Now that I’m getting back into Screenwriting (and blogging), I wanted to write about one of the problems that’s plaguing me with my writing. Paralysis by analysis or analysis paralysis . This is a big problem for me. I think to much about what I’m about to write and then over analyze it the point of frustration. If I don’t give up at that point – most times I do – I start to “research” which turns into surfing the Internet then into watching TV. Afterwards I’m always upset that I walked away.
Another example would be reading Screenwriting books or information on screenwriting. While this isn’t bad, I tend to hope and think that inside those pages there will be that one gem that will get me out of the funk and help fix whatever problem I’m having with plot or whatever it is. In reality, it just a form of procrastination. I’m always looking for answers to something that hasn’t been written yet, when I’m sure if I start writing the answers will come. Sometimes you have to just jump of that cliff and build your wings on the way down.
I learned this by starting another blog. The idea was simple. The execution shouldn’t have taken as along as it did, but I got caught up in the idea. This is where most of my projects stall. What was different about starting that blog was I decided to just do it. If it failed so what. How many blogs start and stop on a daily basis? The risk of failing was minimal. I had everything I needed. The only thing holding me back was actually writing the blog.
When I first started taking a stab at Screenwriting, it was all about the writing. The first thing I wrote was a color coded 25 page scene in Microsoft works. I knew nothing about Screenwriting and better yet I feared nothing. There is a quote by Alec Bourne that says; “It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated.” Relating to this issue, for me it means, just write. Put down the book. Forget proper format (until you’re done 
). All the books, articles and seminars will help you learn more but they don’t help you do the one thing that should come easy. Writing. How do you handle this?
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Cecil,
It looks like the writing bug bit us both at the same time. I just returned from a conference yesterday where one of the speakers spoke about writer’s block. She endorsed the idea of clustering and proposed it as a solution to writer’s block. It’s an interesting exercise but the stuff that explodes out of your head can be just as overwhelming as staring at a blank Word document.
I’m happy I found you again and look forward to reading what you’ve been up to.