Our arts, our occupations, our marriages, our religion, we have not chosen, but society has chosen for us. We are parlour soldiers. We shun the rugged battle of fate, where strength is born. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Next to Resistance, rational thought is the artist or entrepreneurs worst enemy. Bad things happen when we employ rational thought, because rational thought comes from the ego. Instead, we want to work from the Self, that is, from instinct and intuition, from the unconscious.
A child has no trouble believing the unbelievable, nor does the genius or the madman. Its only you and I, with our big brains and our tiny hearts, who doubt and overthink and hesitate.” - Steven Pressfield, Do the Work
The idea of “being realistic” holds all of us back. From starting a business or quitting a job to dating someone who may not be our type or moving to a new place – getting “real” often means putting your dreams on hold.
Today, let’s take a step away from rational thought and dare to be bold. What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to accomplish but have been afraid to pursue? Write it down. Also write down the obstacles in your way of reaching your goal. Finally, write down a tangible plan to overcome each obstacle.
The only thing left is to, you know, actually go make it happen. What are you waiting for?
(Author: Matt Cheuvront)
I've always wanted to send one of my feature film scripts to agents for production.
Standing in my way is:
- Several scripts in revision stage that I have not continued working on recently.
- My fear of success.
- My fear of failure.
- My fear that I will be too attached to the script and not want it to be butchered by a re-write by someone else or a bad director.
- My attachment to my stories and characters
- The time I have to finish the scripts.
- Wanting to send it out now even though they are not ready.
- My lack of networking skills.
- Not getting paid to write for a living yet.
- Questions in my mind about how I should go about doing it rather than just trying different approaches and seeing what happens.
- Not being willing to use the contacts I have to progress even though I would happily help someone in the same position if I had an in.
Plan:
- Start working on a feature script once Nanowrimo for the summer is over.
- Research all the different ways I can send scripts to agents, using all the documentation I have saved and downloaded over the last months.
- Give my script out to those who know how to read a script and ask for feedback or join a screenwriting group that I trust.
- Decide who my feature would suit before sending it out in a cold query.
- Enter the script into festivals.
- Copyright my work.
- Start asking friends who they work for and if they know anyone who knows anyone who could pass on my script. Maybe do this in return for a favor for them so that they don't feel totally used and abused by me.
- Work harder to get paid for writing articles (as you already know you can hint hint!)
- Start working out how I can best network and how I could feel comfortable doing this.
- Meditate on my fear of success and failure.
- Ask myself what would happen if I did succeed/ fail...what would my next steps be?
- Pick a script that I feel is most marketable and work on that one first.
- Pitch the script to film friends and ask them which one they would be most interested in seeing/ making etc.
- Use the time i have left here in Oman to FINISH (or at least try and finish) revisions on a feature. Don't waste it away on blogging challenges like this one (which is great, but which takes away from screenwriting).
- Meditate on giving away my script and watching it go nowhere.
- Meditate on non-attachment to my work.
I shouldn't be waiting for anything, but I'm waiting until mid-July I reckon.
That's my goal for now.
