Arts & Entertainment, Writing
Writing a Script: Effective Habits
Lesson time 11:52 min
Writer's block? No time? Shonda breaks through the myths of writing and details how exactly she gets her writing done.
Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars
Topics include: The Creative Process • Shonda's Writing Tools • Schedules and Deadlines • Writer's Block
Teaches Writing for Television
In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.
Sign UpPreview
So to me, a lot of what writing is, is very much like being a runner. If you don't run every day, running is incredibly hard. Those muscles do not know what they're doing. If you exercise those muscles, those muscles have muscle memory. So if you run every day running becomes a lot easier, right? It's the same with writing. So to me I always have this idea of writing as being like there's a long hallway to the door, where when the door opens that's when I access the place where it is to just easily get to the creative space. Until I get to that door, I'm basically just sitting at my desk staring at the wall, feeling really bitter and sorry for myself. And to me, when I think of that hall, if you're jogging down that hall trying to get to that door, the hall is incredibly long and it's filled with candy and pictures of Idris Elba and phone calls I need to make and television shows I need to watch and times I need to sit around and feel sorry for myself. And then finally, you get to the door and it takes forever. But the more I go down that hall, the less interested I am in the food and the Idris and the phone calls and the pity. And I get to the door faster and faster and faster. Until now, because I do it every day and the muscle memory is really there at honed, I get to that door immediately. So it's not a big deal trying to get to the door anymore. Because like a runner, I'm like perfectly fit mentally in that sense as a writer. And it's the same as being a sprinter or something. I'm good to go. That's what it should be like for people. It should be that if you're exercising that muscle you can get there faster and faster. So the discipline actually has a point. It's helpful. [MUSIC PLAYING] I used to think that there was like a special magic golden hour in which I wrote better than any other time. But that time keeps changing, so I no longer think that that's true. It used to be that I wrote the best at night. It had to be midnight and everybody was asleep and the world felt silent. And now I wake up at 5:00 AM and I get a lot of writing done. But I also write really well in the middle of the day at the office. What's happened is really, is that I started writing while wearing headphones with music blasting in my ears. And now as long as I am wearing headphones with music blasting in my ears, I can write at any time of day, anywhere. Any place becomes my office as long as I have those headphones on. And that is the greatest gift I have given myself. Not purposely, but like some sort of Pavlovian animal, as long as I have headphones, on I can write. What I think is interesting about playing the music in my headphones, and this is just a theory I have, I have no idea if it's true. I think a lot of people think, oh, she listens to music and it inspires her in this way or that way. I don't think so. I think th...
About the Instructor
When Shonda Rhimes pitched Grey’s Anatomy she got so nervous she had to start over. Twice. Since then, she has created and produced TV’s biggest hits. In her screenwriting class, Shonda teaches you how to create compelling characters, write a pilot, pitch your idea, and stand out in the writers’ room. You’ll also get original pilot scripts, pitch notes, and series bibles from her shows. Welcome to Shondaland.
Featured MasterClass Instructor
Shonda Rhimes
In 6+ hours of video lessons, Shonda teaches you her playbook for writing and creating hit television.
Explore the Class