Writing can hard, frustrating and often maddening, but if you're clear on your motivations it can help get you through a rocky patch.

Different writers write different projects for different reasons. No reason is wrong and any one or combination can get you going. Why are you writing what you're writing?

18 Reasons Writers Write

1) Creative Rapture
2) Share Information
3) Make Money
4) Make Your Mark on the World
5) Change the World
6) Therapy/Self-Knowledge
7) Requirement/Assignment
8) Tell Your Side of the Story
9) Sense of Accomplishment
10) Everyone Tells You You Should
11) No One Else is Doing It
12) Professional Credit/Advancement
13) Obsessed with Project or Topic
14) Shame & Self-Loathing of Not Writing
15) Find Out How the Story Ends
16) Help Others
17) Not Qualified to do Anything Else
18) Stop Talking About It and Finally Do It

I’m sure there are others too, and it's always a good time to think about your genuine motivation(s) for writing. The clearer you are about your goals, the better you can design your Project to meet them. Of course you can change or amend your goals later, but this seminal manifesto can also help guide your work and serve as a touchstone to re-visit if the Project gets off-track later.

ADVISORY: If you can’t answer one or both questions, don’t worry about it, just keep going with your project anyway.

For more useful tips, check in with writing coach & consultant Greg Miller. Call him directly at 323-717-4731 to get more useful advice for your project.

Don’t underestimate the power of a good character name. The name is usually the first thing the reader knows about the character. It is our first impression.

I can tell you as a ‘reader’ and story analyst for movie studios, production companies and literary agencies, one thing that makes a script or book stand out – or not – is the character names. The names are a cue to readers about how inventive the rest of the writing will be. And that goes for non-fiction and memoir too.

On a practical level, it’s hard for a reader to keep track of a bunch of characters with similar sounding names like Joe, John, Jane and Joan. Which one was Joe again? And was he married to Jane or Joan? The reader (hopefully) keeps reading and hopes the characters will differentiate themselves through action, but why not make it easy for us to tell the players without a score card?

A character’s name helps define the character, and the array of names in a project can do a lot to define the overall tone.

8 Tips for Naming Your Characters

1. Use a phone book
2. Read the sports section of the paper
3. Keep a list of interesting names as you find them
4. Use a variety of first and last names
5. Include ethnic variety
6. Use a map or atlas
7. Vary the number of syllables in different characters’ names
8. Brainstorm qualities the character exhibits and turn one of them into a name

ADVISORY: Naming your characters can help develop your project, or become a huge time-waster. Don’t wait to find the perfect name for every character. Proceed anyway. Sometimes the characters aren’t that well defined at first so it’s not clear what kind of name would be best for them, like some people don’t name their baby until after it’s born.

For more useful tips, check in with writing coach & consultant Greg Miller. Call him directly at 323-717-4731 to get more useful advice for your project.

Asking for help with your writing is NOT ADMITTING FAILURE, it's part of doing everything you can to succeed, a way of getting perspective on yourself and your work so you can see more clearly.

Every single writer I know (and I know a lot of them) gets advice, notes, feedback and perspective from someone - usually from several people - on every draft, or in mid-draft if they hit a snag, lose momentum, lose heart or lose perspective. It's a natural part of the process because you inevitably get lost in the trees in the course of any long-form writing project and need an outside eye to help you see the forest.

Of course you don't want to pay for someone else's perspective or advice, you want it for free! And you've probably gotten a lot of free advice already, but if you're reading this, you're at least considering hiring a professional.

And that is tricky because a writing coach is some combination of producer, editor, therapist, cheerleader, strategist, market watcher and psychic advisor each with their own style and bag of tricks.

Let's start with how you know when you really need a writing coach or consultant?

The Comedian's Way workshop for Writers, Performers & Other Humans is the place to develop your authentic voice and deepest material for one-person shows, personal essays, books, scripts, blogs, or just to have a better attitude about life.

