underwhelmed?

Am I the only person who finds the entire scriptwriting process completely underwhelming?

Maybe this is a testament to my boring personality, who knows. I used to be able to make up characters in my head faster than I could conceptualise what I'd just done. Is that the trick...? How do screenwriters manage to stay in that constant, child-like imaginary stasis... or at least, be able to call upon it whenever they like.

Maybe I am underrating myself. I know of a few stream-of-consciousness type exercises that can supposedly get the brain juices flowing. But it's the start of another long and daunting semester, and everytime I think about putting words onto paper my brain starts to freeze up.

Maybe the solution is anti-freeze? hmmm.

Mackendrick's reading this week purports that 'Movies SHOW.. and then TELL'. Films are supposed to be 60-80% comprehensible even if the dialogue is in another language. With this in mind, I'm having difficulty running over the ideas in my head in a way that would have them make sense without the spoken word.

I guess that's where one's ability to work with and adhere to production elements comes in.

Is this a confidence issue? Surely all of us who know how to properly read a film, know in the backs of our brains how to construct one to have it make sense to a viewing audience. I guess we'll find this out in later weeks. Until then... wracking my brains.