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This week's Answer: The
"Perfect Script" Twila,
I know how you feel. We want to hand in our very
best. Hand in. Sounds like school, doesn't
it? Which might be a clue to your problem.
Maybe you're harking back to those school days when your
homework was due and you needed that "A" so you
would be allowed to have recess so you could run around so
fast and hard that you'd make yourself sick and throw up
on your teacher. In a way, that "going
over" kind of activity does remind me of going over
my homework when I was in school. And, if you're
like me, there could be a tension that accompanies such an
action. But
there's an inherent problem here. Perfection is
rather difficult to attain. Especially when it
doesn't exist. It's like trying to get to the top of
a mountain that isn't there. That's going to be a
long climb. Very long. (Who was it, in
referring to Mount Everest, said he was going to climb it
because it was there? Can you imagine if, instead,
he said he was going to climb it because it wasn't
there?) Do you see the problem here? Also,
if you go over your screenplay over and over again, have
you noticed how it seems to blur right before your very
eyes and it's hard to even tell what you've written
because you've seen it so many times? The brain just
seems to shut down. I've found it's best to walk
away from your script for periods of time. Of
course, tell it you'll be back and that you're not
abandoning it. You don't want to return to it one
day, and, to your shock and horror, find that it has left you
and ended up at RSA (Rejected Scripts Anonymous).
The "horror" part is a little strong, but, who
knows? You could have been writing a thriller. I,
personally, have gone over my scripts over and over
again. With my car.
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