your script with vim and vigor!!!

“Theme, Characters, Story Elements”

"Unconditional Love is Universally Paramount."
“Unconditional Love is Universally Paramount.”

by
Donald L. Vasicek

All entertaining and creative writing springs from the writer’s ability to tell a story. And this story doesn’t have to be fiction. All effective writing springs from putting the story together in a coherent fashion.

A story must have a beginning, a middle and an end, and not necessarily in that order, but those three elements must “be there” in order to make what you are writing effective. The story must have a defining theme. A defining theme is the main theme of the story.

For example, if the story is about an apple, then everything in the story must relate directly, or indirectly to the apple. If the apple begins its life in the tree in the story and its struggle in the story is to become an full grown apple, then elements must be introduced in the story like the weather, the human being, the animal, etc. that are trying to prevent the apple from becoming a full grown apple.

It is the apple’s job in the story to fight and defeat each one of these “opponents”, with one of these “opponents” being the main threat to the apple. The main opponent should reflect what the apple wants, to become a full grown apple, but the main opponent, which is the villain or antagonist in the story, depending upon if the writer is telling a story about a fight between good and evil (villain) or a story that represents a competitive force (antagonist) to the apple’s goal.

This, then, introduces conflict, and without conflict in any story, there is no drama, and if there is no drama, there is no story, just a series of sentences that are saying something about the apple. And this could be where many writers are at in their writing dilemma. You must tell a compelling story that the reader can relate to on an emotional level, or you will lose the reader before they finish reading what you have written.

Get on the right track by “being yourself” in your writings. That is vital to be effective in your writing. So, what you need to do is rethink your approach to your writing style, perhaps rewrite something you have written utilizing the above suggestions.

If this resonates with you, good! If it does not then, I am hopeful that you continue your quest to be an effective writer. You’re never not that far off. You just needs to shift your writing a bit and you’ll be on your way!

Best Regards,
Don Vasicek