The Danger of the Story You've Always Wanted to Write
A lot of writers have that one thing they’ve always wanted to work on. It’s been in their head for years, maybe even decades, changing and growing and becoming the ultimate story that’s bound to be great, right? And then they finally start, shaping and toiling, crafting the perfect piece of work. It’s all amazing, just like they imagined!
No wait… there’s a better idea. This new idea could revolutionize the story, they just have to change a fundamental of what they’ve already written, but the scenes that need to go are too close to their heart. If they delete something, then the audience will see their perfectly crafted character differently, and the abandoned scenes and plotlines will rot in their head. Each scene was imagined so carefully, so detailed and planned, imagined for so long that any altering ruins everything! What’s supposed to replace it doesn’t have the same familiarity; it’s too new, has no legacy like the rest of the work. It’s like you can see the stitches on the page and the replacement isn’t as vivid as the other scenes that have been imagined hundreds of times before.
Take a step back.
