Writing FAST - Jeff Bollow 2012

Introduction

There’s only one reason I’ve written this book. And it’s found within this introduction. If you don’t grasp that reason, you’ll still be able to use the FAST System to write anything with lightning speed.

But you’ll miss the whole point of the book.

So I’d ask you — please — to read the introduction. Every story needs a context. This is the context for the FAST System.

And I promise you this: The FAST System, when properly understood and applied, will revolutionize the way you write. It’s simple, it’s effective, and it works.

But I never wanted to write it.

What are you talking about?

In fact, if you had told me just one year ago that I’d be writing this book (and writing it in 8 weeks, no less!), I would have laughed. And probably walked away from you.

A year ago, I was disillusioned. I had become something I specifically did not want to become. I had become a respected and highly-regarded screenwriting teacher. Or, as one of my students put it: “the screenwriting guy.”

God I hate that.

Don’t get me wrong. I love screenwriting, and I actually enjoy teaching the stuff. I don’t even have a problem with screenwriting teachers in general. It’s a valid career, and it’s certainly necessary. (I wish they had a better grasp of what they were teaching sometimes, but what can ya do?)

But I wasn’t “the screenwriting guy.” Was not. Am not.

I’m just a guy with a vision. And it can’t be built without dozens (probably hundreds) of excellent screenplays.

I’m a guy on the prowl, looking for scripts.

See, I want to build an independent feature film studio, and produce 3 to 6 movies per year. All kinds of movies. And I want to build it from the ground up. To prove it can be done.

So when I couldn’t find any screenplays (any commercially-viable ones, anyway), I did whatever I could think of to get people writing them. Taught workshops. Imported software. Assessed scripts. Mentored writers. Everything. I created Screenplay.com.au.

But I never considered myself a writer. I’d write if I had to, but I make movies. I always found the writing part torturous. But movies don’t get made without screenplays, so I need writers. Back to square one.

In my hometown of L.A., everyone’s got a screenplay tucked under their arm. Even the waiters. Especially the waiters. You can go to lunch at Denny’s and feel like you’re right in the middle of the studio system.

But when I moved to Australia, I found a very different landscape. Not only were the waiters really waiters, no one else seemed to be writing any screenplays either.

So I did what any self-respecting producer would do.

I tried to corner the market on screenwriting.

A brilliant i...dea

Tell me this isn’t a great idea: I would develop a workshop to teach emerging writers how to write commercially-viable screenplays — from the producer’s perspective. Marketable screenplays producers would actually want to buy.

And because I’m a producer who’s been through the entire process myself — from start to finish — I’d show my students what really works and what really doesn’t. And then, naturally, I’d be the first producer they’d turn to when they finished their screenplay.

Not a bad idea, right?

Well, yeah, in theory. In practice, something else happened.

I unwittingly started a new career.

It began with an eight-week First Draft Workshop designed to take writers “from concept to completion.” But I quickly realized that my students didn’t even know the fundamentals. Eight weeks was just too quick. We needed more time for the basics.

So I pulled the workshop apart, and created a weekend workshop to cover the fundamentals: The Essential Screenwriting Workshop would be “everything you need to know before you write your screenplay.” And a prelude to the eight-weeker.

I planned to run them until I found a core group of writers who wanted to join me, and churn out material I could produce.

Cut to four years later.

I had done 56 weekend workshops with 641 participants, aged 15 to 72, in six cities across Australia and New Zealand. I had spent over $100,000, barely made a subsistence income, and put up to 80 hours a week into them.

And nearly 100% of participants raved about the workshops. They said they would “enthusiastically recommend” them. I was very proud.

But a pattern had emerged.

As it turned out, less than 5% of participants actually did anything with the information. Less than 5% wrote anything at all. 95% of my effort was being wasted.

Dazed and confused

These were good, intelligent people. From all backgrounds and levels. Smart people. I knew I could share this alarming fact with them. So I would say, “Statistically, I will only hear from two of you ever again.” In one workshop, a woman raised her hand and replied, “I’d like to know who the other one is.”

The class laughed.

And I never heard from her again.

Why? Why was this happening? I had become a screenwriting teacher. I had taken my attention away from getting films produced. And I had nothing to show for it. I needed to find out why. So I asked my students.

And overwhelmingly, the response I got was this: “Things keep coming up.” “I’m too busy.” “Writing a screenplay is a huge project, and I don’t have the time to get through it.”

Let me say this right now. If you don’t write, you’ll never get better at it. Practice makes perfect. So if you don’t make time to write, how can you get good enough to sell your work?

And (more importantly to me) how will I ever get enough screenplays to achieve my vision?!

