What's holding you back?

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  • What's holding you back?

    Talent? Work Ethic? Knowledge of craft? All 3? What are the weakest points of your screenwriting game?

  • #2
    Re: What's holding you back?

    Oh man this is going to be good.

    I'll cheat and break this into external and internal.

    Knowledge is what's holding me back internally
    . I get so little feedback that I don't even know if I'm good, so I don't even know how to improve. I can only follow feelings, hoping they take me the right direction and not backwards. That thematic however also gives me my greatest potential strength. If I do make gold, it will be a new type of gold, my brand of gold. That would put me in my own category as I have no outside input.

    Knowledge is what's holding me back externally. I don't know anyone in the industry. Even if I had gold, there is no one there to see it. This is also my greatest strength, not having anyone there to guide/help me has forced me to produce my own material. I've had to develop a lot of confidence due to this, but when I strike oil, I will own the refinery.
    Last edited by Mpimentel; 01-11-2017, 07:08 AM.
    "We're going to be rich!" - 1/2 hr COMEDY written/directed/edited by me, I also act in it.
    SUBTITLED
    Episode 1 (Beef pills)
    Episode 2 (African commercial)
    Episode 3 (Brenda's rescue)

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    • #3
      Re: What's holding you back?

      Right now it's the (insert filthiest, most appalling expletives in the English language here) dialogue.

      For better or for worse I think I spend so much of my (limited) creative capital on the plot that there's approximately $4.19 left over for the lines. F me dead Roger.

      Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, all kinds of things could be holding me back but I don't think about anything like that too much. I just show up and keep going, like some mindless single-cell organism or decapitated chicken (that still manages to squawk -- at least there's that!).

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      • #4
        Re: What's holding you back?

        These shackles that are chained to the wall...

        - Bill
        Free Script Tips:
        http://www.scriptsecrets.net

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        • #5
          Re: What's holding you back?

          It's this Damn butt plug again.
          Free Script Reads and Notes

          ​
          ​

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          • #6
            Re: What's holding you back?

            I'm the laziest son of a bitch in the world. And I Gold Metal in Procrastination.

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            • #7
              Re: What's holding you back?

              For me, I'd say work ethic. I get tired of doing passes through a script before I can get all the story problems out of the structure and get all my word choices and word order functioning in my prose.

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              • #8
                Re: What's holding you back?

                A time machine. Or really a lack thereof.
                Last edited by UneducatedFan; 01-04-2017, 07:29 AM. Reason: additional.
                You know Jill you remind me of my mother. She was the biggest whore in Alameda and the finest woman that ever lived. Whoever my father was, for an hour or for a month, he must have been a happy man.

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                • #9
                  Re: What's holding you back?

                  Originally posted by Cyfress View Post
                  Talent? Work Ethic? Knowledge of craft? All 3? What are the weakest points of your screenwriting game?
                  All three. And the fact that I'm too old.
                  STANDARD DISCLAIMER: I'm a wannabe, take whatever I write with a huge grain of salt.

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                  • #10
                    Re: What's holding you back?

                    What is holding me back? Hmmm...

                    The fact that I can't stop myself from calling fake people out. Wait, that was a couple of reasons ago, I think I managed to stifle that.

                    The fact that people telling me what to do really pissed me off. Oh wait, I got over that, too!

                    The fact that I had absolutely no experience and my writing was mediocre, at best. Oops, fixed that too!

                    So what's holding me back?

                    NOTHING!

                    Brace yourselves mother fvckers! I'm heading for Hollywood very soon!

                    As someone said a few years ago, I'm going to drop out of the sky with the thud of an anvil when it's least expected!
                    Last edited by LMPurves; 01-04-2017, 01:20 AM.
                    il faut d'abord durer

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                    • #11
                      Re: What's holding you back?

                      It's all Obi-Wan's fault. He's jealous. He's holding me back.

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                      • #12
                        Re: What's holding you back?

                        The sheer drudgery of sending query letters (especially when I seriously doubt anyone will ever reply) gets a gold star in laziness.

                        Spending too long trying to find a manager only to realise that it really, really, really wasn't the best route (and led to nowhere), kind of nets the knowledge.

                        But mainly, I'd say it's not the concepts or the content, but a simple lack of getting it read. You can call that denial if you like, but it's my honest belief.
                        Cufk, Tish, Sips.

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                        • #13
                          Re: What's holding you back?

                          One of the biggest things that's been holding me down is the fact[s] that I don't have real contacts in the industry yet, and have difficulty schmoozing [heck, even going to parties isn't easy].

                          Still, I do what I can, by querying and sending written pitches, and going to formal daytime/evening industry-related events.

                          The other thing holding me back is that while I can come up with good plot points, great ideas and neat characters, and the occasional good line of dialogue, it's the connective tissue, everything in between, that isn't so great.

                          But I've gotten steadily better at that in my last few scripts. Based upon external feedback, I felt good enough about my latest to even enter it in a contest.
                          https://devonmw.wordpress.com/

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                          • #14
                            Re: What's holding you back?

                            Lack of time and depression that makes motivation a struggle. I'm sure lack of talent is in there too but why focus on that?

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                            • #15
                              Re: What's holding you back?

                              Sometimes, people don't know they can be more than they are, and it's as simple as that for me.

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