I was sat in the car on Saturday morning, waiting to pick a family member up. I had half an hour to kill. I opened the screenwriting app on my phone, opened my current work-in-progress and somehow tapped out a character moment that I absolutely love. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve written all week.

I’m a big believer in writing whenever you can. Hopefully, if you’re aiming to break into screenwriting, your brain will develop the awesome trick of doing lots of necessary narrative planning while you’re getting on with your life. It’s kind of like a creative bladder, slowly filling up until you’re ready to take a screenwriting leak. That’s the easy bit. Scheduling those screenwriting leaks is tough though. If you wait around to write in a perfect, soothing environment every time, you’ll still be tapping out a first-act slugline at the point I’m wrapping up my final image.

I wrote huge swathes of my first movie, TrashHouse, behind the counter of Blockbuster Video in Westcliff. I wrote Hellbride and KillerKiller in a house that was being loudly remodelled. Strippers vs Werewolves? That was largely tapped out on an early iPhone whilst traveling on commuter trains. Standing up.

I was lecturing in a college during the writing of Powertool Cheerleaders vs the Boyband of the Screeching Dead. I used to rock up ten minutes early each day and spend that time dictating scenes into my phone whilst wandering in the park next door to the building.

I resigned myself long ago to the fact that I have to write anytime anyplace anywhere, otherwise I simply don’t get enough words in the bank.

I started writing this whilst walking home. Not far to go. Better wrap it up.

Final image: exhausted screenwriter still tapping on his phone. Fade out.