Ima writing a screenplay...

[eXcommunicate]

...but I need motivation to complete it. It's on a historical subject I am very interested in, but I'm having trouble getting past the opening sequence, which is almost a movie in itself - 20 minutes long with a beginning, middle, and end. It seems like after completing that sequence mentally my mind has already finished writing the movie. One could say, "Well, then just expand that sequence into a movie itself..." but the sequence basically sets up the rest of the movie and would not in itself be enough for a movie. It would require mucho additional back story and character development in order to flesh just that one sequence into feature-length, which would not help my motivation at all. My main interest is what this sequence sets up - an interplay between our two protagonists, one being our hero and the other being an anti-hero, or a kind of antagonist for the hero. They have to join forces in order to win, but throughout the story come to loggerheads over various things, including the affections of a woman. Eventually they both bring the good guys to the brink of victory, but only the hero can put them over the top. In the end the Anti-Hero finally goes too far in his antagonism with the Hero (and with their faction) and is ultimately defeated.

The hero throughout goes through a journey of loss, having lost his wife prior to the events of the movie and losing both grown sons through the course of the flick. The woman at the heart of the love-triangle is no mere female in distress - she is quite resourceful and intelligent. The Hero and Anti-Hero are both intelligent and cunning men, but the Anti-Hero utilizes his gifts to gain undue favor and to gain political power. While the populace is in peril, the Anti-Hero sees his feats more as a means to the end of gaining glory and ultimate power, while the Hero's heroic feats only come due to sheer necessity. In the end the Hero "gets the girl" to begin a new family and the Anti-Hero gets his glory only to have his power stripped from him, the populace finally seeing through his veneer.

That's the basic gist of the flick without going into specifics about what it's about. The background Antagonist or common enemy is an overwhelming invading force, which has its own characters and backstabbing, but it's more of just a juggernaut that forces our Hero and Anti-Hero to uneasily combine forces.

Well, I've written the opening sequence that sets up the Common Enemy and the threat it poses and the relationship between our two protagonists and the emotional arch of the Hero, losing his first son in the opening sequence. I just can't get past it now. I can imagine about another 2.5 hours of material rolling around in my head. I can clearly see the movie. Maybe that's the problem. I have thought about the movie so much that it is no longer fresh and new to me. I can see the movie in my head and unconsciously feel no need to put it on paper. grrr.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Don't write what comes next - the part you are having trouble getting past. Just jot down a few explanatory lines as a place holder and move on to another scene that you do have motivation to write. I have written a few longish stories myself (never a screenplay though, although I have often thought of it) and have encountered blocks at certain scenes and that method seems to help me.

I find that when you go back to fill in the gaps they have changed shape due to the way the rest of the story morphed and are therefore more interesting to write. Other times you find that you can leave them blank or much reduced because you have woven their relevant facts into what comes later. What you have to consider is this; if I am having trouble getting past this scene, is my audience going to lose interest too? Maybe the story is asking to be told in another way?

That'll cost you £0.02p.

[Trolldor]

Force yourself to write it, as well. It's important that you do it and keep doing it.

XC said something very important - often by the end of the script your characters will have developed in to something else entirely and so you have to return back to the beginning to alter their early personalities.