The other morning I received a newsletter that included Robert Ringer’s three rules for writers and I think they’re worth making your own, whether you are writing a screenplay or anything else.

In case you’re not familiar with him, years ago Robert Ringer had a best-selling book called Winning Through Intimidation. That was a misleading title (which he changed in more recent editions) because really it was about standing up for yourself, not bullying people.

Here are the two parts of his first rule of writing, along with my comments:

1a: Force yourself to write; once you get going, don’t stop to congratulate yourself.

The idea behind the first part of this is that if you take writing seriously you can’t wait for inspiration to come to you. You have to go to it (even if it’s hiding and won’t come out at first).

In one of my writing workshops a participant said he tried to do this, but some days he would feel blocked in working on his project. I asked him what he did on those days. “Uh…just look around the internet,” he said.

I suggested that instead he start writing about one of his characters—anything, not necessarily material that would be in the script. For instance, if it was eight in the morning when he sat down to work, write about what his protagonist would be doing at eight in the morning.

He looked sceptical but told me he’d try it and report back to me.

A couple of weeks later I heard from him. He said not only did it work in terms of getting his writing juices flowing, it also promoted some new ideas for the plot.

(You’ll find 25 specific ways to get the flow of ideas going, in my book “Creativity Now!” (Pearson Publishing). You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)