May 5th, I faced the blank page. May 18th, I completed the first draft of a screenplay – a dark comedy. I listened to Paul Schrader who made so much sense to me. I followed David Lynch’s prescription of blocking the story out on cue cards. I watched movies. Read scripts. I lived with those cue cards for two weeks before sitting down to write. I gave myself the discipline of 12-pages a day – often more, sometimes less – to completion.
While the screenplay form had often felt impenetrable to me, this intuitive, immersive approach was liberating. Pure joy.
The first draft is a first draft. Writing is re-writing. More to come.
✨ Christiane Schull – @2026
Artist: Serin Alar
(find her on Facebook @serinalarart)