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This
week's answer:
A
Hundred Thousand Dollars For Your Thoughts
Elfie, I really appreciate your
question and your courageous candor about your fear in
the back of your head. I do know what you
mean. Except I think my fear is more in the side
of my head, just above my ears, or maybe on the other
side of my ears in my head. Yes, that's where my
fear is. Or... was that just a childhood trauma of
having to wear earmuffs to school and dreading how weird
I looked and how others would laugh at me (which they
did). And I remember that steel band would press
my head to the point of hurting it. And that was
the top of my head, so maybe my fear is actually
at the TOP of my head. So, yes, I do know what you
mean except for the difference in writers' heads' fear
locations. (Oh, you wrote more...)
You're not alone, Elfie (are you
French, Elfie? And is there another tower in Paris
named after you?) when it comes to worrying that your
originality, creativity, all around screenwriting pizzazz,
the je ne sais quoi will suddenly forsake
you, speaking in your idiom -- that is if you're
French. And if you're not, it's still quite cool
to drop in a foreign phrase from time to time to appear
worldly -- even though I've never been to France because
my parents couldn't afford to send me as a visiting
student -- because they just had to spend their money on
weird "necessary" stuff like earmuffs! I
believe many artists and people in creative fields have
the same doubts and concerns. I've entertained
similar thoughts, too. Thoughts like: I
don't know if I can come up with a good third act
twist. And: I don't know if I can come up
with a third act. And: What's a third
act? Things like that. Or a more
encompassing yet subtler one like:
AHHHH,
I'll never write again!
And:
EVER!!!!!!
But we mustn't buy into
these thoughts, and we must move past them, for they are
illusions. My daughter. (Sorry. I've seen
too many Oriental films lately. Cherished one.
Sorry again.) But these kind of "Who do I am to
think I can write another good screenplay?" thoughts
are not helpful in the least. Don't entertain
them. Don't even invite them to your party. In
fact, don't have a party because they might find out and
crash it. And then you'll have to throw them out or
call the Thought Police (not the ones from "1984")
and your party will be ruined, when all along you shouldn't
have had it and been working on your screenplay.
Instead, counter those
self-depreciating and confidence-shrinking beliefs with
powerful and positive and confidence-building ones.
You answer your own depressing thoughts with uplifting
ones. It's a great technique that I use all the
time. Here's an example:
Depressing thought:
I can't write another screenplay.
Countering Uplifting
thought: Okay, then I'll write two more.
Depressing thought:
Two?! That'll take me a year and I might be dead by
then.
Countering Uplifting
thought: So what if I die? At least I wrote two
more great screenplays.
Depressing thought:
Yeah, so what? It takes so long to sell them and get
the movie made that I'll be long dead before I ever get
paid.
Uplifting thought:
Well, at least... You know... that is depressing.
I'm not sure the above
exercise is the best example of the technique. But
what I'm trying to get across to you is that those negative
thoughts that are trying to stop or have succeeded in
stopping you from writing your next screenplay are yours and
nobody else's (unless there's somebody really small that
sits on your shoulder and actually says negative things like
this in your ear. And if that is true, you're
probably going to want to do one of two things: either
remove that small creature on your shoulder that is talking
negatively in one ear, or get another small creature that
has angel wings and that speaks positive "you can do
it" words in the other.)
Although... you might look
a little weird like that at pitch meetings, which might
hinder the sale. Maybe you should just start writing
again.
Hey, there's a thought.
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