Don't rush

 I can breathe through my nose again. Hooray!  On the wall of my home office I have a whiteboard. It shows project types and due dates. There's a short screenplay listed, as well as a feature screenplay and a novel. In the past I would have blown through each of these writing projects and jumped on another. But one of the things I learned in my year long screenwriting mentorship is "slow down", "don't rush". Do you know there are screenwriters that take years to perfect a script? Novelist that take years to write a novel. It's not that they are bad writers, or inherently slow. They understand that our best work is done at a gradual pace. 

Think about it. Would you want your surgeon to speed through an operation on you,  that he or she knows would take five hours, and complete it in thirty minutes? Of course not. So why do some writers, as I used to be, think that their greatest work can be accomplished at lightning speed? 

Take your time. 

And I get it. I'd love to have sold a screenplay by now. Or have a novel traditionally published. But I also know my best work, my most amazing work, is what I am currently working on. And I am okay with taking my time. 

Please don't rush your process. You may encounter people that push you to turn something in, or to finish your draft. Don't. Use your voice. Say not yet. We owe it to ourselves as writers to give careful consideration to the words and characters and worlds that make up our stories. That kind of weaving takes time. 

Let it.

Short Screenwriting

 Shorts in Screenwriting

Due to this horrific cold I’m enduring, this week’s post will be brief. Let’s talk about writing screenplay shorts. If you think they’re like short stories, your wrong. If you think they’re like flash fiction, your close. Short scripts have to drop you in the middle, give you enough to understand the situation, mix in conflict, escalation, and  then resolve it. Resolution doesn’t mean happily ever after. It means resolve the conflict. You can have a post teaser if you want it mid credits. I’m currently working on another short screenplay that must be done by the end of this month. 

And now this is  the end of this post. 

The unknown path

I was staring at the blank page today. It's time to start a new writing project and I was feeling a moment of uncertainty. Which project should I work on? Should I do a scifi or horror screenplay? Should I do an animated screenplay? What about a YA scifi novel? Each has its own exciting adventure, ready to pull me in. But as I reflected on the past year of a screenwriting mentorship, I had the honor of participating in, I thought about what I've learned. I grew not just as a writer, but as a person.  I have the confidence to tackle any subject and take my characters on a full emotional journey with consequences, triumphs, setbacks, losses and hope. 

The Bible says faith is the substance of things not seen. And it is. Hope is evidence of faith. In the picture above, taken at the Nature Preserve at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, there is a path. You can't see what lies beyond the curve. You have an idea, but you really can't see. You see there is a well marked path and you walk on it, fully believing you will arrive where you plan. And you do. 

But the path of life you didn't make, God did. There's curves on that path. Areas you cannot see the outcome of. Hope is for those moments. Faith gets your feet walking. Hope gets your heart pumping. 

I hope as you go through your days this week, you remember to walk in Faith and Hope in the unseen. 

I am going to get to work on my next screenplay.