Film Courage: When do you start writing everyday?
Danny Strong, Screenwriter/Actor: So I have basically the same pattern when I’m writing.
Sometimes if I’m in production it will change.
But if I’m just in a writing phase (which is my favorite to be honest with you because
I love my schedule as a writer) I wake up, I go somewhere, have breakfast and usually
I can go somewhere and write and then I’ll open my computer…so now it’s around 10:30ish
and then I return emails for about an hour or an hour and a half, and then I start writing.
And then I write for about three to four hours straight and then I’m done.
And that is basically my process.
And sometimes it takes me about two hours to get started and then when I get to that
two hour mark and haven’t started that’s when self-loathing comes in, so then I do
get started.
But usually I can get going in about an hour.
But usually I can get going to about an hour to an hour and a half.
Film Courage: Is this on a computer that is hooked up to the Internet?
Danny Strong: Yeah, I definitely stay on the Internet because I’m looking things up all
the time as I’m writing.
Sometimes it’s just random things…like I’m looking for a synonym or something.
And I’ll just got to synonym and type in a word and some synonyms will pop up.
So it can be as simple as that.
Film Courage: So it’s not a distraction?
Danny Strong: No, not on the whole.
I mean it can be a little bit but it works for me.
And so that’s my schedule.
Film Courage: What’s the longest writing day you’ve ever had?
Danny Strong: I don’t like to write once I get tired because then I just lose my focus
and the writing is not as good.
But the first two seasons on Empire I wrote a lot of the show.
So those would turn into sometimes long days where you’re writing and rewriting an episode
and you’re doing a lot of work so sometimes you’re doing a lot of work so sometimes
10 hours.
And I don’t like it at all and I think the work suffers for it.
Film Courage: So you think you’re better at the 3-4 hour mark?
Danny Strong: Yeah!
That’s why I do it.
It’s literally as soon as I start to lose my focus, then I just stop.
And I don’t have writer’s block.
It’s not a very dramatic thing.
There’s no inspiration, I don’t wait for inspiration.
I say inspiration is for amateurs.
Amateurs get inspired, professionals just go do it.
And it’s not even very dramatic anymore.
I mean I just go and I know I’m going to do it.
I mean I know I’m going to get stuff done.
And it’s very productive to be honest with you.
I find that I get a lot of writing done because I don’t make a big deal about it.
It’s not this big dramatic thing for me.
I just show up and I just get going.
Like I said, it takes sometimes an hour and hour and a half to actually get started.
Occasionally two hours!
And then we just start going and I try to be non-judgmental of it.
And I don’t sit there and question it or think that I’m not talented or…I just
try and do it.
And then there’s a phase when you have to edit it and go through it and that is a more
critical part of your brain.
But I do my best not to beat myself up about it.
And if I don’t like something I just change it and I just keep working on it and working
on it and not turn it into some big melodramatic, artist’s struggle.
I don’t view it that way at all.
I will say one thing that I think could be very interesting to people that are writers
is what I do is I outline a script very meticulously and my outlines are about 25 pages to 30 pages
long.
And then when I go to write the actual first draft, I will not reread one word of what
I’ve written until I’ve written the whole script.
So for my first pass on a screenplay, I start from the beginning and then I just go…and
I go all the way through until I’m done without having read one word of it and it
takes about three weeks.
So in three weeks, I’ve written a whole draft and it’s a whole draft and it’s
a lot of fun because there is no judgment whatsoever.
I’m just writing straight through.
And then I go through and very meticulously work through the scenes and that takes two
to three weeks and then in six weeks I have a draft but it’s really two drafts because
I’ve done one straight through and then one (this sort of meticulous work-through).
And I will say that the second phase of it (the meticulous work-through phase) is the
least enjoyable part of the process because it’s the most critical where for a couple
weeks I just I have to work through these scenes but I just do it.
And then after that I have a draft to work off of and then there are many drafts after
that.
But I have this nice foundation.
Film Courage: Going back to what you said about not making a big deal about waiting
for inspiration, was it always this way for you?
Danny Strong: No this was over many years of figuring this out.
And for the first several years I was writing, I was deep in my acting career and writing
was more therapeutic to get my mind off of the very painful trials and tribulations of
an acting career because it’s very difficult and you get rejected a lot.
And all of the cliches are absolutely true but I was serious about it but I think it
just took awhile of realizing that beating yourself up and I have no talent and this
is terrible, I’ll work with a writer and they’ll say “Oh that was sh*t!”
And I’ll say “Don’t worry about it.
Don’t worry about if it’s good or bad, just take a look at it and see what could
be improved.
There’s no reason to be so caustic and hostile about the material.
It’s just words on a screen.
You can change them.
Just change them.”
So that’s very much something that guides me in my work.