| [BACK]
How many screenplays have you started, but never finished for one reason or another? Weak second act? Problematic third act? No story? Not understanding what your main character wants? Whatever.
If you're like most of the screenwriters I know, you hit your brick wall and try to tough it out until you find your way into the light. But there are other screenwriters, myself included, who have at least one or two projects that they just can't finish. And the reason they can't finish it because they've lost their sense of perspective.
The idea that seemed so promising in an outline or treatment. The idea that worked so well through the first act and into act two. The idea that seemed to crumble as you stepped into act three and fell into a crevice. The ending that seemed so logical and satisfying that now seems predictible and unbelievable.
These things can not only ruin your day, but several weeks and months. Not being able to figure out what's wrong can immobilize you to such an extent that you can't bear to even sit down at your computer and try. You watch lots of TV or go to movies or rent them. You do whatever you can to avoid the problem.
Sometimes you make a weak attempt at starting something new, but nothing comes to you. Or if something does, you lose interest fast. Your thoughts keep going back to that project, like a woman who dumped you and you can't get her out of your head.
The key to solving this problem is to indeed walk away from it. To say that some day you might go back to it, but also say "I'm done with it."
It's not easy, especially since you've been obsessing on it for months, but once you can officially drag the document off your desktop and into a file of abandoned projects or things you intend to go back to, it'll get easier. And one day you'll wake up without the angst, ready to start something new.
Will you ever go back to the project? Maybe. Maybe not. But the greater objective is to free your mind and start writing again. |
