Writing your first few scripts can feel really scary. Staring at a blank Final Draft file often made me feel as though I was being thrown to the metaphorical wolves, and there were a lot of habits I found myself forming that I didn’t know were hurting my process. Filmmaker John Vorhaus recently sat down with Film Courage to talk about some of these habits.
Let’s discuss some of his points and how you can best avoid trapping yourself in the missteps.
Getting Too Attached to Your First Ideas
This point can be particularly dangerous because the negative habit here is often formed from a method that I actually advocate for quite strongly. And that is to chase down every lead you have in the writing process. This can be when it comes to character, plot, theme, anything. You don’t have to have everything figured out right away, and in fact, you shouldn’t. You need to give yourself the freedom to be able to discover new points and threads along the way.
With that said, when it’s time for one of these ideas or threads to be axed from the script…you better do it. It can hurt like hell, especially if it’s something you’ve been working on for a long time, and at one point in the process were really passionate about. But if it’s good for the story to cut it, it’s got to go.
There’s a tendency for newer writers to remain loyal to their original ideas for something, even when it might hurt the script, because of the creative inspiration that these ideas originally gave them. There’s often a hidden sense of responsibility to make sure these ideas are creatively fulfilled. But creative fulfillment can take many forms. Sometimes a really good idea is used best when it’s a stepping stone for something else, and then inevitably discarded. Have the foresight to know which.
Not Being Fearless in Your First Draft
‘All the President’s Men’Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
A big thing that holds great writers back in the early stages is reservations about making “out there” choices out of a fear of looking foolish, somehow. While I can understand and sympathize with this fear as someone who has certainly experienced it, in my time as a script reader, I found myself far more drawn to the scripts that made the occasional outlandish choice, over the scripts that stayed completely married to structural or story rules.
That’s not to discredit scripts that utilize formulas, or tried-and-true narrative structures, but if you have an idea that you think could work, don’t let fear of someone else laughing at your idea stop you from trying it. The vast majority of the time, the people that would react that way anyway are the ones without any attempts under their belt themselves. You’re already that much further ahead.
Furthermore, the more you do this, the less scared you’ll become of the future outcome. I know that I was sweating bullets the first time I handed a script off to a friend to read. And that script was terrible! It was chock full of conveniences, character choices that made no sense just for the sake of getting a certain thematic point across, and pretty much every other cardinal screenwriting sin you can think of. But I still did it. And now, when I hand off a manuscript for someone to look at, I cannot wait to hear what they think. That momentary sting of something not coming across the way you wanted it to pales in comparison to the monumental improvements you’ll make by just trying everything.
Being Too Precious About Your Ideas
One thing that you’ll come to learn rather quickly in the screenwriting world is that it seems like somebody always has the same idea as you, got it bought before you, and got it made before you. This may lead you to think that your original idea wasn’t even that special, and all that work you did on it is null and void. Get that idea out of your head.
The film business is one that requires a tremendous work ethic and epic resilience. No one is disputing that. However, you will struggle to find someone who’s “made it” that didn’t do so by being in the right room at the right time at some level. Don’t treat other people having similar ideas as you as your work not being special. Treat it as though it is, and that one day, you’ll be the one to get to it first. Every single rejection is a stepping stone to get to a yes.
It seems that the theme of the day with these points is that a lot of what hurts newer writers comes down to the fears they may have. It is far easier said than done to just “be fearless” or whatever inspirational quote you want to use. But it is also far easier to move closer to success in this field by getting out of your own subconscious way.
