What a super new mantra. It resonates well with me.

I used to fish the walleye run in the Maumee River (Toledo, OH). Tall and brawny men wearing beards arrive from all over the world to wade waist-deep and catch these scrumptious fish as they slam up the ice-melt to spawn. Then there was I -- five foot, four and therefore too short to stand in the shoulder-to-shoulder line of Men in Waders in the strong current.

So... as they repeatedly cast far into the racing river I did the only thing I could. I cast my jig BEHIND the line of fishermen. And I caught some gorgeous walleye and a whole bunch of envious cussing from the big boys.

Just to complete your metaphor, I remember the first time something underwater rammed my waders. I thought someone had approached too close and bumped me, but no. Another thing bashed into my leg, and I realized the walleye were swimming BETWEEN US FISHERMEN and WOMAN!

Happy fishing, Scott!

"Top of feet" burns are the worst.

Best "Biz of Screenwriting" post ever.

Luckily I learned this lesson the hard way years back but it's always nice to get a booster shot.

Sun burnt toes! Painful, and funny, and damn fine reason to sleep in. And yay Luke caught fish!

Lumet mentioned in Making Movies that first forays tend to be heavy-handed. I saw it in an intro photo class, first project, portraits. I looked around at all the work. No matter what their background, all the men did naked women portraits, particularly the titillating bits, and all the women did depressed byronesque poses, self-portraits. Omg I snickered, and was oddly touched (so human and universal, this phenomena). The first time of anything will be too literal, too adamant, too heavy-handed.

That said, I think you need to be passionate about something in the work to attach to it long enough to make music (study on creativity, diff between non and artists, essentially length of time you stare at something, focus).

Light handed and graceful, so audience can wrap around it as they wish, taking in as little or as much of the depth you packed effortlessly (ha) in. That's my goal. (And let's see if my primitive first scriptwriting attempts were sufficient sacrifice to the god of newbies, so that future work might pretty please involve less clunk.)

@judy: I know a woman in LA - not part of the film business, but her husband is - who runs with a pack of professional women whose hobby is fly-fishing. She and her husband own a cabin up in Montana and these women go up there - or used to - to fish on the Madison River. But I bet none them ever caught a walleye like you did! What a terrific memory to carry with you, those images, sounds, and sensations.

@Atlanta: Your point about passion is important. That's why in the OP - and whenever I discuss with a writer what story they should undertake - I always talk about making sure they have some point of emotional resonance with the material. Otherwise it's a terribly hard slog, wading through a story you just don't care about, and the end result is likely to reflect that fact.