Each class starts with a Q & A and an inspirational rap from Beth about some aspect of the creative process. Here for your entertainment and edification is video of a recent talk about the 7 Questions Every Writer Should Ask Themself Before Sitting Down To Write.

Read more about the workshop on Beth's site and the Un-Cabaret website.

Class meets most Saturdays, 11am-1pm at M-Bar, 1253 N. Vine St. LA 90038. For more info, call 323-717-4731 or e-mail us.

I was just talking to a great TV comedy writer, who was stuck in the middle of a feature film script. He was bored of the characters and had lost touch with the excitement and momentum that got him started on the project in the first place.

Kubler-Ross famously ennumerated the stages of coping with death (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance). Writers face these stages when finishing a project too, but before you get to that there are other stages to be aware of. Each one has their challenges, and it's really helpful to know which stage you're in because that helps you focus on the right challenges instead of getting caught up in problems you don't have yet - or anymore.

A screenwriter friend shared this piece of oral tradition that lays out the stages of a Hollywood project:
1) Unbridled Enthusiasm
2) Total Despair
3) Desperate Search for the Guilty
4) Punishment of the Innocent
5) Promotion of the Un-Involved

Don't let another season slip through your fingers!

Greg is offering a SPRING FORWARD SUPER SALE on his creative consulting. Get 12 hours for the price of 10 and commit to weekly check-ins for the next 3 months while you...
Draft your script
Write your show
Outline your book
Finish a book proposal
Create your online profile
Transform your standup act

Veteran screenwriter, story editor, teacher and writing coach Greg Miller will get your creative work on track with concrete suggestions, fresh perspective, strategic planning and regular deadlines.

"It's like magic!" - Parker (outlined and drafted article)

If you have material you've already generated, e-mail your pdf or link(s) or mail to: 137 N. Larchmont Blvd. #107 LA CA 90004. Greg is an expert reader and will help you focus the project, re-ignite your excitement for the material and chart a course to a finished draft (or performance).

"Terrific insights!" - Noah (re-wrote a script)

If you don't have any material generated... then you really need to saddle up and get started. Call Greg directly at 323-717-4731, explain your particulars and schedule your first session today.

There are several hurdles that almost every writer has to get past in almost every writing project; scripts, books, plays, or even a substantial essay or article.

As a writing coach I've helped many writers and talented would-be writers get over – or around – these hurdles. I've also written over a dozen scripts myself – plus many projects that never got finished because of one or more of these stumbling blocks.

Webster's defines a 'hurdle' as: “an artificial barrier over which racers must leap”. I think the key here is remembering they're artificial blocks, usually psychological, and they're almost always put in your way by you. Of course, they seem - and act - pretty real.

HURDLE #1: GETTING STARTED

You might be one of the lucky ones who has no trouble here. If so you've probably gotten started on way too many projects. If you’re one of those people, you can skip directly to the second hurdle. But if you’re having trouble getting going it’s probably due to one of the following reasons:

“I’m too busy with other things!” aka “I can’t find the time!”

Solution #1:

Over the years, we've developed a number of techniques to take some of the pain out of the rewrite process. It's inevitably going to be a little painful,  because you have to confront the fact that you're writing isn't perfect. Yet.

Beth just sent me this quote about the creative process from Nathaniel Hawthorne: "Easy reading is damn hard writing".

I use these techniques when I work as a writing coach for private clients. We also use them, and others like them, at The Comedian's Way Workshop for Writers, Performers and Other Humans (next class this Sunday, Nov. 1, 1-4pm at M Bar in Hollywood).

There's nothing magic about any one of these. The point is to make a game of the rewrite to keep yourself from taking it so seriously that you get blocked. I realize some of these are going to be way too cutesy, or too woo woo, for some of you serious writer types. Maybe you'll feel differently the next time you're in the middle of a pit of rewrite despair and considering slitting your wrists.