#7-Be observant. I watched a documentary about the Coen brothers recently. Peter Stormare (Grimsrud in Fargo) said his line was, "Let's go to the Pancakes House." He thought it was an error--should've been written "Pancake," singular. When he made the correction, one of the brothers came over and quietly said, "No, no. I heard this guy call it the Pancakes House." Perhaps a tiny detail, but hundreds of tiny, real details from daily observations can make a deeper character, a richer scene and a great script.

Traci, I saw that same documentary, indeed, included it in the Coen Brothers class I take, and noted the exact same item: "THE Pancake House." You are so right, be observant. I've got a post in the works about this precise subject inspired by - of all people -- Louis C.K. More soon.

It's funny. I used to be a night person. I still think I might be if I were a full-time writer. But I have to say, after maintaining a morning routine for a few years now, I really like it. There's just something about the atmosphere in the morning that you can't get at night. Everything is so new, refreshing, alive, and there's so much optimism with the way your mind works. I don't feel pressured. I know I have the whole day ahead of me and that calms me. Sadly, I can somewhat agree with No. 5. I say sad because I have family members who struggle with substance abuse, but when it comes to writing it certainly has its benefits (i.e. stress relief). So I guess "strategic" is good way to put it.

Kalen, your comments reminded me of an interview I read with writer-director Robert Rodriguez and excerpted here in which he discussed how he switched from night to morning writer:

“I had the worst schedule on Spy Kids, and I didn’t figure it out until the rewrite. I kick myself for not having figured this out years ago. I’d be so much more prolific. I have a writing system now that works fantastic. What threw me is that I’m a night guy. I can’t get up early in the morning. I love waking up in the afternoon. I would always write at night, and ideas get worse and worse because you’re falling asleep. When you go to sleep, you say that’s great! When you wake up you say, that sucks! I thought I was a bad writer. But I would read different interviews in “Creative Screenwriting” and it seemed like the most successful writers were morning writers. You’ll clean your toilet before you write. I’m a total procrastinator. You get so distracted. I came up with a method that works great and kills all these birds with one stone. I get to be a morning writer now, and get to avoid something I hate more than writing—which is hard to find. Worse than writing? I hate getting out of bed. It’s so warm and cozy. That first eye-opener is when I pull the computer onto my lap. You can’t even spell your name. But man, talk about focus, all this stuff comes your way. I get great ideas. And your Negative Guy is still asleep. The trick is not getting up to get coffee or other distractions. Hours will fly by. I would put my computer away and the rest of the day would be great. For writing, it’s a better subconscious stage to be waking than falling asleep. I was shocked at how much stuff I got done. Stories, dialogue, characters, all this was coming out. If I had been doing this since Desperado I could have had five novels…. One hour in the morning would turn into three, and I would get more ideas all day long.”

Hey, whatever works!

Infamously, some of the greatest geniuses ever, such as Da Vinci, Beethoven, Tesla and Edison allegedly slept a scant few hours a night: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep

Does that mean I can aspire to greatness? Reminds me of a health club billboard campaign all over L.A. years ago: "You can sleep when you're dead."

Interesting. One other thing I would add (based on my own progress) to today's creative routine thats helpful is tuning out the biggest distraction: the internet so you can remain focused. I use the Freedom app a lot. And I am a bit of a crazy because I schedule my breaks - but since I need my internet reading fix, I schedule an hour in the morning and a little more time during lunchtime just for that after which the net goes off. Also another thing I would add that's become my personal mantra: The more you read the more inspired you get... I am finding this helps me a lot nowadays. I am always reading something now while I work - usually a screenplay but anything to inspire and remind me of the end goal. So in my opinion, writers should always be reading.. because it helps when you are writing A LOT.