First script? Give yourself a chance
Are you just starting out? Here's my tip - don't kill yourself - give yourself a chance by starting small.
Learning the craft of screenwriting takes time and patience and tremendous discipline. And then when you actually write, when you’re in the middle of a script - it’s the most exhilarating place to be in the world - so yes, it’s all worth it! When you’re starting out, it can be dauting.
Are you thinking of tackling something vast, like the Civil War, mankind in the 3rd millenium, Hitler vs Aliens, sabotaging Cape Canaveral - or some grand idea? If your passion lies with something huge like that - then by all means - write your passion. But understand that you do stand a better chance if you start by creating a small world. Every professional reader will tell you that they can instantly spot it if a writer doesn’t know the world he or she is writing about. Researching the Civil War or the inner workings of Cape Canaveral will take months and months - and that can seriously slow your flow (and the joy of it) when you’re just starting out.
For your first script, create a world the size of a room, a house or a village. Seriously - think about it. Try and write scenes in your room. Try to squeeze the most excitement / drama / thrills / mystery / laughter out of that one room you know so well. Trust me - the fact that you know your room inside out will show on the page. And that’s just one thing - of course a small world is easier to research. But a small world also narrows down the creative options and that’s greatly helpful, too. Just imagine a room with a thousand doors, a village with a thousand homes and a thousand families. “What ifs” galore! Countless options that can block your flow... Now imagine instead a room with just one door, or a village with seven houses... the options narrow. It’ll still be a challenge to write a great script, I can assure you - but within a narrow frame such as that, your chances of actually finishing that first script are excellent.
Important to remember, by the way - your first script is about writing, about learning - not about selling or picking up the Oscar. It’s about learning the craft, having fun and reaching that wonderous moment when you write “The End.”
