Taking a breather but not for long…

Yeah so I just woke up… What a week. ONE PAGES (we have a couple more), rewrite, email, REWRITE. LOL. Today’s a little different for me… I broke some new ground and I want to share it with you.

One of my personal rules for writing a screenplay is to run the movie through my head when it’s time to go to sleep. I want it to be the very LAST thing that goes through my mind before I start sawing logs.

I am both projector and projectionist as I fly through my film searching for my characters. I find them doing things that aren’t in the script. I watch them eat. Tell jokes. Shop. Admire the scenery. They become completely REAL to me which eventually helps me make them completely real to you.

I know what you’re thinkin’… Sleeping isn’t writing.

Or is it?

I promise not get all “new age” on you but I will throw some simple facts at you…

Sleeping does shut our body down to rest and rebuild from the previous day’s bullshit. That, I’m certain we can all agree on but don’t think for a minute that you’re not aware of things while you’re sleeping. You are. You’re in a very active state during that precious slumber.

Psychologists have proven that our brain waves during sleepy time are much more varied than when we’re awake and active during the day (or night if you’re a vampire like me).

Right before we fall asleep, our brain activity emits waves that are called low beta. Upon closing our eyes, our brainwaves descend from beta, to alpha, to theta and finally, when we fall asleep, to delta brainwaves.

Human beings dream in 90 minute cycles. When the delta brainwave frequencies increase into the frequency of theta brainwaves, active dreaming takes place and often becomes more experiential… Otherwise known as RAPID EYE MOVEMENT, or REM… A characteristic of active dreaming.

It’s during this time that we become the director of our movie as well as the screenwriter. This is where you get to make your own $100 million dollar movie. This is where you get to see what works and what doesn’t work.

When we write our movie, we tend to leave out all the normal, everyday events that happen to us because well… They’re boring. Boring to the audience that is but not boring to me and they shouldn’t be boring to you.

As you run your movie inside your noggin, you should explore all those areas that you couldn’t bring yourself to explore as you bang out the screenplay.

That’s right — EXPLORE! Take those locations in your story and just start flying through them… Inspect the walls… The doors. The windows. The carpeting. Fly around the outside of the location to see what’s out there and make mental notes… This is a dream so open up your nostrils and breathe in the location… Good… Now listen. What do you hear? Water dripping? Crickets chirping? Frogs? Trains? Sirens?

Remember, this is your story… Your movie. You are God. You can MAKE things happen here in this world so don’t be afraid to do it.

Listen in on your characters… Slide yourself right inside your characters… See what they see. BECOME their POV. Does your character smoke? What’s it feel like when your character inhales? Does the smoke feel good deep inside your gut? Exhale. Good.

What’s your character thinking when he sees somebody shoplift a cold drink in a convenience store? Does he turn the guy in or does he mind his own business?

When your characters eat, taste the food with them. Do they like it? If not, why not?

This is YOUR movie… Sleep time is YOUR time. Make the best of it. Get to know your story so well that you can simply slip into it at a moment’s notice and experience things as your characters do — see things as your characters see them.

The closer we get to waking up from a deep sleep, our brainwave frequencies increase through the different stages of brainwave activity i.e., they increase from delta to theta — to alpha — then straight into beta when you actually wake up. During this cycle we might be able to stay in the theta state for an extra five to 15 minutes, thus giving us yet another opportunity to brainstorm our story.

Use it. It will come out in your story, trust me.

So what’s the new ground you ask? Today, my characters did something completely different in my dream… Something not in the first draft and not in the rewrite but it’s good stuff. Good enough to include and that’s your new ground. I do this all the time because it works for me… Will it work for you? Why not? You are the God of your story, aren’t you? So instead of new ground, maybe this should be, “holy ground.”

I hope you NEVER sleep the same way again…

Unk

Tags: sleep deep sleep dreaming screenwriting unknown screenwriter active dreaming

October 6, 2006 | Filed Under Uncategorized

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