Screenwriting 101: J.F. Lawton

“Writing is something that’s very inner. You examine your own feelings. In martial arts, you’re examining your own body. You’re examining the way that you move and questioning your instinctive way of doing it as opposed to the proper form way. There must be a lot of writers who are into martial arts because writing requires enormous self-discipline. Nobody wants to sit in front of a computer and type and invent stuff. Everybody’s got an idea for a script, but there aren’t that many people who can actually sit down and write one. It takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline. It’s the same thing with martial arts. It really takes some self-discipline to push yourself beyond your limits physically and mentally.

If you get into a situation, or you’re working with a sword, and you lose concentration and let your mind wander, you will get hurt. Likewise, when you’re writing, you have to keep the focus. Especially, if you want to write anything good, you have to be in the moment, you have to stay focused on the material. It’s very difficult at times. Writing is rewriting. To reread your thing objectively, and be right back to where you were but also modifying it at the same time, takes a lot of mental discipline too… and there seems to be a connection.”

— J.F. Lawton

How They Write a Script

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