I got this in a fortune cookie at Samy’s Noodles in the East Village. It’s taped to my corkboard to remind me.

We do a lot of prep in class: character, theme, outlining. I’m really big on creating a structure that plants, develops, and leads to that satisfying end “beyond which the audience cannot imagine another.”  (Robert McKee).

But as my colleague, James Dutcher, is fond of saying, “An outline is not a suicide pact.” You must plan and think. And then you just gotta start writing. The answer will come to you.