Tips for writers from David O. Russell David O. Russell has advice for aspiring writers, though his accountant might not sign off on it. "There's nothing like being in debt to make you work," Russell says. My best work came since I've been in debt. Russell's quick to add that he doesn't like owing money. But if he didn't have to pay the bills, Russell might not have taken filmmaker Sydney Pollack's assignment to adapt Matthew Quick's debut novel, "Silver Linings Playbook," five years ago. After making his 2004 existential comedy, "I Heart Huckabees," Russell wrote several scripts and even made a movie, a sharp healthcare satire, "Nailed," that was shut down when the financing collapsed shortly before production was complete. "The thing about being humbled or stumbling or being in debt is that it makes you cut out the nonsense and just get to it, Jack," Russell says emphatically. Just tell your story. Don't be precious about it. Make it count. Make it emotional. And mean it. Really mean it. Don't get too cerebral about it. Don't think about it too much. Those are all the traps for me. VIDEO - The Envelope Screening Series: 'Silver Linings Playbook' As he doesn't particularly like being alone in a room, Russell's writing process differs from the norm. "I try tricking myself into writing," says the author of films as varied as "Three Kings" and "Flirting With Disaster." As soon as I see the words 'final draft,' there's all this pressure. So I'll tell you the story, and I'll feel like, 'Oh, I just wrote those scenes.' Then I'll make myself send you an email about it. And hopefully by the time I get to final draft, I may have acted out each part and talked about it and really feel the story, like I'm telling someone something that's actually happened. As he spoke in November, Russell was sitting on Page 82 of an untitled crime drama centered on the FBI's late-'70s Abscam sting operation. The movie, which will feature Russell alums Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper and Amy Adams, is scheduled to begin filming in February. "As we're driving around in the scout van right now, I'm telling the story," Russell says. And telling it again. Squeezing it out. It'll get there.