The first hurdle every writer has to overcome- whether it’s you, William Goldman, Aaron Sorkin, or someone working on their first ever script- is to actually write something. Anything. Inevitably, it will be awful- but that’s the point. Some writers, such as Judd Apatow, call it “the vomit draft”. You throw the kitchen sink at that first draft, and then the really hard work begins. So the trick is not to think about it. In

The trick is not to think about it. In fact, if your first draft isn’t crap, and full of ideas that will be cut and changed, you should be worried. Embrace those awful ideas at the start, because it might lead to something incredible later on. Get ready for that first draft to be crap- don’t get disheartened, it’s incredibly important you get the bad stuff out the way as early on as possible. It’s so important that I’ve got 2 quotes to share with you. The first of this week’s advice comes from the writer Laura Simms:

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No matter how much you’ve written or how long you’ve been writing or how famous you are that blank page still is heart-stopping.  The blank page humbles everyone and is a perfectly level playing field.  It affords a special advantage to no one.

Here are a couple of quotes from an article in the Hollywood Reporter about writer Aaron Sorkin.

Despite the accolades earned since his play A Few Good Men was brought to the big screen in 1992, Sorkin admits: “Writing never comes easy. The difference between Page 2 and Page Nothing is the difference between life and death.”

The blank page is nothingness.  The first and second pages are the beginning of life– the life of the characters and the life of the story.  So where do you start?  You start where ever you can get a foothold.

Sorkin says:  “I’ll take anything that gets me started,” he says. “Sometimes it’s finding a particular moment, remembering that you want to begin your story as close to the end as possible. If there’s a structure that seems pretty cool, I think about that.”

I believe the key is giving yourself complete freedom to explore and writing with no self-judgement or self-criticism. Never go back, read what you’ve written or start editing until you’ve finished the first draft.

The number one reason scripts,  novels or plays remain unfinished is the writer became paralyzed.  The writer stopped writing after being overcome by self-doubt, second-guessing and the vicious voice of that inner critic inside every writer’s head.

Let all that go and just power toward the end of the first draft.  The greatest paradox about writing is:  You don’t know what you are writing until after you’ve written it.  Let the story flow.  Let the characters speak their mind.

Here’s is how Sorkin describes his own launching pad to becoming a writer:

Shortly after earning a bachelor’s degree in theater from Syracuse in 1983, Sorkin, an aspiring actor, was crashing in an ex-girlfriend’s postage-stamp-sized apartment and working multiple part-time jobs — including handing out leaflets dressed as a moose. With all of his friends away, a broken TV and not a dime to go out, he was stuck.

“It was one of those Friday nights where it feels like everybody’s been invited to a party and you haven’t,” Sorkin says.

Instead, he turned to the typewriter a journalist friend had entrusted him with, inserted a piece of paper and began pecking out a play — about a struggling actor working with a touring children’s theater — that mirrored his life.

“That was the very first time I wrote for pleasure, for any reason other than a chore,” he says.

The session lasted till dawn and put Sorkin on a path to becoming one of Hollywood’s most esteemed writers.

What if you you don’t know how to turn of your inner critic?  What if you can’t write in marathon sessions that last until dawn?  What if you don’t know how to get yourself  moving on a project that has stalled?  What if you’re stuck or stymied or don’t know how to start or what to do next?  The One Hour Screenwriter eCourse can help.

Shortly after earning a bachelor’s degree in theater from Syracuse in 1983, Sorkin, an aspiring actor, was crashing in an ex-girlfriend’s postage-stamp-sized apartment and working multiple part-time jobs — including handing out leaflets dressed as a moose. With all of his friends away, a broken TV and not a dime to go out, he was stuck.

“It was one of those Friday nights where it feels like everybody’s been invited to a party and you haven’t,” Sorkin says.

Instead, he turned to the typewriter a journalist friend had entrusted him with, inserted a piece of paper and began pecking out a play — about a struggling actor working with a touring children’s theater — that mirrored his life.

“That was the very first time I wrote for pleasure, for any reason other than a chore,” he says.

The session lasted till dawn and put Sorkin on a path to becoming one of Hollywood’s most esteemed writers. His unique style has been present throughout.

“Part of what makes Sorkin is not just the tonnage of words but the fact that you’re watching a person navigate the jungle of their self-doubt, the jungle of their thought process,” Social Network director David Fincher says.