Dispatch From The Quest: Miranda Sajdak

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch which I will share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding of the craft from the experiences of the Questers. I should also add the Questers are a great group of people, so I expect you will enjoy getting to know them.

Today: Miranda Sajdak shares some thoughts as she begins our process together:

I’ll jump right into it: “The Quest” is not going to be easy. This is a good thing; writing a feature should involve serious thought, and I know I’m going to learn a lot from the lectures, from Scott, and from the other Questers. There’s something both wonderful and terrifying about reading these lectures — the knowledge, first of all, that I’m truly embarking on a journey that will bolster my writing capabilities is absolutely wonderful. With that, however, comes the fear — that the script won’t turn out well, or that it won’t be good enough; that the lectures or exercises won’t help; or just generically massive failure on every level.

The reading is wonderful, and informative, and, in a (good) way, incredibly reminiscent of film school texts. The best part is the amount of information Scott has managed to cohesively present; some of it I’ll use, some if it I probably won’t, but all of it is helpful in that it presents a concentrated perspective on narrative, screenplay structure, and writing. While I admit to an element of intimidation in this first week, I’m ultimately excited by it: change only comes through challenging yourself, and this workshop seems like it will be a great challenge.

Thanks, Miranda, for this ice-breaker. You have broached a subject every writer has to face: fear of failure. I’ve got some thoughts on the matter and I will share those in the next post. Let me just say here I think we all appreciate your honesty in raising this subject, the terror of the unknown and the dark clouds of negativity a presence that is a hectoring passenger in all of our creative journeys. It takes courage to go public with that type of ‘confession’. That courage suggests you will rise to the “great challenge” in this six-month sojourn.

Tomorrow: Another Dispatch From The Quest.

About Miranda: New Englander turned Angeleno by way of New York. Enjoys: high-powered action films, dark dramas, and ’90s legal thrillers. Does not enjoy: the dentist. Mushrooms. @ScriptChix

Comment Archive