Lie #5: I’ve written 30% of my screenplay, but now I hate my idea so I should abandon it and start a new one.

Have you ever noticed that you get the GREATEST IDEA for a new screenplay when you’re 30 pages into the one you’re working on now?

So you switch to this new great idea and write 30 pages on it, until you’re frustrated with that one too and suddenly a newer, even BETTER idea pops into your head.

This is Shiny Idea Syndrome. Where you keep looking over to the next idea and abandon the one in front of you. 

This is how you end up with a dozen half-finished projects and a lot of frustration.

Every time you get deep into one story idea, all you seem to find is one complicated story problem after another.

So how do you fix it?

Truth #5: The grass isn’t greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it.

Any story idea can be good or bad.
 

Any. Idea.

Your idea is simply a starting point. Nothing more. It’s a concept with a couple characters and a few lines of dialogue.

It’s not about the quality of the idea. It’s about the quality of the execution.

Screenwriting is a craft. It is a skill that must be learned.

Whether you have a feature and you’re 25 pages in, or you stopped writing after Act 1 of your tv pilot, the 30% point is ALWAYS where you feel the most resistance to finishing the story.

You’re far enough in where you’re seeing problems in the execution, but you’re not even halfway done!

It feels like it’s going to be constant pain to push to the end of a draft you’re just going to hate anyway.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

All you need to do is shift your belief on what you’re writing. You’re not writing your magnum opus, ready for the silver screen tomorrow.

You’re writing a first draft that will need rewrites. Writing is rewriting.

Finishing one “bad idea” will teach you so much more about storytelling than writing the first part of seven good ideas.

Let your first draft be bad.

And allow yourself to write imperfectly knowing that writing is a craft, and if you truly want to write well you must practice.

The skill of finishing is the hidden skill 99% of writers overlook.

If you can conquer Shiny Idea Syndrome and finish your draft, you will be ahead of so many writers who talk and talk, but never feel the deep satisfaction of completing what they set out to write.

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