“Just write the next word”

Words of writing wisdom from screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan.

This quote below comes from screenwriter Anna Hamilton Phelan whose film credits include Gorillas in the Mist and Girl, Interrupted.

“If I could say anything… it is to keep going. Don’t go back and fix that first scene. Don’t go back and fix that dialogue. Write yourself a little note saying, ‘Put in first scene such-and-such,’ if you happen to think of something, then get a little stickum and stick that somewhere on the wall. But don’t go back, because going back is a trap. It keeps you from going forward. It keeps you from going ahead. Your first enemy, of course, is yourself. Yourself is also that little critic that sits on your shoulder that says, ‘This is terrible’… You have to wipe him off your shoulders and keep going. He’s the one who says, ‘Go back. Go back’… You must get it down on paper…. you must sit down and write with no attachment to outcome. Try to distance yourself from what’s going to happen to this… No attachment to outcome. I don’t know where I ever heard it, but I put it on a little piece of paper, and I had it framed. I have it right in front of me. When I get bogged down I say, ‘No attachment to outcome. Don’t worry about what’s going to happen to this. Just write the next word.’”

Here’s the thing: More scripts end up unfinished than reach FADE OUT. With that in mind, let’s extract some wisdom from Phelan’s quote:

• “If I could say anything… it is to keep going.” Print it. Post it at your desk.
• “Don’t go back, because going back is a trap. It keeps you from going forward. It keeps you from going ahead.” Every writer is different, so some of you will absolutely need to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite your pages as you go along. Fine. If that is part of your core essence as a writer, go with God. But most of us plebians know full well what Phelan is saying: You go back, you open up a door called miasma, a swirling, whirling shit-storm of uncertainty and indecision that can lead to… dead… stories. Always. Move. Forward.
• “Your first enemy, of course, is yourself. Yourself is also that little critic that sits on your shoulder that says, ‘This is terrible’… You have to wipe him off your shoulders and keep going.” Again print it. Post it at your writing station.
• “‘No attachment to outcome. Don’t worry about what’s going to happen to this. Just write the next word.’” This is just profound. While we can dream about a million dollar spec script sale as motivation, if we attach ourselves to that, that attachment can absolutely strangle creativity. Instead of thinking about the things we should be thinking about — characters, plot, themes, dialogue — those visions of the Porsche 911, Hollywood Hills home and seven figure deals can distract you from where your focus should be and worse put pressure on every… word… we… write.

When you are writing a first draft, you simply do not need that pressure. Rather you need another way of thinking about it:

“Just write the next word.”