Scott--really enjoying this series of posts. As a newbie it's easy to get wrapped up in creating and forget to step back and look at what I'm trying to accomplish. Right now I'm working my story out so as I work on my outline your comments are helpful to have in mind as I move towards the point I'm ready to write the first draft. So thanks for the reminders!

Meg, best of luck with your first draft. I think I've mentioned it previously, but it bears repeating. My screenwriting mantra about first drafts is this: "Just get the damn thing done!" After you've done all your prep and you type FADE IN, do everything in your power to keep plowing ahead to FADE OUT. Most scripts end up on the scrap pile because writers get stuck in the first draft and they drop the project. Even if what you're writing seems like total crap, keep going. The very process of going all the way to the end should benefit you enormously in gaining deeper insight into your story.

BTW, I love your quote: "I am fascinated by the whole concept of creating--one minute there's nothing and then the next there IS something." I share your fascination. There is a unique type of creativity to concoct story concepts from nothing, to create a script from nothing.

I remember my first day on the set of K-9, looking around at this huge crew like 200 people, and my then writing partner Steve Siegel turning to me to say, "If it weren't for us, none of these people would be here." A very tangible result of creativity!

Again good luck with your first draft!

No worries, Scott. This reminder from one prolific writer is next to my computer:
"No quitting halfway through because "it's not working". You get nothing from an unfinished project, and you learn nothing."
~Stephen J. Cannell