Use the fear to push you, not hold you back.

Helpful, yes! Fear so easily owns us. Bullies the lot of us. Until that moment on the playground when you, or the quiet kid off to the right, under the hoop, decides he or she's had enough. And takes fear into her own hands. Dictates the terms and creates positive fear. Fear as our frenemy. Fear as facilitator. Fear as our responsibility, to keep on a leash, to keep from barking in the night, to master. Helpful in the extreme, Karl & Scott. Thanks!

Love it

Scott. One thing I really love about working with you and reading this blog, is how your soul shines so much in dealing with each of us. Your responses and commentary is as meaningful as the films and creatives you cover. It's no surprise you studied Divinity ... I love this post. And, I also love this line I've read from you a number of times: "That year has become the rest of my life." That's some powerful stuff. Keep writing. Onward!

I love this post, too. And I agree with dockane, regarding your blog. Like I've said before, you give and give... It has been a real motivational push, knowing there's a league of Zero Draftees, marching beside me across these vast blank pages. Strength in numbers, indeed. Pray you don't mind being our commander in chief and drum corp, Scott.

Yeah, those are real fears: "What if these pages suck," "what if I embarrass myself?" "what if I'm not as good as I think I am?".... and I'd add "What if I'm wasting my time or wasted years out of my life." I had lunch with a lawyer and he told me that he basically quit because his girlfriend gave him an ultimatum and he outlined those very questions.... He sounded a little like George McFly... but I could see a little glimmer that he was still drawn to this.

Very resonant post. I find myself on both sides. There is fear about my abilities or fear of wasting my time and so on, but I have absolutely felt positive fear, a fear of not doing something I really want that has pushed me to try. It's a powerful force and interesting to think about.

I wish I had time to respond to each of you individually, but I don't because I just finished blogging for tomorrow... er, today, and it's 3:34AM... and I still have to write my pages. I did not expect the ZDT Challenge to become this big. So much more of my time has been spent intersecting with writers here, on Twitter, and Facebook. I'm glad to do it, of course. I love the positive energy that is surging through the online screenwriting community as many of plow forward with a writing project. Let me just say that your positive feedback is... well... appreciated. This blog has become a kind of thing, very much in the karma realm. If I looked at it logically, I would have stopped doing this years ago. But creativity isn't logical. It's magic + weirdness + beauty + surprise + WTF + vocare. And so in a completely illogical way of thinking, this blog, the ZDT Challenge, they make PERFECT sense. Circling back to the original post, GITS is a reflection of Positive Fear. I want to do as much as I can for as many writers as I can before I'm shipped off to Valhalla. Why I'm hard-wired to be a teacher as well as writer, I have no idea. But there it is. It brings me great joy to see writers plying their craft. So roundabout way of saying thank you. And I admire you and your courage. The world needs more great stories. The world needs moire great writers. I hope that what we do here can contribute to that need in an even tiny way. Onward!

Thanks Scott. And thank you for last week's Back to the Future series. I thought they were wonderful.

Fear. It's in the mind. Tame the mind and you tame the fear. Easy to say, near impossible to do in daily life. I have been doing yoga and meditation for 8 years and still barely scratched the surface of taming my mind. Still, one has to be brave and be willing to risk all. Because on the other side of the high wall of Fear You are waiting on yourself. Felt the need to be poetic about this, please bear with me :).

There's a T-shirt idea tucked in there, Karl, in your phrase, "there's a league of Zero Draftees..."

Nice thoughts, and I would agree. But I suspect Karl doesn't have three children. It changes things when your actions impact others. There is no risking all. Risks must be calculated.