HOLLYWOOD—When it comes to writing it is a battle for me. In college, I felt the goal to write on a persistent basis. It was something I wanted, I needed to do and it was important to me. This is NOT to say that I don’t care about writing, I think I care about it now more than ever before, but that inspiration is still lacking. Is it because I don’t have ideas in my head? Nope. Is it because I don’t have the time? Sometimes it feels like it. So what is it?
Inspiration. I think I find that motivation to write consistently when I see a good movie or an inspirational one. Yeah, that sounds crazy, but it is indeed the fact of the matter. I think the last time I recall writing with ferocity was in the summer of 2005. I was in the middle of taking a screenwriting class to finish my college degree as well, but for some reason I had just finished watching a movie, gosh, I wish I can remember what movie it was, I want to say it was “Batman Begins,” but I know I saw that flick in theaters in 2005, but maybe I was just reminded of something people.
Whatever may be the case, I sat at a computer for 2-3 days that week and literally completed an entire script just writing with an intensity I cannot describe. I had the beginning, the middle and the end of the movie already in my head, I just had to get it on paper and I did. Fast forward to 3 years later, 2008, and I see the flick “The Dark Knight” and to this day I still think it is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. It is absolutely in my list of top 10 movies of all time. I write another script just off that inspiration with record speed. Now it is important to note, the script was just a first draft, but anytime you can write an entire script, i.e. a film in just a mere matter of days I always think that is a wonderful thing. It is almost like a challenge. If I watch a great movie, I feel compelled to write a movie just as powerful people.
So it has been nearly 13 years since I’ve truly say at a laptop or computer and wrote with passion. If filmmaking is truly my passion what has been holding me back. With that said, I recently saw the 2022 film “Scream.” It was impressive, not as great as the 1996 flick, but it was a nice entry into the horror genre that has felt quite flat to me as of late, but I got reinvigorated watching the movie. Ideas started to fire off in my head that drove me to write with a purpose again.
I hate that I have to see a movie to feel as a source of inspiration to write, as a writer, but I’m discovering it is the thing that motivates me, it drives me it gives me that extra gusto that I sometimes need to place my ideas on a piece of paper people. I’m realizing when that ‘energy’ to write comes to me, I cannot sit on it, and I just have to let those ideas flow and not halt them. I think inspiration when it comes to writing can come from a multitude of places rather its people, TV shows, movies, a situation, news, politics, whatever, inspiration is inspiration people.
Who would have thought a sequel, remake or reboot, whatever you want to call it to a horror film would be the inspiration for the next movie idea that had been circulating in my head, but I wasn’t sure how to connect all the dots on a piece of paper? I didn’t, but I’m glad it happened. It reminds me that I have tons of ideas, some more clever, intuitive and original than people could ever imagine. It is all up to me to actually get those things on paper before what is in my mind dissipates and the excuses that I have been making are just that excuses people.
