The actress reads a book or screenplay and says, “I want to do this.” We applaud her vision. The editor discovers a manuscript and publishes it. We salute his taste. The director, the producer, the financier find a hot property and scoop it up. We give ’em an award. I’m not saying these artists don’t deserve their plaudits. All I’m saying is It all begins with the writer. The fun starts with you and me. Everybody else waits downstream. Everyone else comes late to the party. Others may interpret. They may mount, they may discover, they may finance, underwrite, refine,…

  If you’re an aspiring writer (or even an established one), you’ve seen websites and seminars and workshops that promise to “help you write a bestseller.” I’ve read and attended some of these myself. And I’ve learned from them. They haven’t been a complete waste. But let’s dig a little deeper and ask ourselves what’s going on in our minds when we buy into such a promise. “Bestseller” in this lexicon equals “success.” The promise between the lines is   “This will change your life”   Fill in the blanks for what you imagine that means. Money. Fame. A better…

Remember The Way We Were, the 1973 blockbuster starring-vehicle for Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford? The theme song, sung by Babs, won an Oscar; the film itself was rated by AFI as #6 on the list of Greatest Love Stories of All Time. But let’s focus, you and I, on the THEME and how it is expressed in the Opening and Closing Images. Remember our third rule of In and Outs Club: The opening and closing images must be on-theme. The In to The Way We Were is the titles sequence. It’s a montage of quick scenes of students at…

“I believe in America. America has made my fortune. And I raised my daughter in the American fashion … “ These are the opening lines of The Godfather. They’re spoken in extreme closeup by the undertaker Bonasera in a heavy Italian accent. Bonasera speaks out of deep shadow. He recounts with painful emotion how his beautiful young daughter, defending her honor, was brutally beaten by two young men, “not Italians,” whom the American courts subsequently let go free. The camera slowly pulls back as Bonasera relates his daughter’s woe, until the frame has widened enough that we begin to see…

  We’ve been talking in this series about Ins and Outs—Opening and Closing Images in books and movies. We declared that the first rule of Ins and Outs Club is The Opening and Closing Images of our story should resonate with each other. They should look as alike as reasonably possible. An example we cited was the 1953 Western Shane, where the lone-rider hero (played by Alan Ladd) enters the Valley on the In and exits via the exact same path on the Out. We said that the second rule of Ins and Outs Club is At the same time,…

  Last night for some reason I found myself thinking about my darkest hours as a writer. The period lasted about ten years, more if I include a contiguous stretch where I was too paralyzed to write at all. Was it Resistance? Was that the foe? No. The enemy was self-doubt. Or put another way, lack of self-belief. I may be wrong but I have a feeling that’s the Big Enemy for all of us. In a way, Resistance is self-doubt. That’s the form it takes. That’s the weapon it uses against us. But self-doubt somehow transcends Resistance. It stands…

Here’s a quick In and Out from Good Will Hunting, i.e. the opening and closing images from the film. The In: Chuckie (Ben Affleck) drives his beat-up sedan down a residential alley and pulls up behind the ramshackle South Boston house where his buddy Will Hunting (Matt Damon) lives. Chuckie is picking up Will to take him to work. Clearly Chuckie has made this trip every day for years and expects to do it for decades into the future. Chuckie trots up the steps to the back door, knocks, Will answers and off they go. The Out: Chuckie drives the…

The first rule of Ins and Outs Club is The Opening and Closing Images of our story should look as alike as reasonably possible. The second rule of Ins and Outs Club is

  In the movie biz, there’s a question that studios and development companies often put to any screenplay they’re evaluating: What’s the in? What’s the out? What they mean is, “What is this script’s opening image and closing image? Do the two work together? Are they cohesive? Are they on-theme? Are they are far apart emotionally as possible?” This is a really helpful series of questions for any creative person who’s trying to evaluate his or her own work. I use it all the time. What’s the in? What’s the out? These questions help if you’re designing a restaurant, writing…

  I described in The War of Art the moment when my own artist’s journey began. It was in New York City. I was supporting myself driving a cab. I sat down one night in my sublet at 84th and York and tried for about two hours to write. It worked. For the first time in nearly a decade of trying, the act pulled me together instead of breaking me apart. I knew I had turned a corner. I knew I would be all right. But here’s the key question:               What happened after that?   Did I immediately achieve…