To become a writer is a challenge of no other. We have to be able to go to a new place, and block out everything around us. We each have to make a goal, and not be all talk but to do the writing, one day at a time to build our book.
“But you need the room, you need the door, and you need the determination to shut the door.” Stephen King says, “You need a concrete goal as well. The longer you keep to those basics, the easier the act will become.” In his book ‘On Writing’, King describes ways that he became a famous author, and ways we can be writers ourselves.
When asked about beginning to write a story for each of his films, Duane Graves claimed, “There is always one commonality about each of our scripts”. Screenwriter and director Graves added, “the story evolves around a location. That is a town, or a store, or a house.” The question whether he is able to have “access to these places”, Graves told me sometimes is a problem.
How we come up with the characters was another question. “It is a combination. It could be a little bitty characteristic about a person you know or an encounter.” Graves described traits as movements, expressions, or personalities. “It can also be from memories of childhood growing up.”
“My films are a genre.” When asked to clarify more about that, Graves replied, “some call them fringe films or out of the beaten path.” He was meaning his films “are not mainstream”, because they are such a mixture of so many types of films. Graves has co written and directed three motion pictures, and was critically acclaimed for one documentary, along with short films.
And when you are in the process of writing, Jeff Goins writes, “You need a weekly goal. Make it a word count to keep things objective.” Which means, when you start the writing, don’t slow down or take a week off, make it a discipline to stay on a planned schedule.
Whenever you write, you may create new ideas for what’s next and it could even add to your plans of how the book will turn out. But try not to go over your writing as you type it. Just move on to the next page. You won’t make any progress if you keep changing everything.