I remembered my favorite quote from the late great acting teacher, Sanford Meisner. It goes like this:

“That which hinders your task is your task.”

So if no one has time to write, that’s what I’ve got to do. Show them a way to write, even if they don’t have time.

A whole new approach

So the first thing I did was fall out of a plane.

January 2nd, 2004. My first freefall.

There’s something about skydiving that’s simply electrifying. It’s life on the edge. It’s fast. It’s extreme. And, for me at least, it shocked my senses back into focus.

Within a week, my life suddenly made sense again.

I had gone on a four-year detour. It was time to put my workshops into a box. A box I could offer to the serious students.

That way, I could continue “teaching,” and still get back to making films. And if only 5% of readers ever applied it, I’d still be moving forward. No time would be wasted.

But if I was going to put my workshops in a box, it had to be perfectly clear, and it needed to obliterate this time problem.

And then it hit me.

The reason was obvious! My students loved the workshops, but didn’t do anything with it. Why? They didn’t have a system for applying it. I had given them tons of valuable information — practical stuff they could use immediately — but they didn’t walk away with a system for writing. A system that works.

So I would develop one. I wanted something that would help people beat the time crunch. Something that would help them write fast.

That was it! FAST. F.A.S.T. What a perfect acronym to describe what we’re trying to do. You want to write fast. I want to read fast. Writing is a four-part process, and the letters fit the four parts perfectly...

You’d laugh if you knew how excited I got. Suddenly the world made sense. Finally, I could help writers master this seemingly impossible craft. And in the process, I could get you writing screenplays I could produce.

Fantastic.

The whole world sings

I mapped out this workshop-in-a-box, and I called it FASTscreenplay. It would be a step-by-step approach to writing a screenplay. It wouldn’t be about formulaic plots, or “write-like-this” rules. No. I've met enough writers and read enough screenplays to know that no “formula” really works.

Instead, FASTscreenplay would be a system for writing a screenplay. You’d power through your script, blasting past the time problem, creating a compelling original screenplay.

When I finished mapping it out, I noticed something. Ironically, I was using the FAST System to create FASTscreenplay.

It dawned on me: The FAST System works across the board!

Not just screenwriting, but all forms of writing. And when I looked closer at it, it made perfect sense. It’s a systematic approach to writing.

And then I thought about Australia’s armpits. And, specifically, how none of them were carrying any screenplays. How, in fact, embarrassingly few Australian writers have even considered screenwriting. Many don’t even know what it is, or what it looks like.

What if — instead — I wrote a book about the FAST System in general (as it applies to any kind of writing)? I could kill two birds with one stone.

I could show you how to write anything faster and better. And at the same time, I could reach a much wider audience. Sooner or later, I’m bound to bump into a would-be screenwriter, right?

And that brings us to Writing FAST. I have ulterior motives here. I’m not looking to start a new career on the lecture circuit. And I don’t want to become a guru.

I want you to use the FAST System for whatever you want to write.

But I’m secretly hoping you’ll write screenplays.

What’s inside (and what’s not inside)

Now, before we leap into it, I need to clarify a couple things.

Writing FAST is not about grammar and tense and viewpoint and punctuation. We’ll get into some of that in the Tweak section, but this book assumes you have a decent understanding of the English language.

If you don’t, you must learn that stuff. Effective writing isn’t filled with typos and errors and point-of-view mistakes. There’s no shame in not knowing it. But when you discover you don’t know it, it’s time to learn.

There are dozens of books on the subject. You don’t need to read them now, but don’t avoid them afterwards. Writing is about communicating your ideas. And the better you understand your language, the better you can use it.

Writing FAST is also not about speed writing. We do cover it (in detail), but it’s only one part of the FAST System (the Apply section). And it’s not even the most important thing. FAST is an approach to the whole process. Speed writing is only one fourth of the equation.

And I’m not going to make ridiculous promises. Can you write a book in 2 weeks, or 4 weeks, like some speed writing advocates claim? Maybe you can. Maybe you can write even faster! But I don’t know you. I have no idea what your natural abilities are. So I refuse to make such blanket promises.

What’s more important to me is that your work reads fast. Clunky, cumbersome writing is a chore to read, no matter how fast you wrote it. The Tweak Section will certainly help (a lot!). But it, too, takes practice. Just remember. It’s not a race with anyone else. Life is a race with yourself.

Writing FAST is a simple, step-by-step approach to the process of writing. I want to give you a way to smash the time barrier, so you never have an excuse for not writing again.

I say that Writing FAST will help you write ten times as fast as you do right now. If you truly apply it, you’ll do a lot better than that. And I can’t wait to hear your feedback when you do.

You’re gonna have so much fun.

Ready to get started?