I suspect that questioner thinks writing should be pure flow and inspiration. It's not. It is work.

I've said it before, writing is 10 percent sex and 90 percent mopping the floor. Sometimes it is fun, groovy and brimming with feelings of elation. Most of the time it's like cleaning the bathroom. You do it, to get done.

How do you write?

You sit down. You write.

Are your fingers capable of grasping a pencil or keyboard? Can you physically type? If so, do it. Letters will appear, then sentences, and so on...

If you can't use self-discipline, you will never be a writer.

It really is that simple.

Sometimes it's hard as hell. It feels like your story is crap, your characters are weak, the dialogue is trite. But you honestly just have to keep writing and you'll make your way over the humps. The most satisfying days are the ones when you didn't feel it at all, and you wrote 10 pages just from pure hard work. Like a lot of baseball pitchers say they appreciate the days when they didn't have their best stuff but still found a way to win.

The simple answer is: Butt in chair. Wifi OFF. No distractions. FORCE your characters to speak to you.

I think a big part is fear of not getting it right and the other fear is starting something so large and daunting.

Best thing to do is write a little everyday. What's seldom done in writing is practicing. We all expect to be able to just write an entire script from scratch with no more experience than school writing.

There are books and websites that have writing prompts. Just write a short scene based on a prompt. Start playing with words and the order of the words. Creating a scene or snippet of an interaction. That creates a sense of accomplishment and eases the weight of writing.

A couple things that work for me:

- Embrace who you are. For a long time I thought, "oh, I'll go to the gym in the morning and get it out of the way." Uh uh. No, sir. I'm a night owl. Once I embraced it, I stopped fighting myself. Accentuate strengths. I'm now able to set realistic expectations. Which leads me to...

- Accept that it's a process of going "from suck to suck less." Fight the inner perfectionist that wants it to be 1) perfect from the get-go and 2) done in as few sittings as possible. Easier said than done, true...

But setting goals and self-imposed deadlines helps. "I'm gonna finish an Act per month" or "I have to finish five pages before watching this week's 'Breaking Bad'."

I haven’t written much but I don’t start a story till I have an ending which excites me.

When I have that settled I cook up different versions of my story and narrate it amongst friends testing their expressions. Based on the reactions which I get I keep the interesting parts and remove the less interesting parts.

Once I have all of that settled it becomes easy. That's when I start typing and adapting it for the visual medium.

If you're someone like me then there are 20 things running in your head just before you have to actually sit down and write, 15 of which spell nothing more than the fear of failing.

Personally, i need to calm my mind and get some control over my breath and my focus, so i begin by reading for about 15-20 minutes, could be a script, a novel, a blog anything that forces my mind to focus and then i quikcly shift to the actual writing and don't let go till i have done some of the required work.

Occasionally, on bad days, i have to repeat this process three to four times a day.

Not that I'm reading this post while trying to persuade myself to write, or anything... but let's just say it's timely!

I've found that the advice to start with a task (such as finishing a scene already started) really useful. Editing or polishing the scene I finished with the night before can be useful too - anything to break the seal on the day's writing!

I try to prepare as much as possible before I sit down and write. I plan my script, think about my characters, make a rough sketch for every scene.

Then it floats when I write. Well, more or less. Right now I'm here instead of writing.

It demands a lot of disciplineto write. I have no idea why, because I love it and it should be easy. But still I want to do anything but write.

I think it has something to do with the dream vs reality. In my dreams I know what to write and it becomes the best thing ever written. When I sit down to actually write I have too much to live up to.

Everyone, I just want to thank you for your comments. Each carries a nugget of wisdom and collectively packs a wallop. If I have time, I think it would be great to delve into each of your strategies / tips in a series of posts about this subject. I suspect there are a lot of folks who confront this 'beast' more often than they care to admit. Your insights provide some 'ammunition' in that fight. Thanks!

The important thing is to get the first draft done and out of the way. Then you've got something of substance on paper, so when you're writing you're not confronting a blank white page, rather dialogue or descriptions that need tweaking.

