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This
week's answer:
Rejecting
Rejection
I can see your problem,
Stephan. Here you are losing your drive, but
you're trying to get on a horse. It's very hard to
drive a horse. They ride much better.
Well, they don't ride. Horses are
ridden. But normally not driven. Although, I
guess you could drive a horse crazy.
But let's get back to you getting
back on the horse. Or, even better, let's get back
to your drive -- which you seem to have
lost. What is or was the extent of your original
drive? Was your mission statement
clear? (And I'm not talking about your
testimonial about missions.) What I mean is
"Did you have a specific goal regarding your
screenwriting?" According to the beginning
words of your question, it appears that your goal had
something to do with selling a screenplay. I'm
going to assume you've already crossed that first bridge
and have written a screenplay or several screenplays
(which could be separate bridges and one for each
screenplay, but, for this purpose, we'll assume all the
screenplays you've written will be represented by just
one bridge). My question is, if your goal was
absolutely clear, then has that goal changed or now
simply become unclear?
The drive emanates from your desire
to achieve that goal. You need to bring that goal
closer to you, make it more real for you, so you'll feel
the desire for it again. Chances are you've let
the "desire flame" go out and need to fan it
or never really built it up enough in the first
place. Connect ideas and consequences to your
aim. Bring feeling into your imagery.
(Wait. Somehow this became a visualization
class. Well, what the heck. There's nothing
wrong with using your imagination another way than the
way you used it when you wrote your script. That
is, if you did actually write your script and crossed
that first bridge. (I guess you could have written
the script and not crossed a bridge and waded
across or climbed a rope or just jumped.)
Remember, rejection is in the eyes
of the "rejectee." Not in the eyes of
the "rejecter." The discipline is to
keep your focus on what you want, not what you don't
want. (I really think we've stumbled into that
class again.) Regarding rejection, it's not what
you want (unless... that's what you want). So why
focus on rejection?! What do you want?
Assuming you've crossed the aforementioned bridge or
waded across or climbed a rope or just jumped or shot
yourself across in a canon, you want to sell a
script. That's what you want to concentrate
your energies on. And listen to this... (Well, you
can't really listen because I'm not really
talking. But you get the idea. Where was
I? Oh, yeah. The dramatic ellipsis.)...
Unless you've somehow gone against natural law or
somehow are swimming upstream against the space/time
continuum, if you persist, you will achieve your
goal. The problem, in basic terms, is that you
forget this truth over and over again. In fact,
you not only forget it, but...
YOU APPLY THE
OPPOSITE
without even knowing
it. There's no neutrality when it comes to your
goal. As Yoda says, "There's no try. Only
do or not do." Or something Yoda-ish like
that. You're always, and I mean "always,"
either moving towards or away from your goal of selling a
screenplay. Which means all you really have to do is
stay aware of what direction you're in at any particular
time and make any necessary adjustments.
And being specific about
your screenwriting goals (or any type of goals) is
necessary. You could ask yourself questions such as:
1. How soon do I
want to sell a screenplay? (Five years from now when
the dollar might be stronger? Or how about now?)
2. How much money do
you want to be paid for the sale? (More than five
dollars? A million?
3. What kind of producer
do you want to buy your script? (A well-known,
successful one? Your brother-in-law who's always
wanted to get into the "flicks"?)
4. Do you want your script
to be produced? (Or do you just want to sell it and
have it put on a shelf and gather dust instead of
audiences?)
5. Where do you want the
movie based on your script to be distributed?
(Theatrical screening? Straight to DVD?
Television? Gorilla street theatre?)
It helps to be specific.
DcH
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