Scott, I find this topic very relevant and timely.....as with all your other Reader mailbags and "If you're a beginning screenwriter" series. It's like you read my mind and put out blogs I didn't even realize I needed until I tune in. Thanks! I have a hard time dealing with criticism. It's just like being punched in the stomach. I walk around feeling terrible the whole day. Sometimes even the whole week. So, I don't deal with disappointment well at all. :)

Wow. I really do not know how you write so fast. I literally just asked the question yesterday and you've already come up with a full well-thought out blog post, full of links and even an illustration. You pointed out additional things that didn't occur to me. Nothing gets me angrier than being rewritten. It's like your spouse coming to you one day saying they've replaced you with another and expecting you to be cool about it. The other one that seems to hit home is getting beat to a project. How do these writers keep thinking of stuff that I've been privately working on for a while...argh! Just out of curiosity, how do you physically deal with disappointment? Do you go to the theater and shake it off. Listen to Tony Robbins? I'll probably have to re-read your blog 5 more times to really get a handle on it.

Glad you've discovered the blog, Cheryl. If you're not following me on Twitter, I advise you to do that. That way, you get links to blog posts as well as other observations I make each day, plus articles of interest I flag. Twitter: @GoIntoTheStory. Also check out the archives. Literally thousands of posts on EVERY conceivable subject related to screenwriting specifically and writing generally. Welcome to the GITS community!

How do I handle the blog, teach, and do my own writing? Easy. I don't actually do any work. Rather I have a phalanx of writers chained to desks in a dank basement office in the Marianas Islands. I had them drugged, then shipped over in container ships. They are unpaid, of course. I call them 'interns'. [For the humor impaired... that is a joke.] How do I PHYSICALLY deal with disappointment? Well, vomiting is a pretty natural reaction. The dent in my forehead matches one in my office wall. There's also a margarita machine with a built-in IV drip for quicker efficiency after the delivery of Bad News. Seriously, one thing I do is exercise. I run. I bike. That is one key to maintaining my sanity. Not just for dealing with disappointments, but the insanely hectic nature of my life. At a more specific level, since I have been involved in the entertainment business for nearly 40 years (music, stand-up comedy, screenwriting, TV) is I make a deal with myself: Whenever I receive some Bad News, I give myself one day to pout. Actually more like one night. Sequester myself in my office. Zone out clicking on online sports sites. Watch a depressing movie to match my mood. But the next day, I'm back at it. If it's a draft of a script which has been received poorly, I look at the notes and start assessing how to fix in rewrites. If something happens in the news which blows up a story I have been developing for years -- AS JUST HAPPENED A WEEK AGO!!! -- I see if I can salvage the project. If not, move onto the next one. But always, exercise. Get outside. Feel your breath. Feet pounding the ground. Work your muscles. Where I live, I'm surrounded by Nature. Birds, deer, rabbits, hawks. A bazillion trees. And this time of year, they look like this. That's LITERALLY what my running path looks like in October. In other words, realize there is BEAUTY in the world. As a creative person, who better to appreciate CREATION? One hour outside engaging with the REAL WORLD relativizes virtually anything that happens in the Unreal World of Hollywood. You want a physical response to disappointment? Get out in Nature and have a METAPHYSICAL response. On so many levels, Hollywood is a stupid and silly place. Yes, wondrous stories emerge from its bowels. But the PROCESS how all that happens is often utterly nutty. If you study a tree or a flower for even 5 minutes, you will discover more sense and meaning there than a lifetime in Hollywood.

LOL. You watch depressing movies to match the mood too?... I thought I was the only one. Actually, rumor has it that there's a Mutiplicity thing going on behind the scenes. Scott 1 does all the screenwriting; Scott 2 all the day to day stuff; and Scott 3 handles the blog and all the reader questions.

I totally relate...I once almost lost my mind over one script, but God literally saved me...learnt the hard way: 1. I cannot be broke and creative at the same time...no creative juices flow when I cannot pay for my stuff...clogs the system...second jobs provide this freedom to take risks with my creative attempts, on the other extreme...plus, a second job gives a priceless exposure over life that I could use in anything artistic that I do (not just writing)... 2. "Diversify my portfolio"...It was a painful moment for me to realize it is just wrong to put my entire being in ONE thing: if it falls, I fall, too...I can diversify...other interests...different circles of friends...different initiatives...gives a totally different flavor to life...puts everything in its place...a proactive antidote to inevitable disappointments... But right at those moments when all of the above doesn't seem to justify the frustration I feel, I throw my tantrums, cry my tears, wipe it all off, and put faith in the fact that there are many opportunities out there ready for the pick up...all the positive steps I've taken will compound...and one day I'll experience the "ketchup bottle effect": shake...shake...nothing...shake...shake...shake...BOM!! Scott...great outdoors ?

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