4 Creative Brainstorming Exercises for Screenwriters

April 11, 2013 by Amy Suto 2 Comments

Welcome to the latest and greatest installment in my Creative Screenwriting article series!

As always, this post is about optimizing your creativity through improving your writing process, and you’ll find practical tips intermixed with creativity studies when relevant.

1. Find Intrinsic Motivators

Creativity research indicates that finding stories you care about boosts your creative and inspirational capacity.

In the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Todd Thrash and Andrew Elliot of the University of Rochester conducted a study in 2002 called Inspiration as a Psychological Construct. In it, they described inspiration “as a general construct characterized by evocation, motivation, and transcendence.”

“…inspiration was found to correlate positively with the work mastery component of need for achievement but negatively with the competitiveness component, which reflects the typically mun- dane (nontranscendent) desire to outperform others. Similarly, inspiration was found to correlate positively with intrinsic motivation but negatively with extrinsic motivation”

(Elliot & Thrash, 2002)

So instead of trying to motivate yourself with reasons that correlate with external (extrinsic) motivators like “if I finish ten pages of my screenplay, I’ll treat myself to [reward]!” or “I need to finish this script so I can be rich and famous,” instead shift the focus to the interior.

The Exercise: Write down ten specific things that move you emotionally. The loss of a loved one, political injustice, LA traffic — anything that makes you feel something. By creating a story out of something personal, you now have a personal reason to be invested in this script. Your organic motivation to tell this story and share with others what moves you will aid your creativity and help you find inspiration at every turn.

2. Be Your Character

I just completed a script with my writing partner called “Love Letters from the Dance Floor,” and in the brainstorming phase I actually entered a ballroom dancing competition in order to get a feel for what it must be like for the characters.

Aside from really enjoying my newfound hobby, I also gained insight into details about what it meant to be a competitive ballroom dancer as I samba’d across the floor. (Yep. Samba’d. It’s that kind of morning.)

The Exercise: Spend a day and be the character you want to write about. Try out their passions, visit places they would go, and try and think like they would. [Read more…]

The 5 Basics of Creativity for Writers

July 25, 2012 by Amy Suto

Here are the five things writers should know about creativity:

1. Creativity is broken up into two parts: Convergent thinking (the process of combining and sorting out the best ideas) and divergent thinking (the process of creating ideas). Of the two, divergent thinking can be substantially improved, whereas convergent thinking is more crystallized. As screenwriters, we can improve divergent thinking skills through cognitive fluency exercises.

2. “Eureka” moments can be achieved by taking your mind off the project you’re working on. According to Arne Dietrich’s paper, The Cognitive Neuroscience of Creativity (2004), there are two types of creativity, which can be interpreted as a mixture of different subtraits. Spontaneous and cognitive creativity requires taking a step back from the problem and taking time off, and originates from the basal ganglia where dopamine is stored. This type of creativity operates outside of the conscience awareness, and by doing unrelated tasks and getting away from the problem that requires a creative solution, the prefrontal cortex can make new connections and come up with an original solution. Spontaneous emotional creativity generates the “Eureka!” moments that cannot be planned for, and originate from the amygdala.

3. Reading fiction books makes you more creative. The study, “Reading for Pleasure and Creativity Among College Students” surveyed 225 university students and administered the twenty item Scale of Creative Attributes and Behavior (SCAB) creativity test. “The results indicated that reading for pleasure was significantly, positively correlated to creativity.”

4. Divergent thinking is the most important aspect of creativity. “In the study of individual differences in creative ability and potential— divergent thinking is the most promising candidate for the foundation of creative ability” (Plucker & Renzulli, 1999; Runco, 2007).

5. Creative people operate differently. Not only are they at risk for schizophrenia-like disorders, but a study from California State University indicates that people who are creative also are more likely to suffer from insomnia (Healey & Runco, 2006.)

9 Creative Approaches to Screenwriting

July 16, 2012 by Amy Suto

Over the past year, I’ve been studying the science behind creativity and how it works while conducting a study of my own. Because when you think about it, being creative is one of the fundamental skills required for screenwriters to be wildly successful. The execs aren’t gonna fed ex you buckets of cash unless you’ve some kind of genius who can pitch and write things they’ve never seen before.

For example, let’s take a look at this spec script that sold for mid six-figures:

“Dear Satan: The tale follows a 7-year old girl who accidentally misspells “Santa” in her letter to the North Pole and instead invites Satan to bring her a toy for Christmas.” -Deadline Hollywood. Written by Dan Ewen.

How creative is that?! I mean, wow. Talk about a ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ moment. Well the the good news is that creativity can be learned and honed.

Creativity is broken up into two parts: convergent thinking (the process of combining and sorting out the best ideas) and divergent thinking (the process of creating ideas). Of the two, divergent thinking can be substantially improved, whereas convergent thinking is more crystallized. The activities mentioned in this article focus on improving divergent thinking skills through cognitive fluency exercises. Exercises such as freewriting or using thinking maps have been popularized by Howard Gardner, who is the psychologist who came up with the theory of multiple intelligences. He’s also completed some notable studies dealing with the improvement of divergent thinking. E. Paul Torrance, the creator of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, has also done extensive tests into divergent thinking improvement. In his paper, “Teaching For Creativity” for the University of Georgia he mentions freewriting and several other freewriting variations as effective tools for improving creativity.

Now for the approaches:

The Approaches

After going through my research, I’ve compiled a list of 9 ways we can approach screenwriting in order to become more creative:

1. Freewriting. Here’s what you do: set a timer for twenty minutes, sit down, and start writing. Don’t stop until you hit the timer. Just write. A scene, a character bio, a car chase, just do it! You’ll be surprised what kinds of things you come up with. You can also use Write Or Die to help you with this– when you stop typing, it starts deleting what you’ve written. Talk about motivation!

2. Use visual brainstorming tools. Thinking map creators such as this one are so helpful for the brainstorming process. Bubble maps may sound old school, but they’re very effective. (Especially for those of us who are visual thinkers!)

3. Don’t write and edit at the same time. When you rewrite and revise your work, you are engaging the left side of your brain. When you write, you’re using the right side. When you try to do both at once, your right brain doesn’t have the chance to come up with all those crazy awesome ideas that your left brain can trim and fix later. Single task, people! Writing is like making pottery. Go wild with the first draft and come up with more than enough clay that you can shape and improve later. Give yourself permission to fail.

4. The “quick 20” exercise. Let’s say you’re about to start a new scene and you’ve got writer’s block, or you’re revising and trying to figure out how to improve a fight scene. Whip out a sheet of paper, and write down twenty different ways that scene could go. Do not stop until you reach twenty! You might come up with a good idea on idea #9 or #10, but what if you come up with an even better idea at #19? This exercise uses the same principle as freewriting, but it’s more focused and taps into your divergent thinking skills. [Read more…]