The Choice
You can mess around on the internet, you can listen to music, you can walk your dog, you can play video games, you can go on social media, you can text your mom, you can eat ice cream, you can take a nap, you can argue with your racist Uncle, and you have the choice to do a thousand other things, but they won’t get your screenplay written, they won’t get your film made, and they won’t make your dreams happen.
As screenwriters and filmmakers today, there is more opportunity for you to tell your story then there ever has before. There has also never been more opportunity for distraction. I don’t know what it takes to go from being a consumer to a creator. I have been doing my best to tell stories for too long.
If you’re starting out and you want to be a screenwriter, try free-writing exercises. This will at least help get you in the habit of writing.
Know what your goals are. One of my goals is to write a guidebook on filmmaking. Another goal is to make my first feature this year. Setting those goals and telling my friends about them makes me accountable (and writing about it also makes me accountable to you).
No one expects you to be great when you just get started. I’ve written scripts that have made me cringe. But then I put that draft aside, and I start on the next one. If I’m not happy with how a film turned out, I don’t just quit. I try to figure out where I made mistakes and I do my best to learn from those mistakes.
Another goal for Bridgeport Film Club is to release a new short film every month this year. So far, so good.
When I’m not spending time in the chair writing, I set aside some time to plan. I have the over-arching bullet points for the year planned out. Across the board, I would like to become more productive. I hope that maintaining this blog will be a goal-post for that.
If you want to be a screenwriter, then write. If you want to be a director, then direct. You have the resources and you have your imagination to make things happen.
Every script that has ever been written takes time in the chair. Make sure you set aside time every day to write or work on your filmmaking goals. If you want to be a filmmaker, it’s time for you to make the choice.
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