CS Weekly Archive > Happenings > 6/24/05

Preserving the Craft:
Quotes on Writing from the Opening
of the Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library

compiled By ginny defrank

We talked to some of the writers at the opening of the new Writers Guild Foundation Library to get their advice to you on writers block, ideas, commerciality, and how to quiet the naysayers trying to tear you down.

Last Saturday afternoon, renowned writers of both film and television gathered at the Writers Guild of America/west to toast the grand opening of the $2 million Writers Guild Foundation Shavelson-Webb Library. Housing nearly 10,000 scripts, the much-anticipated library includes screenplays from legends such as Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett, and I.A.L. Diamond, for all of whom the main Reading Room is named. The largest catalog of its kind in the world, the Shavelson-Webb Library is dedicated exclusively to the art, craft, and history of writing for motion pictures and television.

We'll have the full story on the library and its opening in the September/October issue of Creative Screenwriting Magazine (yes, we work that far in advance). In the meantime, we wanted to share with you the advice that some of the industry's best gave CS Weekly about their own writing experiences, and suggestions for those pursuing the craft. Here's what they had to say.

Writer's Block

"I think I've never had a challenge because I needed the money so I had to finish it. I never had writer's block. You have to pay the rent, the mortgage, the light bill…I'll go back and look at something -- the characters, the dialogue, Sunset Boulevard or something -- that will give me a boost."
– James Mulholland (Late Show with David Letterman)

"Any writer who doesn't ever face writer's block is lying to you. Poverty helps. You know, it's going to sound flip and facetious, but one of the biggest blocks to writing in Hollywood is we all make too much money and sometimes we don't have to write to make a living. So it's that necessity, when you really need to get the work out, you do. When you have deadlines, even writing for television, when you know at a certain point the cameras are going to roll or you're in a movie and you're in production and you're rewriting, it's always easier. You don't have the luxury of playing solitaire."
– Peter Lefcourt (The Manhattan Beach Project)

"Everyone gets it occasionally. Some writers wallow in it. Just get up and do something else. Then come back to it later."
– Paul Diamond, son of I.A.L. Diamond (Mike Hammer, Miami Vice)

"Writing is self starting. Just write! And then you show it to people, and they make fun of you, and you say, 'What do they know?' and you go on."
– Garry Marshall

"In terms of getting stuck, you can't allow that. You control that. Write what you feel. Editing is not a bad thing because I can change it later. Just write. Don't ever say, 'Oh I'm stuck, I can't work.' You're trying to do something before you finish it. You're trying to edit your product before you finish it. Finish your product. You know your stuff. You know what you're wanting to say, you just don't think it's right. So you just write.
   There's no such thing as writer's block. The only thing there is is a group of people who are trying to pre-think what they have before they have it. If it's not good, you change it. There's a delete button on the computer." – James L. White (Ray)

Advice to Writers

"My biggest advice to any writer is don't listen to people saying how many writers there are, you know, it changes your life. You will always have people telling you, 'You know how many people have screenplays?' Well, no, I don't , but if you will go count them and tell me, then I'll know. [Laughing] That's the answer a writer should give to people who tell them that." – James L. White

"The first thing you gotta do is find out what you write. If you don't write really good, move on. You have to figure out what you write better than anybody, or at least one of the top. I broke in writing for night club comics, and come September, I'm directing my first operetta, so you've gotta try everything." – Garry Marshall

"The biggest challenge is getting old and not being hired anymore. It's a challenge I haven't prevailed in overcoming. Earn the big money when you're young." – Carl Gottlieb (Jaws)

"Keep looking for ideas. They're out there, they're in your head. You will find them. Write every day. Take weekends off. Don't drink too much. And push ahead. See every good and bad picture ever made, and learn from them." – Paul Diamond

"Don't worry about a commercial script. Million Dollar Baby and Crash could not have been any less commercial, but they worked. My best advice is don't listen to studios, or your agent, or anyone else telling you what they want. Never ask what studios are looking for, or what producers need. Let it come from your gut." – Paul Haggis (Crash)

"The greatest challenge is finding something I want to write that anyone else is interested in, finding an intersection with the market." – Marc Norman (Shakespeare in Love)

Deirdre McGill contributed to this article.


Ginny DeFrank is a writer living in Los Angeles. An ACC basketball enthusiast, she is currently involved in several hair-brained schemes and uninteresting subplots.

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