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This
week's answer:
"Sank"
You, Sanctuary
Frayed, thank you for contacting
me. I went
to college for several years in Ohio and I sympathize
with you: My
friends and I got frayed every Friday and Saturday night
we could. Oh.
Not that kind of frayed.
I’m “afrayed” I had the wrong idea.
Regarding your question...
Rejection is difficult to endure. Nobody likes to be rejected.
We’d probably even choose to be injected
or dejected or objected over being rejected.
And the “re” in “rejected” means
“again”! So
there’s a built-in repetitive feeling to the word. And nobody wants to be “jected” again. And again. So
how do you deal with this apparent mainstay of
the screenwriting world?
That, Frayed, is an excellent question.
Here’s what I have discovered:
There is a place in you who is all
creative, all positive.
Call it your “Serene Screenwriter’s
Sanctuary.” It’s
the very center of you.
(Not your bellybutton.)
When you’re in that “zone” when you’re
writing, you’re writing from that creative,
imaginative, child-like, artistic being of you who is
being that center that is you.
(Cut the last ten words if you want to maintain a
semblance of sanity or you don’t want to end up in an
ashram staring at your bellybutton (or “center”) all
day.) It is
paramount that you PROTECT that center that is you that
is being....
Sorry. (I
get carried away. Especially
when I listen to sitar music.)
Where was I?
Oh, yes. Protect.
Keep that part of your precious self apart from
the rejection e-mails or the lack of responses (That’s
kind of zen-ish if you think about it:
Does one feel rejection about a response letter
that never arrives?)
When agents, producers, readers, even
well-intentioned friends who just must read your next
screenplay appear (not brilliant script consultants such
as myself who know about that center and would never
trespass on it – as long as you have a “No
Trespassing” sign posted.
That’s it!
We need to do that:
post “No Trespassing” signs at the portals to
our creative centers.
I AM brilliant!), listen, learn, absorb what will
help you (taking what you need and leaving the rest, as
the twelve-steppers so wisely advise – although
dyslexic members have been known to make the mistake of
taking the rest and leaving what they need, which causes
them to have to come back to meetings), but always leave
a part of you out of the equation, that vulnerable,
giving, artist that you are.
Keep that part safe.
Observe from that place, but don’t engage it
with the “outer world.”
Buffer that part of you from any and all possible
attack. Take
your protection of this aspect of you very seriously.
One result will be that you’ll be and feel
freer to interact with those who could consciously or
unconsciously damage your talent.
Because it’s safe.
Ahhhhhhh. Isn’t
that and doesn’t that feel better? I hope I’ve done my part and helped you access your Serene
Screenwriter’s Sanctuary.
I’ve got to go now and write some rejection letters.
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