On my last post I showed how to use an actual screenplay template for use in real life. Contemplating scenes desired in your life stretches the imagination and helps to create real experiences. This next template I actually use in screenplay writing for motion pictures because it guides and prompts me to consider elements within a scene to keep it moving. This is the Scene Development Template and it can be used in real life to help brainstorm what you want and ways to get through the obstacles. I describe it below.
There are several category prompts with explanations.
SOLUTION OR DESIRE SCENE
Describe a solution you want to achieve or a desire from any of your Life Scenes (described previously). This can be a simple overview or a detailed description. Write what you envision as a completed successful project or experience. No grammar rules required. Consider innovations, inventions, art, simply improving anything or real desires.
Don’t worry about how this future vision may manifest, just allow the exercise to stimulate your mind and imagination. You can even describe a positive worthwhile direction you would like to pursue. Contemplate one or more scenes that depict your desire.
A scene example:
I’m smiling at a book release party of Create Naturally after signing several copies. I have finally accomplished this goal and feeling grand.
OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES
Describe the obstacles to achieving success. As we contemplate a successful scene often our minds will begin presenting challenges to our desires. Obstacles can be real or imagined, mental or emotional. They can be internal or external. External challenges can come from other people, nature, business structures, etc. Internal issues like self doubt or laziness can also handicap success.
Creative ways of dealing with and overcoming obstacles is necessary. What does the obstacle, problem or situation look like? Feel like? Try looking at the obstacle from the Astronaut Perspective. This is when you look down at your life from a very elevated perspective. Dealing with challenges involves positive thought and action. Obstacles can be broken through, deflated, transformed, moved away from, erased, blown away, forgotten and sometimes they just mysteriously disappear.
Over time additional obstacles may emerge that can be added to your work template. Life is an unfolding dynamic process and obstacles and solutions change with time. Awareness of change and the ability to respond is necessary for the creative person.
One effective way of overcoming obstacles is to use the positive energy from contemplating the rewards of accomplishment. You can use the feelings as motivation to take various actions needed to eliminate the challenge.
An example:
Procrastination occurs with writing this book. Tedious editing is a task I don’t enjoy.
REWARDS – MOTIVATION - PURPOSE
How can you keep yourself motivated? One way is by focusing on the rewards from accomplishing goals and solving challenges. Use your imagination and consider numerous physical, mental, emotional or spiritual rewards. Do these rewards excite and motivate you? Write them down and review them often. Rewards are powerful motivational triggers.
What are the particular rewards for your Solution or Desire Scene?
Motivation also comes from having a meaningful purpose. Contemplate your thoughts and feelings.
There are inherent joys to be found in artistic expression, passion and flows of creativity – which are all beautiful rewards as well.
An example:
I will increase confidence and self-esteem from accomplishing this goal. My financial benefits open up with a marketable book that helps people and businesses. Worthwhile relationships increase.
I can buy a new truck or camper/production van. If the book or online course really sells maybe I could buy a sailboat. I love sailing and the cruising lifestyle. I feel motivated again.
SOLUTION TECHNIQUES - STRATEGIES - TACTICS
This is a wide open category to consider different options to overcome obstacles and use the energy from considering your rewards. Then you implement various chosen solution ideas. Brainstorming with complete freedom is inherently valuable here. Brainstorming a free flow of ideas is the initial goal. Are there different possible solutions to your scene? When you have workable ideas strategies and tactics can be used to manifest the solution or desire.
Strategies are an overview of the path to solve challenges or accomplish desires. Tactics are the more detailed action steps to be done within a time frame.
As you create be aware that additional, perhaps better, solutions may come to you as you work with various techniques. Remind your mind to be open to solutions that come to you later or “out of the blue”. Ask yourself questions often to formulate strategies and tactics.
QUESTIONS
We know how important questions are - some trigger questions to help you develop your repertoire of Solution Techniques:
What can I do to...?
How can I...?
Where will I find...?
Who will help me...?
What if...?
When can I...?
Why do I want...?
Create important prompting questions –
Questions stimulate dialogue and creativity.
Asking “what if...? and other questions can help expand creative thinking about scenes.
TIME FRAMES
Ultimately time is most elegantly experienced as the eternal NOW. That said most of us experience time more frequently as a roller coaster of thinking about the past, the future, deadlines, due dates and a semi-conscious relationship to work or play engaging us at any given moment. When working with goals and desires time frames are helpful in many ways. There is value in the discipline that emerges when one sets a time to work and acknowledges a time when completion is needed. There is also value in not allowing arbitrary time frames to negatively impact peace of mind with guilt or frustration.
Dates and time frames can help us focus the mind on the steps and activities needed for accomplishment. However, if a date comes and goes without a satisfactory completion, don’t worry and berate yourself excessively. Let life be a learning experience, not a frustrating experience.
Missed deadlines can be embarrassing or even a reason to be fired from a job. Whatever happens use the negative tension or problem to set new dates or new life scenes. Create new actions and dreams. Don’t let deadlines kill! Don’t succumb to unproductive negativity that can kill your spirit or attitude. Life is frequently a difficult challenge with enormous arbitrary and shallow pressures from time and deadlines. Just do your best.
Conforming to due dates and time frames at school, work, and life in general is helpful to maintain a certain necessary order beneficial to society. However, life is unpredictable and full of change and we all create unnecessary stress and frustration for one another over time issues. A confusing factor about time: it is experienced differently by different people depending on how individual consciousness is processed and experienced.
PROGRESS ANALYSIS WITHIN THE SCENE
As you desire you can track your efforts and notate completed tasks or projects. This can make it easier to celebrate and then contemplate your next endeavors.
RESOLUTION - CELEBRATION - SEQUENCE SCENE IDEAS
This is a multi-purpose category. It is open-ended and can be contemplated and written in at any time. It is the end and/or the beginning. As with many processes it is a natural cycle.
When the initial solution or desire is accomplished you may want to notate the resolution and describe how your reward was celebrated. If desired you may need to re-examine everything and modify what you are doing with sequence scene ideas that are necessary to help accomplish the original desires. Sequences may help break down the desire into more manageable tasks. Sequence scenes can take you in new directions as well. You may need to write sequence scenes to accomplish the initial desire and use these to begin a new series of tasks.
Another important facet of reaching and experiencing a solution scene or desire is to dream new dreams, visualize new scenes and let our life movies play on.
So what’s next? Consider new goals or desires that might be necessary to complete or would naturally follow the current desire or solution.
Accomplishments can trigger new ideas and desires that will initiate new scenes to consider.
There will be a natural time of relaxation, or perhaps depression, after a scene is accomplished. There is a lull in the movie, a down side of the roller coaster, a quiet time of re-grouping or going within to evaluate after a period of creativity and accomplishment. The project or scene is over. That is why celebration is important.
How do we move most effectively through these less exciting times?
Establish new dreams and scenes to accomplish as we complete our work. There is a natural lull after accomplishment and that is the time to reflect and contemplate on what we have created.
Experience the feeling of the reward and allowing that energy and enthusiasm to add to your motivation.
The importance of congratulating ourselves and celebrating when we achieve adds style to our lives. Not egotistical bragging but the quiet sincere and grateful congratulations to our self is important.
Celebration can be private, social, ritualistic, exuberant or subtle. The important emotions are happiness, self-esteem, joy, gratefulness and acknowledgment.
The scene has been developed and life goes on.
Stay Creative Steemers.
All writing by Daniel Hime copyright 2018