“I’m so screwed”
As you may know, we have a peer script review site called The GITS Club. Its moderator Mike Scherer passed along a comment from one of its members ZZ that they posted on the site, something I suspect many of us have experienced in our own writing:
I’m stuck. Working on a page-1 rewrite of the 4th draft of my first script. An action thriller set in Yosemite Park. I have the basic premise, but throughout the drafts, I have been unable to get the protagonist the way I’d like him.
I have another idea, a comedy idea, which I feel has a great concept, and I think I can complete quickly — I know that shouldn’t be a consideration, but it is, sorry.
I don’t want to get caught up, trying to perfect something that just isn’t there, but don’t want to quit on myself either. I have given this numerous drafts, and just don’t know if it works. I have quit on projects before even getting one draft deep, before, and I hate not finishing, but if I’m not feeling inspired…what’s the point.
What should I do? Stick with it? Or move on?
Have any of you faced this situation? What did you do? What advice might you have for ZZ? I have some thoughts, but I’m sure we’d all like to see what members of the GITS community have in the way of insight into this conundrum.
And while you’re at it, why don’t you check out The GITS Club. It’s a small community of writers who are willing to post their stories and critique in a constructive way the pages of other writers.
Many thanks to Mike S for his continued oversight of TGC.
UPDATE: First off, let me thank the GITS community for taking the time to respond as you did. Your basic advice — be willing to move onto the other project — is sound, but it’s almost as important for ZZ or any other writer facing this challenge to know they are not alone. Getting stuck in writing a story is an issue that confronts us all. And sometimes there is a strength that comes in numbers — the fact there are other people out there who know what we are experiencing — that transcends advice.
Per the advice: I do think a writer must be willing to move onto another project. The creative process is almost by default a messy one and stories are not widgets. If after much effort and consideration you really feel like you’re absolutely stuck and/or your instincts are pulling you toward another project, there is no shame in shifting focus to the other story. As most comments noted, you can always come back to the first project. Sometimes getting distance from it can engender solutions to story problems when you return.
Two caveats:
(1) If your first story is an especially strong high concept, one about which you say, “How the hell has nobody thought about this before,” I would dig into the story one last time. Fantastic story concepts do not grow on trees. And like it or not, there are hundreds of thousands of other writers conjuring up ideas everyday. Being engaged in a not so fulfilling way with a story is one level of hell. Waking up to discover your story concept has sold as a spec script is a much, much deeper immersion in a writer’s underworld.
(2) Per this from the OP: “I have the basic premise, but throughout the drafts, I have been unable to get the protagonist the way I’d like him.” Sounds like the problem is with your Protagonist. And that is a problem because more often than not, the Protagonist is the most important character in your story, not only in terms of visibility and page count, but in actually determining the flow of the Plotline and Themeline. If you don’t get your Protagonist straight, you can’t expect to get your story straight.
Per the screenwriting guru Hannibal Lecter, heed his advice: “First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing, ask: What is it, in itself, what is its nature…? What does he do, this man you seek.” In other words, what is the core essence of your Protagonist. How to determine that? Start by asking these two questions:
What does the Protagonist want?
What does the Protagonist need?
Often a Protagonist has a conscious goal (want). Equally as often, a Protagonist has an unexpressed goal (need). What this translates into is a divided character. That essential state of Disunity is the starting point for most Protagonist characters, at least those involved in a story wherein the Protagonist goes through some sort of metamorphosis, which is the case in most stories.
Perhaps you have yet to drill down far enough into your Protagonist to determine their emotional truth. Why not have another go with them? As opposed to you trying to “get the protagonist the way [you’d] like him,” why not let the Protagonist inform you of their true nature?
Again thanks GITS readers for taking the time to respond. Wonderful people who read this blog. Reinforce the central truth: Writers are writers’ best friends.
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