The first draft is the main battle, after that things get easier and your 'genius' is more likely to transcribe to paper in rewrites.

These are great. Finding myself in a similar position which even has me wanting to read less about writing. The frustration level is at an all-time high.

It's like I'm sabotaging myself. I have this story I want to write. It's not like the others I liked for a week and then hated. It's special, and maybe a part of me, somewhere deep inside, is afraid I'll mess it up.

Why?

I find when I'm in a distractionable "oh look, something shiny on the internet!" phase, I'll take a character from the script I'm working on and just write them into a normal scene with a problem. How do they order coffee when there's no milk? How do they handle telemarketers if they feel it's rude to hang up? What do they complain about when they're out with friends?

I'll end up with a couple pages of blathering, but it'll warm me up, get me in the groove and more times than not, a line or two will make it into the script. It once led to a one-act play...

First time commenter..

I have done many things to get myself to write. But the most important and useful for me is --

On the wall is a one-page scene from my current screenplay. The final polished version of A SCENE. ANY SCENE.

Right next to it is the rough draft of the same scene. 2-3 pages of overwritten, exposition-laden, go-nowhere purple prose.

If you did it once, sure as hell you can do it another 75 times.

And the key is to refresh the scene on the wall every time you take a fugly scene and make it less fugly.

This is something I think most writers struggle with but seldom like to admit. For me, I have learned that my procrastination is plain fear of failure. I think most writers are perfectionists, gods of their own little worlds. And if you're not trying, at least you're not failing. So, my advice is in line with Scott's- find the story that you can't get out of your head. That way when you're procrastinating, at least you are still working the story out in your mind. Some of my greatest breakthroughs have come while taking a shower, drifting off to sleep or walking my dog. And I give myself full credit for those moments. Writing doesn't always have to be butt in seat, as long as you end up getting it on the page at some point.

Just allow yourself to suck. Or at least give yourself a reprieve from having to be great.

For me, the vastly more satisfying element of creation is not the initial brain dump, but the molding of those first ideas and impressions into an actual story and characterswho can then proceed to make others feel the emotions you intend.

@dabba: Thanks for that. And welcome to the participating GITS community.

Again thanks to everyone including those who have posted after my last comment. I'm definitely going to use this thread as a basis of a series as there are some great ideas here.

The GITS community is amazing!

Some great, important sentiments here I agree with. I think showing yourself tough love is important. But one thing I've come to understand is very important when you suffer these troubles is this:

Forgive yourself.

It's easy to struggle to write and then to beat yourself up for struggling. Then, when you sit down to write, you're not only wrestling with your difficulties, but wrestling with the guilt, shame, and regret of many days you feel have been wasted. Sometimes, you need that incubation time. Struggling can be part of your process. And just as directors aren't allowed to slip the audience notes that say, "Please bear in mind our budget constraints or necessary last minute casting change," no one cares how you wrote your script. One day, when it's done--and you will actually finish it if you want to--no one will care if your script was written in a week or two years. If it's good, they'll see a good script. Your struggles are private. You need to overcome them alone, but they don't have to haunt you forever.

Thanks Scott for running this blog and creating a wonderful community.

Folks, any objections from those of you who posted comments here using your thoughts / suggestions as the jumping off point for a series of posts in the next few weeks about how to actually sit down and write? Again some terrific ideas and sentiments, definitely worth spotlighting for the larger GITS community.

Amen to Amos and those who said "expect the struggle..embrace it" I've had this topic on my mind since it was posted and today interviewed a cancer survivor for a video we're doing. He said some things I thought were germane to this conversation:

"Be brave enough to say how you feel...the thing I don't want to lose from this experience is: don't be afraid to try..don't live small...if you have something to say, say it! put it out there and maybe someone can do something great with it that you didn't expect"

There are so many good reasons not to do something. Sometimes, to accomplish anything at all we have to find a reason to do it.

No problems here.

Same here.