DID I FINISH THE FIRST DRAFT?

Hello and welcome back. I hope you all had a great week. I know you must all probably be wondering how the writing went, and did I finish the first version of the script. Well, let's cut to the chase.

Where am I currently at?

I am sorry to disappoint, but I did not finish the screenplay. Actually, I barely wrote anything at all. Now, although I am not really very proud of this, I do think there is a very important lesson to be learned here. But first, let’s go over the facts.

As you know, I had set out to finish the first draft of my feature film. That was about 45 pages written in about 5 days. Keep in mind these were 5 days where I had absolutely nothing to do, and while this might seem like a blessing, it ended up being a curse. I didn’t take my own advice. The reality is that I got too hung up with the thought of making a great screenplay. I wanted it to work, and it just didn’t. I kept going back to the drawing board, hoping I would find what was awry. But in the end, I couldn’t. What's more, I felt super tired and drained, both physically and emotionally. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that I felt tired at just the thought of writing. And so, I tried and failed for over 5 days. I didn’t leave the house. I stopped exercising. Honestly, I just wanted to finish. But I couldn’t. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the lesson.

We need to put the process of making art before the result, and we must find balance within our lives. The reality is that I lost my balance. I was so caught up in trying to finish that every day I fell behind, I had less and less energy. In addition to this, I just got caught up with the final result. I simply didn’t allow the process to move forward, and I think we often do this as artists. We want to see a good result now, or even a perfect result, that we forget that this is but a part of our process. The first draft is not where our job as writers ends; it is where it begins.

How am I approaching the challenges?

Now, likely this is not the first time you've heard me talk about this idea of putting the process before the result. But it is an important one. And as you can see, we can easily forget it, and by "we," I mean me.

So right now, I don’t really have an outcome goal. I’ll try to get the first act as soon as possible, but honestly, I have a goal of writing 3 hours per day, not really worrying about getting a perfect first draft. On top of that, I also started working out or going for morning walks, putting some time aside for proper rest, and prioritizing my sleep schedule. Now, I’m not going to sit here and pretend like I have it all figured out, and that I won’t get massively blocked again, but hey, all we can do is try and learn from our mistakes and keep on improving, little by little.

I’ll keep you posted

So, guys, I hope you enjoyed this little update. I’m just trying to keep it as real as I can with you. And hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes, or at least feel a little less lonely in your own journey. Also, I’ve been thinking of putting on a little recommendation section, maybe a couple of recommended films every week, so let me know if you’d like to see that. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next week!