My writer's block.

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I'm stuck writing a screenplay, one I hope would be critically acclaimed. Can you help me out?

P.S.: Please don't tell me to just write something, however stupid it may be. I don't want to become a hack screenwriter.

I can't really help much because I am having the same problem albeit with an autobiography and not a screen play but all I can say is don't spend hours sat in front of your writing just agonizing over it! It gets me really angry. I tend to leave my work for a few hours and come back to it when I feel ready.

My advice might not be great... I'm only on the first paragraph...

I recommend this book
http://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Write-Scr ... 1580650155

Some devil on your shoulder is whispering you crap about becoming a hack. That's ridiculous. Whoever/whatever tells you not to write is bad for your writing. And you're not going to get critical acclaim for the first thing you write. Stop watching yourself! Just write. It's good, it's bad, phooey - just write, every day. It's like dancing - learn by doing.

Um, it just occurred to me - what do you want critical acclaim for? Do you think there's only two extremes, acclaim & hack? Not true.

It's not obvious what you're asking for... a subject?

Truly great writing comes from interest.

Find out what interests you. What motivates you - and write about it.

Also, if you're into a genre (eg: Sci-Fi, Horror, then write within that Genre). You'll be more "expert" on that.

Since it's a screenplay you're into....

List your top 10 movies....

It's true. You don't say where you're stuck. Are you having trouble coming up with a plot? Did you realize your plot has a snag you can't unravel? Is one of your characters trying to go in a different direction than you had intended? They'll do that. On what you've provided, all I can suggest is to take a break for a day and not think about it at all.

I also don't get the critical acclaim part. I would just want to write it to my satisfaction first. Then if no one ever reads it but my family, it will still be something I believed in.

hold on, i'll go find the story plot idea i threw to that other guy with writers block. maybe you'll like it, maybe i'm full of s**t, we'll find out. brb

person in the distant future who has commited many sins goes on first-person explorative mission to a potential planet for colonization runs into space phenomena enroute that unexplainedly lands him in the 4th dimension where he finds out he can exert godlike powers over our dimension but can no longer participate in it himself and ponders if he has inadvertantly broken through to god's realm. whereupon he comes upon a disembodied sentience that has been since the universe was created from nothingness and has watched the worlds from it's prospective prison and erratically intervened upon reality at random over the eons. faced with this new power he can make up for his great guilt for things he has done and let happen in the past by inadvertantly helping those he left behind. an innocent experiment on earth by practicers of "pure science" occurs however that could devastate all of existence, an experiment by those who know not wholy what they do as they mess with forces they do not wholy comprehend and inadvertantly create a fracture; the beginning of a cataclysm in space-time that could mean the end of everything. the man is presneted with two options: 1.) do nothing, take the cowards way out, and remain safe in his newfound dimension, or 2.) save everything he has ever known and loved by sacrificing himself to the void in a necessary final act that would be the only way as told him by the sentience to sufficiently heal the breach, making him a tragic but unknown hero.

would make for an interesting tragedy. damn, i just came up with all that just now on the fly. i fail as a story writer. i'm good with poetry however.

WOW!! !
can you do that all the time?
if you're a poet, why not write it in poetry?

Choosing the idea: well what things interest you? What things do you KNOW about? What things are you passionate about? What things are you obsessed with? What things do you fetishize? Write about them. What are your favorite types of films, and do they often belong to a particular genre or setting or style?

Getting past TEH BLOCK: Carlton Mellick III has written some very informative blogs about getting yourself to write. It has more to do with fiction than screenplays though:

http://carltonmellick.com/2009/06/28/get-off-your-butt-and-write/

http://carltonmellick.com/2009/07/23/day-2-prep-talk/

http://carltonmellick.com/2009/07/23/imagination-is-a-muscle/

http://carltonmellick.com/2009/07/24/luck-favors-the-bold/

FYI, I'm trying to write a sci-fi drama dealing with existential issues, primarily isolation. If you want to know more about it, go here:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt99081.html

Sci-fi Isolation has been done in some movies (Solaris, Alien, The Abyss, and so forth). The trick is to try and come up with a new setting. If you want your character to experience loneliness within a sci-fi motif then I think what you should do is not address the obvious, namely isolation from external sources (the fact that the character is alone), but isolation from internal sources (the character has a huge flaw that prevents him or her from interacting with others). Your character starts down a path that eventually leads to true isolation. But there needs to be something in the end. Something your characters desires. Make that the end of the story.

thanks i guess
hmm, idk. never really tried much story brainstorming before. mostly 'cause i fail at writing stories haha. though with that one, it just sorta came to me spontaneously just then.

i guess i could try to make a poetical rendition though. or at least give it a decent attempt.

idk, did you read my idea? it fairly reeks of all those themes you just mentioned.

What an idea though Seanmw... maybe you'd be best of holding onto that one and doing it justice yourself. It's great.

I can tell you what I used to do very long time ago when I did some creative writing:

I just imagined the faces of all the so called writers and their readers when they would read what I wrote.