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1. Set the challenge to yourself that you will start doing X after you do Y; for example, you’ll continue working after you have achieved Level 6 ranking in Grand Theft Auto Multiplayer (I’m nearly there).
2. Set an arbitrary deadline for yourself that will hang over your head like some kind of swinging torture device in an old Roger Corman movie starring Vincent Price, so all you’ll be able to think about is this date and how every second is ticking, ticking, ticking, closer and closer …
3. Reformat your hard drive and reinstall your operating system and apps, convinced that a “fresh start” will fix everything.
4. Take your half-written screenplay, or synopsis and give it to someone else to read, claiming that you’re stuck, hoping that their saying “It’s the greatest thing you ever wrote!” will compel you to plow through to the end. In reality, their confusion and half-baked criticism will kill any interest you might have had in completing the project.
5. Buy a book on screenwriting that claims you’ll be able to go from a blank page to a complete feature in X number of days with little or no effort. There is no template or “paradigm” for writing a screenplay. Each story has its own nuance and structure. Often the examples these authors use to support their claims have been roughly crammed into their step-by-step widgets.
6. Ask yourself why you’re bothering to write the damn thing in the first place. What happens when you get to the last page? What are you going to do with it? None of these questions have anything to do with writing. Even if your finished script is going to sit in a drawer for the rest of your life, at least it’s a finished script. There’s not a whole hell of a lot you can do with an unfinished script, so don’t worry about what happens after. Worry about that when the time comes.
7. Clean your workspace. While it’s good to have a tidy and organized place to work, it’s not going to result in a better screenplay. In my experience, cleaning your desk leads to cleaning the room, cleaning the house, doing some yard work … don’t get me wrong, all good things, but next thing you know, you’re back at 1). If you feel compelled to clean your workspace, save your work and close your editor. You’re probably done for the day.
8. Stare at a blank page, trying to force yourself to come up with ideas. This has never worked for anyone. It’s like someone’s putting a gun to your head, shouting, “write!” Why not just go and do the shopping or something and come back to it later?
9. Search the web for advice on how to get writing again. Sorry. Cheap shot. Maybe the list below this one will help. It’s better than anything I could find.
10. Make an absurd list of reasons why you aren’t writing and post it on your blog.

10 Ways to Get Writing Again:

1. Just start writing something, anything, just get words on paper, even if they’re not the words you’re going to use. Years ago, I was stuck, and just started typing out stream of consciousness gibberish, and from that I got an idea for a story and a main character and from that a full screenplay that got a lot of attention.
2. Start at the beginning and work your way through to the end. If you’re a filmmaker (or even if you aren’t), start with the opening titles, the opening shot, the opening scene, exactly the way you want them to unfold on the screen. Before you know it, you’ll have the first five pages. It’s all downhill from here.
3. Start at the end and work your way back to the beginning. Mystery writers work this way, so why can’t you? It’s actually a very powerful tool, once you’ve mastered it; think about the conflict’s resolution and how that will play out on the screen, then take a step backward and ask, “what directly caused this?”. When you have that answer, ask the same question again, slowly moving backward through your plot.
4. Write what you can, until you start getting tired of it, then take time to think about what you have. Plowing ahead with “this doesn’t work this doesn’t work” running through your head will only result in pages that you’re going to end up removing anyway. Reflect, then come back when you’re good and ready to start creating again.
5. Buy a book on screenwriting, specifically, “Writing a Great Movie: Key Tools for Successful Screenwriitng” by Jeff Kitchen (Amazon Link), by far the best and most useful book on screenwriting I have ever read. My copy is dog-eared from over-use. For serious writers only, Kitchen’s “tools” are actually things you can do to breathe life into your screenplay instead of shallow promises of sipping cocktails on the beaches at Cannes within a month.
6. Start the day revising what you’ve done the day before, then move on to new material. Rinse, lather, repeat. This way, you’re not starting the day staring at the blank space after your last line, and you’re approaching your “old” material with a fresh mind. Better still, you’re tackling new stuff with a fresh mind.
7. Change things up. Maybe your tone is wrong. Try something else. Just start a new document and start rewriting what you’ve already written in a different tone. If it’s not working, you don’t have to save it. If it does work, it might make all the difference in the world.
8. Draw your plot out as a flow chart, you’ll immediately see which sections are weak and which ones need a lot of work. For example, in the script I’m working on right now, I’ve got a tremendous amount of detail for the beginning and the end, but very little in the middle (basically, “bunch of stuff happens to get from the beginning to the end”). Focus on whatever section needs the most as a completely separate project in your mind, it will make things more manageable than the thought “my whole screenplay is broken”.
9. Search the web for advice on how to get writing again.
10. Make a list of ways to get you writing again, with the intention of posting it on your blog. When you get to the end, you’ll probably realize, “Oh my God, I really am trying to avoid writing” and start writing again.

Alright, back to work.

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