Write, write, write

I've just come across the "Malkovich's Mail" documentary - it's in five parts (see below YouTube clips) about fifty minutes worth of something pretty special. Take the time to watch it.

Not in his head, just in his mailbox

The documentary is about the countless of stories trying to get discovered by Hollywood. The doc film makers visit Mr. Mudd Productions (where John Malkovich is a producing partner), find out how incoming queries are handled, then trace some of them back to their creators.

I've seen several comments that consider this documentary depressing, a real downer for beginning screenwriters. Hell no! If you're a newbie then this documentary will show you that it's practically impossible to make it in this crazy business. Yes, true - so what. If that thought stops you then go home now - or start writing novels. But "practically impossible", for us story dreamers, is door that's a crack open. It IS possible. The "practically impossible" happens all the time. And John Malkovich shares one such story, too.

Overall - I find this documentary utterly beautiful. These people write because they believe in their stories - THAT's why we write - because we love to write - if Malkovich actually bites, then that's the icing on the cake. For these portrayed writers, a door opened. And John Malkovich read their words! How friggin' cool is that!?

To me, the test is always the same: "If there wasn't a chance in hell of your script ever getting produced, would you still write?" The true writer will answer with a resounding yes. ... and the unknown writers in this documentary are, in my view, true writers.

You're a screenwriter with a passion, of course you're important. But you and your passion for the story are still just a small slice of the whole cake. There's a whole lot more at stake. It's helpful to occasionally remember all the people who depend on your work.

Cast and crew (and author Craig Russell) on the set of "Brother Grimm"

Above are just some of the people involved in making "Brother Grimm" (aka "Wolfsfährte", a serial killer thriller based on the novel by Craig Russell). The film was shot in 2009 in Germany and premiered in 2010 on Germany's main broadcaster network to excellent ratings (almost six million viewers). Reviews were strong and and one critic wrote about his hope that the broadcaster would have the guts to follow this up with more such thrillers. Luckily, they were eager to continue - and the next film, "Blood Eagle", is currently shooting in Hamburg.

We're not machines. Some of us can write for hours and hours, others write in short spurts. But we all need a break eventually ... and those breaks can be dangerous.

Know when to go, and when to stop.

Have you ever powered through to the end of a scene or sequence, thrilled, happy with it - and then decided that you've earned yourself a break? That is actually the worst moment to take a break. You're likely to struggle to get back into that zone again afterwards. A very simple way of working around this is to stop in the middle. Whenever things are going well, whenever you feel the need for a break coming on - stop in the middle of a scene, in the middle of conversation, in the middle of a shoot-out. It makes continuing after the break very easy.

This isn't quite as easy as it sounds. When you're in the middle of a great scene, everything flows, the dialogue sizzles, the action is brilliant and your every screenwriting fiber screams "Go, go, go!" to reach the end of that scene. You think "I'm on a roll, I'm in the zone!" You think you can't stop now because you're worried that you won't get back into that flow. But give it a try next time you're in the middle.

When you're there, in the midst of that great scene, realize that the perfect moment to place a break has come. Then hang with the family, walk the dog, go shopping, catch a movie, enjoy a long weekend, whatever. And I guarantee you that you'll effortlessly get back into the flow. You'll be aching to continue, to finally finish that great scene. You'll be sitting down after your break - and you'll be smack back in the middle of the scene and it'll scream "Go!" ... and you'll be perfectly charged to oblige.

Me, you - we're the ones. The ones sitting alone in our writer's cave, glowing, brooding, despairing and just good old laughing and crying along with our imaginary characters in our make believe worlds. Can be tempting to just stay in there - but that'll doom every chance of our stories ever becoming films.

Don't forget Tonto.

We're the lone writers and we love it - who's kidding who. We get to not just play God - we get to BE God - we make believe so damn well we believe it ourselves (we better, if we didn't, why should the readers believe it?). When we write we're the Lone Ranger - and there's not even a Tonto bugging us on our path to completed first draft glory.

I have to admit - I'm one of those - I love my time, my quality time, my solitary time. The time leading up to a completed first draft is truly the reason why I write screenplays. But with eight of my screenplays having been produced to date, I know that the solitary time is just one slice of the whole pie. The much larger chunk is about collaborating, about being flexible, about being able to deliver again and again against impossible deadlines and story and character developments that couldn't be further from your treasured first draft. I quickly figured out how to keep sane with this - wrote about it here.

If you're anything like me, then events like the London Screenwriters' Festival are perfect for you. I attended the 2011 edition just one week ago and it was a firework of equally twisted minds, a smorgasbord of effortless networking and an extravaganza of knowledge sharing. For three days I completely let go of "the lone ranger me" and talked to one and all about the world of screenwriting. The greatest takeaways for me personally were making new friends and meeting old ones. I met some amazing new talents, I hooked up with some powerhouse networkers and I spent quality time with some great people I'll probably work with sometime in the future.

So listen up - if you haven't made it to the 2011 edition - I can only urge you to make time in 2012 - attend the London Screenwriters' Festival - it'll do you a ton of good.

... you know what? The solitary time is still my favorite time - and that won't change. But one thing the LSF has done for me is that it completely opened my eyes to social media. When I attended the 2010 edition, I had only just begun to learn about socmed. Today I have my own blog (you're here and thanks for visiting), my dedicated Twitter account @dmeckhart, my screenwriting Facebook page and useful connections into Reddit, StumpleUpon and more. This is, without a doubt, a far better time for us writers. We can have the cake and eat it, too. We can have our precious solitary time and, with a single click, open up, network and collaborate all we want.

Now - networking and collaborating are essential - but they're useless unless you have the written word. So remember to turn off the social media world once in a while to focus on what this is all about - your story. Do it now - sign off and then write, write, write!