Just move onto the next damn project. I did this with my first short film. I worked hard for months perfecting the script. The shoots went great as well. I was happy my director shot each scene as is. Then, I don't know what he did during editing. We saw the final film in the theater and it SUCKED. The picture was blurred, the sound was off, the cuts weren't smooth, some shots were too short while other footage not important to the story filled the 10 minute limit. I was disappointed, but went and celebrated with the crew.It was our first film. We were glad we completed a project. That was enough. This was several months back. This week, I'm working on my first feature. I've been stuck since yesterday; so, here I am reading Scott's posts and commenting like crazy. So, just move onto the next damn project.

Anna, sorry about the fate of your short film. Hopefully just the first in a long future of many more films, each of them good ones. You say you're stuck. Where are you in the process? Are you prepping the story? Actually into page-writing? Maybe I'll post a writing question later today: What do you do when you're stuck in your story-writing process? Perhaps someone will post something there that will un-stick you! This just popped to mind: Why don't you have a conversation today with one or more of your story's characters? No goal in mind other than to simply check in with them. One way to do this is open a Word file, put your fingers on your keyboard, close your eyes, fix the characters in mind, then just start typing. Follow the course of where your brain goes, but just type for 15, 20, 30 minutes, however long you can engage the characters. Maybe that can create a path for you?

Thanks a lot Scott. I'm stuck writing pages. I started act I with what I had developed in the past months. Then, the characters took the story to a new direction which I like.But, now my outline is obsolete. So, I guess it's not that I'm stuck, stuck but unwilling to kill my darlings and go through the whole process of plotting again. Anyway, I'll do the free-writing/interview you suggested, I'm sure my characters will supply the answers I'm looking for. Besides, I can always ditch the new story and go back to the old one, right? Thanks again.

[...] Scott Myers: “I wrote a movie that sucked. I don’t think it sucked so much because of my contribution. In fact, the script got me a ton of work. When the studio went out with the project, dozens of hot young directors vied for the gig. A writer-director famous for two memorable teen movies told me the script was the best thing she’d read in years. And yet the movie sucked. How bad? It sucked so much that it went from plans for a wide theatrical release on thousands of movie screens to a straight to video release.” [...]

I watched "Tales from the Script" last night. If you haven't seen it, I highly suggest a viewing. John Carpenter, Shane Black, William Goldman, and a slew of others wax poetic on the entire biz. In the end they all say the same thing. All you can do is write and move on to the next project. "Hell," says Carpenter, "at least they paid you." (or something to that effect.)

That has to be Amy Heckerling who complimented your script, right? One of the most under-appreciated gems out there.

Bingo.

Thank you for a very interesting post. Here is a follow-up question: How do you know it sucks? I didn't really liked a short film based on my script, since the director from my point of view, removed the essentials. But people I've talked to, like it. So when do you know it sucks? Release directly to DVD is one thing to be aware of, of course, but it is no guaranty either way. Then another interesting thing is, it seems like then the movie is great, the director gets the credit. If it is bad, the screenwriter gets the blame. Is this true?

That's a good question. It's probably helpful to divide your thinking into two perspectives. One is business. The other is aesthetic. You may think a movie of yours sucks, but from a business standpoint, the reaction and/or B.O. is good. Well, I guess you live with the irony, yes? My post was more about if you think the movie sucks and the critical / B.O. reaction is the same. Dealing with that type of thing on a purely aesthetic (personal) level is tricky. I remember meeting a screenwriter once, a veteran of the business with many hit movies among his credits. But one movie in particular which had failed seemed to be the one he rather obsessed over. How much? He told me he had somehow acquired a print of the film, then hired an editor to recut it so that it more reflected his vision of the story... just so he could screen it from he and his friends at his house (as I recall, he lived in Beverly Hills; in any event, he had his own private screening room in his home). That reflects a fundamental reality of the movie business, at least how it is in Hollywood: Movies are a director's medium. They are the ones the studios hire to make the movie. And so there will always be that layer between what you write and what they make. There are instances, of course, where the director takes what you write and elevates the material. Times when they share your vision and put that on the screen. Times where they want you on the set. Then there are a majority of cases where whatever you wrote gets rewritten by a few or a lot of other writers, and you are far away from the production process. At that point, it's anybody's guess how the movie will turn out and how much of your story ends up in the final cut. If you can't learn to live with that, you can become a writer-director. Or a novelist.

Had no idea Jim Bean was a whiskey; thought he was a real dude.