In essence procrastination is not just a lack of action, but also a lack of decision making. Closer to the root of the problem, it is a lack of desire to make a decision. You’re not sure what to do with a character in a scene, or how the plot twist will unfold. So you get out the mop or do the dishes, or watch a movie, or play a game.

There is nothing wrong with doing any of those things, and in fact maybe it’s good that you do because you will quicker realize that the tricky problem that was waiting for you on your story is still there and as long as you avoid it, there is nothing you can do and you will never finish your story.

The more decisions you face up to and make, the less likely you will be to procrastinate. You often see evidence of this after the fact. Once you roll up your sleeves and get down to work, you think to yourself, “Hey that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. What was I so hung up about?”

Making a decision. That’s what you had hang-ups about.

I have a very apt day-to-day household corollary (coronary?) for this one. When guests are coming over I often have a bad tendency to just shove things in drawers and closets, and worry about what these items are and where they should ideally be (in the garbage, most of em’) at a much later point in time. But then be it six, or eight months, or a year later I’m digging in the closet and I realize that all this drawer and closet-stuffing means I just need to clean the closet. Wherever you go, there it is.

The fundamental issue is that every article or item requires a decision and sometimes I feel overwhelmed and that there are just too many decisions to be made and I just don’t have the time or inclination to make them all.

Until I just go and make 10 decisions and realize the boogeyman doesn’t really exist and sooner, rather than later, is probably better. And all of you out there struggling to write know exactly what I’m talking about! :)

Stories get made a decision at a time. So get busy making a decision or ten. The more decisions the better, and the faster you’ll get the job done. Nobody ever finished a novel or screenplay by refusing to make decisions.

So get on with it!

Flashbacks

Flashbacks have been a fundamental part of the Lost’s hour-long story template, and one of the foundations for compelling characters in the show. What I find most interesting about the use of flashbacks in Lost is that they go beyond mere backstory. The flashbacks often define and explain every character’s motivation in the present.

As conflicts & complications ensue, the attitudes and decisions characters make are often driven by what has happened in the flashbacks. This seems to happen in one of two ways:

1. The character is maladaptive, has a bad attitude, or holds a grudge because of something that happened in their personal past.
2. The character is adaptive, has the right attitude for the problem, and knows exactly what has to be done because they have already learned the lesson in the past — usually in the flashbacks for that episode.

“What is it?”

Lost has a very strong mystery element and this can be boiled down to the a few core types of question it forces the viewer to task. One of them is “What is it?” And another variant would be, “What does it mean?”

Without spoiling anything, there are many points throughout the show when the characters discover something on the island that begs the question, “What is it?” or “What does it mean?”

Mysterious items or locations are usually the subject of such questions. The nature of such items or locations are often confounding to both the characters and the viewer — there is usually no superior position. Neither the audience nor the character has any idea what “it” is, nor what it means.

The audience is compelled to take the journey with the characters. Superior position or not, isn’t that what every writer hopes to achieve?

This last one fascinates me, and I’ll tell you why soon.

Who are your story competitors? And how do you choose to compete?

As I edit this first scene, I notice a bad habit of mine that crops up pretty often. I’m too explicit. I leave nothing unexplained. It’s not just a matter of using too many words. As I visualize a scene while writing it, I have a hard time resisting the temptation to describe anything and everything I feel is pertinent to the scene. Here’s an example;

Three of my characters are in a gunfight, surrounded by enemies. One of them gets shot. One of them jumps up, reacting badly to the one who was shot. The third pulls him down, and proceeds to explain how they have to keep a cool head because help is on the way.

As I edited this scene down, I realized there’s no need for my hero to explain to his frantic friend why they all need to keep a cool head. All he has to do is pull him down and tell him to stay down. Why would he need to explain any more than that? Clearly standing up into a barrage of whizzing bullets is bad?

And yet, when I wrote it I couldn’t resist the urge to have my hero talk the other character down.

Another example is a detailed description of enemies emerging from a forest. Keep in mind this is a script not a novel, so exactly *how* they emerge from the forest is not as important as the simple fact they do. You can safely leave a lot of little details like this up to interpretation.

Not everything has to be spelled out and made explicit. The core rule of Delete & Forget is if your story is still intact after you’ve omitted a certain sentence or paragraph.

Are you too explicit?