Don't let another season slip through your fingers!

Greg is offering a SPRING FORWARD SUPER SALE on his creative consulting. Get 12 hours for the price of 10 and commit to weekly check-ins for the next 3 months while you...
Draft your script
Write your show
Outline your book
Finish a book proposal
Create your online profile
Transform your standup act

Veteran screenwriter, story editor, teacher and writing coach Greg Miller will get your creative work on track with concrete suggestions, fresh perspective, strategic planning and regular deadlines.

"It's like magic!" - Parker (outlined and drafted article)

If you have material you've already generated, e-mail your pdf or link(s) or mail to: 137 N. Larchmont Blvd. #107 LA CA 90004. Greg is an expert reader and will help you focus the project, re-ignite your excitement for the material and chart a course to a finished draft (or performance).

"Terrific insights!" - Noah (re-wrote a script)

If you don't have any material generated... then you really need to saddle up and get started. Call Greg directly at 323-717-4731, explain your particulars and schedule your first session today.

Maybe you had some trouble getting started, but now you're beginning to generate material.

Or maybe you're a natural generator, or even an over-producer, and you have too much material.

Is it all even part of the same project? Maybe it’s several different projects?

Congratulations, you've just hit Hurdle #2: defining the parameters of your writing project.
 
If your problem is: “I can’t choose between several possible projects”...

There are several hurdles that almost every writer has to get past in almost every writing project; scripts, books, plays, or even a substantial essay or article.

As a writing coach I've helped many writers and talented would-be writers get over – or around – these hurdles. I've also written over a dozen scripts myself – plus many projects that never got finished because of one or more of these stumbling blocks.

Webster's defines a 'hurdle' as: “an artificial barrier over which racers must leap”. I think the key here is remembering they're artificial blocks, usually psychological, and they're almost always put in your way by you. Of course, they seem - and act - pretty real.

HURDLE #1: GETTING STARTED

You might be one of the lucky ones who has no trouble here. If so you've probably gotten started on way too many projects. If you’re one of those people, you can skip directly to the second hurdle. But if you’re having trouble getting going it’s probably due to one of the following reasons:

“I’m too busy with other things!” aka “I can’t find the time!”

Solution #1:

Beth just sent me another great quote about the creative process, this one from Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Easy reading is damn hard writing". And of course, when he says 'hard writing', he means rewriting. Which can be the hardest kind of writing of all.

Over the years, we've developed a number of techniques to take some of the pain out of the rewrite process. It's inevitably going to be a little painful,  because you have to confront the fact that you're writing isn't perfect. Yet.

I use these techniques when I work as a writing coach for private clients. We also use them, and others like them, at The Comedian's Way Workshop for Writers, Performers and Other Humans (next class this Sunday, Nov. 1, 1-4pm at M Bar in Hollywood).

There's nothing magic about any one of these. The point is to make a game of the rewrite to keep yourself from taking it so seriously that you get blocked. I realize some of these are going to be way too cutesy, or too woo woo, for some of you serious writer types. Maybe you'll feel differently the next time you're in the middle of a pit of rewrite despair and considering slitting your wrists.

I know. File management sounds like the most boring topic in the world, and it really might be.

But a lot of writers don't have any system for keeping track of their work and that ultimately ends up costing a lot of time and leading to confusion down the road, especially when you're dealing with a long-form project like a script, screenplay or book that is going to require multiple drafts. I actually think that ignoring draft numbers or dates might be a way of staying in denial about how much work is really involved in the project.

But whether your reasons are psychological, motivational or just never thought about it, my advice is to put up with a little annoying non-creative organization at the beginning of your project, then you never have to think about it again! I recommend this simple 2-step protocol:

Writing, of course, isn't just one thing. (What is these days?) The bad news is you have to be pretty good at all of them. The good news is that you have at least 7 different ways of moving forward with your project:

1. OUTLINE/RE-OUTLINE - A great way to plan your project and/or get perspective, especially if you've been slinging words down in the trees, is to take an overview look at the forest. Try to take a bird's eye view, noting major landmarks, and think about the big picture.
2. MAKE NOTES - These are seeds for your trees. They could be bullet points to expand later, details about characters, lines of dialog or specific moments in your story. But not vague philosophical thoughts about the project.
3. EXPAND NOTES INTO ROUGH DRAFTS - Pick one of your notes or bullet points and expand it. Think of it as getting your seeds to sprout. Of course they'll be weak and helpless at first, but if you keep sending them love they might grow into mighty oaks.

One day a talented student arrived a little late for our writing & performance workshop. She apologized and said she was late because she had a 'hand job' that morning. What?!

It turned out she worked as a hand model and while she had been doing funny material about other things in the class, this was the first we'd heard about her day job. And everyone was fascinated.

Emily Aiken is a brilliant strategic consultant known as 'the Brand Dominatrix' who came up with a great phrase: Low-Hanging Content.

That perfectly describes a whole category of potential material that a lot of writers and comedians overlook because it just seems too obvious and too familiar (to them). Too easy.

Over the years we've worked with a lot of very talented people who kept searching farther and wider for material when they had a wealth of great stuff within easy reach. For the writer referred to above it was hand modelling, for another

The latest Hollywood-speak:

We've heard the phrase 'move the needle' in audio and seismology. Now it's reached Hollywood. Recently I was talking to an agent who mentioined another client's project that sounded good but, she said, 'won't move the needle' - i.e., it won't really register on the industry's radar.

Our agenda at The Un-Cab Lab Writing & Performance Workshop is to help you find and develop the material that will 'move the needle' in your life and your career.

The Lab is back on Sundays in May for a special low-budget 3-week session:

SUNDAYS, MAY 3, 10, 17, 1-4pm

New students just $222 Register now
Ongoing students & guild members $188 Register now
Audit the workshop - only $10 per class
Audit 4 classes - just $25

The Lab meets at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine St. LA 90038

Beth Lapides offers advice on dealing with other characters in your stories, especially your most important character: you. This rap recorded at the Un-Cab Lab Writing & Performance Workshop.

Audit the workshop this Saturday, April 25 (1-4pm) - or any time - only $10 per class. The workshop meets at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine LA 90038. Call 323-993-3305 or e-mail info at uncabaret dot com for more info.