by Jenna | Mar 21, 2024 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m responding to a question from a reader about comparison and embracing your unique voice as a writer.
Dear Jenna, I have a tendency to compare my writing to others. How can I focus on my own unique voice and style without feeling inadequate or inferior?
In the coaching world, there’s this phrase, “compare and despair,” which gets right to the heart of your question. It means that to invite comparison is to invite despair, aka feeling inadequate and inferior. There’s another related notion that goes something like this: When you compare, someone always loses. It might be you, it might be the other person, but either way, it doesn’t feel good, and it’s always a one-up, one-down situation.
Writing doesn’t have to be like that.
There’s room for a whole spectrum of styles of writing, even in screenwriting.
In my response, I discuss:
- Making a conscious choice to choose inspiration over despair, envy, or jealousy
- Studying the work you admire and parsing the writing to understand what makes it work for you
- Determining which skills you feel inspired to grow into and which skills you admire but feel disconnected from or unable to master
- Leaning in, hard, to your own lived experience by being willing to lay out rich, powerful emotional moments and undercurrents on the page
- Letting your natural voice come through on the page
You’re not inferior or inadequate. You are different, with your own stories to tell, in your own unique voice and style. That’s ultimately what makes your work special.
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by Jenna | Feb 22, 2024 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m responding to a question from a reader about self-doubt and feeling like an impostor or not a “real” writer.
Dear Jenna, I keep feeling like I’m not a “real” writer and that I’ll never be good enough. But I want to write! How do I keep my self-doubt and feeling like an impostor from affecting my writing and creativity?
Feeling like an impostor or not a “real” writer is tough. It can even feel like maybe you’re not allowed to pursue this career you want. But every writer starts out from not being a writer. Some start earlier, some later, but we all start somewhere.
Many writers think we can’t call ourselves writers until we are sold, optioned, hired, produced, or published, and stick words like “aspiring” in front of the word “writer” until reaching one of those states, almost as a way of atoning for the temerity in adopting the identity at all.
In my response, I discuss:
- Writing regularly as an antidote to feeling like a writing impostor.
- Claiming your identity as a writer with the words, “I am,” while also taking the actions to back it up.
- Seeing your access to the challenges of being human as a tool for helping you develop deeper characters.
- Working with a compassionate mentor.
- Framing what you’re telling yourself about writing and about who you are as a writer.
What are you telling yourself about writing and about who you are as a writer, and is that story serving you? If not, tell a better story.
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by Jenna | Jan 18, 2024 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m responding to a question from a reader about setting goals for the new year while also recovering from burnout.
Hi Jenna, it’s the start of the year, and I know it’s past time to sort out my writing goals for 2024, but I’m (still) recovering from burnout and I worry about pushing myself too far. I’m writing on spec, so I don’t have deadlines I have to meet, just a sense that I need to get work out into the world ASAP. What suggestions do you have for making the most of writing this year, while also continuing to recover. Thank you! ~ One Burned Out Writer
It’s no small task, and as someone who’s been in a similar situation, I know it takes as long as it takes. Many writers, creatives, and entrepreneurs around me seem to be experiencing similar circumstances. I’m seeing quite a few thought-leaders advising against pushing hard on the goal-setting front this year.
Whether your burnout is personal, writing-related, or because of the happenings of the broader world, taking the time you need to recover is critical to your ability to generate your best work. So do give the gift of recovery to yourself.
In my response, I discuss:
- trusting yourself and your intuition with goal setting
- focusing on what would feel good to you over deadlines and SMART goals
- focusing on the practices, habits, or rituals you’d like to have in place around your writing
- guiding your writing while recuperating by intuition rather than force
- allowing time for “sideways drift”
Thankfully, writing is not incompatible with recuperation. I would argue that writing is a critical part of how we heal and find ourselves again, if we have the patience and willingness to stay with it.
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by Jenna | Dec 22, 2023 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m addressing two similar but separate questions from readers about building to a climax and keeping a story moving with help from guest expert Jeff Howard.
Question 1: How do I build tension toward a climax using structure and pacing?
Question 2: How do I combine actions with dialogue to keep the story moving?
Here are the recommendations Jeff discusses for building tension using structure and pacing, then about using dialogue to keep a story moving.
- Tighten pacing with a shorter “second half.”
- Design tension with your outline.
- Earn your climax with your second act.
- Use dialogue as “frosting” on the cake of your script.
…if you want to build to an exciting climax, you’ve got to mirror it with the first act and you’ve got to plan how to get there.
— Jeff Howard
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by Jenna | Nov 17, 2023 | ScriptMag Articles
In this month’s “Ask the Coach” article, I’m addressing — with help from Screenwriter Jeff Howard (‘Midnight Mass,’ ‘Haunting of Hill House,’ ‘Oculus,’ ‘Ouija: Origin of Evil,’ ‘Gerald’s Game’) — two similar but separate questions from readers about character arc and character development:
Question 1: How to develop a character arc that is consistent with the story?
Question 2: How to continue developing your characters throughout the story?
Here are the main insights discussed in response:
- Character or plot first?
- Imagine your plot and character together from the start.
- Intertwine character and action early.
- Don’t worry about ‘core wounds,’ etc.
- Think of your character as a real human being — always trying to win.
- See character as living through the eyes of another person.
- Embrace action and character as one and the same.
To me, good character work is living within the moment of what’s happening — the actual moments of the story — not laying some construct of life-changing stuff on top of your story.
— Jeff Howard
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