3 Great Techniques For Letting Go and Letting the Writing Flow

Recently, I wrote about some of the difficulties inherent in writing, and tackled some issues concerning writer’s block in a post about how to Just Let Go of Everything and Write!

Today, I have some more practical ideas for blasting past writer’s block and really getting down to writing work.

In fact, if you start adopting these techniques, then writer’s block won’t even EXIST for you! It’ll be a thing of the past. Where it should be.

I use the same three moves whether I am staring at a blank scene in a screenplay or a blank proposal for a client film. The job is different. The freeze is the same. You know what you want to say, roughly, and then the cursor sits there judging you. These techniques are not magic. They are a way of giving your brain a smaller, kinder job so the words can start moving.

1. Outlining For The Win

So, firstly, you need to have an outline for whatever you’re going to write. Whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, an outline will help. This is your blueprint for what you’re going to write about.

MindMaps are great for blueprinting what you’re going to write about. You can start with a topic or idea and branch out ideas on your MindMap like spider’s legs out of an initial concept. I highly recommend the software by MindJet called MindManager if you already like working that way, but there are plenty of other applications out there — a notebook, index cards, or a messy list in a text file will do the same job. The software is optional. The map is not.

For a screenplay, the outline is not a novel in bullet points. It is a sequence of events you can actually shoot. I like a one-line card per scene: who is in the room, what they want, what changes by the end of the scene. If you are working towards a three act structure, the outline is where you notice that Act Two is a swamp and Act One is three false starts. You can also sketch the same beats on a storyboard template if you think in pictures more than paragraphs. Either way, you are not trying to write beautiful sentences yet. You are trying to see the shape.

For video-business copy, the outline is even more useful because the reader is busy. A proposal still has a spine: the problem they told you on the call, what you will make, how the days break down, what they receive, what it costs, what happens next. An email is shorter: why you are writing, one relevant observation, one ask. If you are starting your video production business, that outline stops you inventing a new pitch every time someone replies.

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Do the map before the prose. Ten minutes of ugly structure beats an hour of elegant rambling.

2. Answering A Question Is Easier Than Replying To A Statement

From here, you have a blueprint for the topic (or section) that you’re going to write about. It’s now time for a key concept in writing – it’s always better to answer a question instead of replying to a statement.

For each topic (or section) of your writing (book/screenplay, etc) turn the topic into a question.

For example, if you have written down a topic entitled: “Outlining books is really important.” Change this statement into a question. So this becomes:

“Why is outlining books really important?”

From there, your mind will become more easily attuned to writing, because it’s responding to a question rather than trying to reply to a vague statement. This makes the topic a lot more relevant to your mind.

This is the technique I come back to most on days when I am stuck. A statement sits on the page like a brick. A question has a direction. Your brain is built to answer things. It is not built to decorate a heading.

On a screenplay, I turn each scene card into a question before I write dialogue. “They argue in the kitchen” is a statement, and it will sit there forever. “What does she need him to admit before she will leave the room?” is a question, and now I can write the scene. “He finds the letter” becomes “What does he believe the letter will prove, and what does it actually prove?” You can do the same for a character: not “Maya is ambitious,” but “What is Maya willing to lose this week in order to look ambitious?” If you are also directing actors, these questions travel onto set. They are playable. A statement is not.

On a proposal, the same trick stops you from writing brochure copy. “We offer cinematic wedding films” is a statement, and every other company in your city has already written it. “What is this couple afraid will be missing from the day?” is a question. Answer that, and the paragraph writes itself. For a follow-up email: not “Just checking in,” but “What decision are they waiting on before they can say yes?” Then you write one short email that helps that decision, instead of a guilt trip disguised as professionalism.

Turn the heading into a question. Write the answer. Then, if you need to, hide the question and leave the answer. The reader never has to see the trick.

3. Three Key Words

So you have a question about the topic/section that you want to write about. What next?

Ask yourself the question. Pose it to yourself. Close your eyes and imagine a response. The first thing that comes to you.

Now think of the first 3 words that best describe a response to the question.

Not a 3 word response to the question. I want you to select the best three words that answer your question.

So, again using the example from earlier: “Why is outlining books really important?” If I was posing myself this question, my three words might be: consistency, detail, response.

The point of the three words is not poetry. It is a fence. Without a fence, you will write the entire history of the problem. With a fence, you have three rails to hang the paragraph on.

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For a scene, the three words might be verbs or objects, not adjectives. “Interrupt, kettle, photograph.” Now the scene has a physical life. You are not writing “they feel tense.” You are writing someone interrupting, a kettle that will not boil, a photograph that should not be on the table. For a client email, the three words might be “timeline, deposit, Monday.” Suddenly you are not performing warmth. You are sending the information they need.

I do this quickly. If I sit there hunting for the perfect three words, I have just invented a new way to procrastinate. First three that feel true. Write them at the top of the page. They can be ugly.

Don’t Overthink, Just Write

Now that you have your three words, it’s time to start writing.

Set a timer for 5 minutes. That’s all the time you should need to write 300-500 words on a topic. Don’t overthink, just write.

When you’re writing about your topic/section, there are two rules that you need to abide by:

1. You must use one of the keywords you chose as the first word of the first paragraph you write. So, in this example, you could use Consistency as the opening word of the paragraph. This will help your mind become more receptive to writing and will set your writing into a turbo-charged state.

2. You should use all three of your keywords in the first paragraph.

That first paragraph is a ramp, not the finished piece. Rewrite it later. Do not sit there choosing a nicer ramp. Five minutes is short enough that you cannot research your way out of it. You can only type.

I use the same timer for a scene and for a proposal section. For a screenplay, five minutes might get me a page of messy dialogue I will cut in half tonight. That is still a page I did not have at 9am. For a proposal, five minutes might get me the “what we will make” section in plain language — the section I used to polish for an hour because I was afraid of sounding cheap. Plain language is readable.

When the timer ends, stop even if you are in the middle of a sentence. You will want to finish the thought, which means you will come back. Then the next question, the next three words, the next five minutes. A feature is a stack of those sprints. So is a pitch. So is the email you have been rewriting in your head since Thursday.

Seriously, follow these 3 Pointers and you’ll see your writing speed and effectiveness skyrocket!

Let me know how you get on!

Great films start with great scripts. Level up your writing.

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