‘You open up a new document, ready to write your next screenplay. But after a while you realize that no words have stuck on the page, you don’t really know what to write or how to start. All you see is the dreaded blank page.’
The first Northern Script workshop in Sweden was organized during PIXEL Skånes Film Festival 29-30 April 2022 by the Swedish workshop leader David Wramneby. The workshop was about how to soften the existential dread that the blank page can sometimes give a writer. Since writing a story isn’t a step by step process Wramneby gave some of his tips and tricks on how to overcome the blank page. He mainly focused on 2 things, looking for the main focus in the story or trying to find the core of the story. He likened these 2 processes to a funnel.
The first was to look through the small hole of the funnel. To look for the main focus of the story. Trying to find what is going to happen in the story. Will the main character achieve their goal? What is that goal? How will they go about it? Will Frodo get the ring to Mt doom? Will Marlin find Nemo? The second method he used was to turn the funnel upright and pour in all of the “ingredients” and see if you can find the core of the story coming out of the other end.
The example Wramneby used here was when he wrote a tv-series for a channel. (SVT Barn)They wanted a horror show for teens and since David isn’t a teen anymore. He had to research. At the end, he took all of the research he gathered and the restrictions from the production company. Put everything in the funnel and looked for the core of the story at the other end.
David told this to the 20-30 workshop attendees and hopefully they, as well as you dear reader, now have some help on how to combat the blank page.
The writer of the article is Mattias Staaf, a member of the Northern Script Youth Committee