We've finally got some peace in the house as I type this while The Prince sleeps in the next room. He's been supercranky the past two weeks, but his pediatrician, the one with the New York Magazine "Best Doctors in NY" covers on his wall next to his diplomas and the Xerox of an amusing chart of six cartoon faces in numerically-increasing levels of pain (amusing since The Prince's mug when he's crying and swinging punches makes them all look like he's eligible for nines across the board from the cartoon-pain judges) says he's fine, no Mommy-and-Daddy-undetectable ear infection causing him to wake several times a night. He thinks it's molars coming out, not that we can see them now. It's like we're waiting for an invisible rocket to launch with a two-week countdown clock that tends to go off at three-fifteen in the morning. Making matters more interesting is last night's development: I put The Prince into his crib, leaving the room while he cried in protest and banged his hands against the crib railing. About a minute after leaving his room, I turned back just in time to see him walking out into the kitchen, stunned and scared. He'd escaped his crib. Each time he's been placed in there since, he's climbed out all by himself. I'm considering changing his nickname to The Cooler King, but I'd be the only person who gets the joke, and I'm too damned tired to laugh for all of us.
So it's been a battle royale in our home with the prize being a good night's sleep and no one is the victor. I haven't been writing much, but truthfully, I can't lay all the blame on the baby. Ninety-nine percent of it is on me, because I.O.U., the script I'm working on, sucks.
Yeah, yeah, I hear you, everyone goes through this, self-doubt is an obstacle to be overcome like any other, yada yada.
It still sucks.
The meat of what sucks is in the premise and the treatment of that premise, plus some of the characters are weak and the dialogue, while sometimes funny, is glib and uninvolving.
So I've just decided to stop working on it. For now. I still like it and want to make it work, but I need a better open and better characterization. I wanted a modern screwball comedy with some wise-guy characters, but right now it reads like Damon Runyon translated into Latin, then into Sanskrit, then back into English. I need the distance only time can grant to give me perspective to plunder the gold from the gravel and try again.
But it's okay. In fact, it's really cool. I've found myself thinking a lot on an idea I'd had a year or so ago, a comedy about a newlywedded couple and...well, it's another high-concept plot-driven idea, but it's an idea that has grown on me and I feel like it could be - PLACE OMINOUS MUSIC CUE HERE - a hot idea, one that could make a popular movie, maybe even a hit.
NO, TOM! DON'T WRITE FOR THE MARKET!
Oh, don't worry, I'm not pounding away thinking I'm writing the next Ghost, the first flick that comes to mind when I think of strong word-of-mouth hits, but when I think of this idea, I find myself thinking of two women I used to work with years ago. On Monday mornings they'd talk about the weekend and if one had been to a movie, they'd discuss just the premise so as not to ruin the movie for the other, and sometimes they'd discuss trailers they'd seen too, and hot damn if it wasn't like a logline audition between the two of them. If I could meet them today and talk up this idea with them, I know they'd like it and want to see the movie. It's not the only reason to write the sucker, but it's good enough to kick me in the ass.
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4 comments:
Dude, don't do it. The reason you're excited about your new idea is because it's not your old idea. When you get down and dirty into the new idea, you'll think that one sucks, too.
The real test of who makes it in this business is about working through the suckiness feeling, even when you hate your script and are sure the next one will just write itself. Work on your current script. Push through the Suck until you like it again. Otherwise you'll just go from half-finished project to half-finished project and not understand why you never get anywhere.
I know you have no idea who I am, but I read your blog sometimes when I'm at work. I've had a little success in this business (sold a few episodes of a tv show) and I feel like I'm on the verge of more (have a "real" agent who's waiting for a rewrite from me from a script that we're both really excited about). I've been writing for a long time, way more than a year. So trust me on this one. Keep working on I.O.U. Your ability to push through it is what will separate you from all the other aspiring writers out there. You know, the ones who think writing is really fun, all the time. They're wrong.
You make some valid points and I'm seriously considering what you've said, Amy, but one thing:
"I've been writing for a long time, way more than a year."
Me too. The one year thing is just to see what I can do in the one year since I started the blog.
Sometimes an idea just sucks, and you have to move on. The trick is to revisit it in a few months, and see if you can find the spark that made it interesting to you in the first place.
re. I.O.U.- Your idea is terrific- If you need a break, fine- Do something else for awhile- But go back and finish the other- when you're ready to tackle it to the end-
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