A pep talk to myself

Now that classes have settled and the school year is underway I can get back to the business of screenwriting. I'm twiddling my thumbs a bit with Not Dead Yet. I'm waiting for the Nicholl results before I follow up on people who are reading my script because I think it's a big plus if I can say, "Hey have you read it yet? In case you're interested, the script just advanced to the quarterfinals in the Nicholl Fellowship."

And if I don't advance, I'll just pretend there's no such thing. But I figure if I can tell them that a script they already have may be a Nicholl finalist, they might get around to reading it faster. One of those guys has had it for 5 months, and this is a guy who has always gotten back to me in the past so I'm thinking it's still in a pile somewhere, not that he just didn't like it.

I'm having some trouble with the current script. That usual doubt is creeping up. The A story is perfectly fine and I feel confident about my love story and my fight scenes, but this one plot element has been bugging me. I've changed it three times and I'm still not happy. What's bothering me is the reason for the main couple to spend time with each other. Partly because this is a historical fiction story about a time I didn't live through so I feel scared I'm going to write an impossible scenario.

Yeah, I know. I need to relax about it. I had no trouble whatsoever inventing ways for zombies to die, but I lose sleep over whether or not my couple should open a school together or just go around together to talk to parents. Both of those things sound horribly boring given this is a martial arts film.

It doesn't help that Next Idea has almost fully formed in my head. I got this idea for a low budget Sci Fi thing a la Primer but faster paced and with more gunfire and it's all I can think about at night. But back when, this Burn Side script was the only thing I could think about. So if I abandon it because I'm too paranoid of fucking up historical accuracy, I'm just going to move on to a movie I'll end up abandoning because I'm afraid of fucking up scientific accuracy. At some point I have to draw a line.

I will finish this script. Then I will give it to my mom to read because she is an expert in the period I have chosen and I will say to her, Mom is this accurate? And if she says no then she can help me fix it. And if she says yes then I will shut my brain off and go with it.

But I have to get moving. I'm serious this time.