What Is Holding Your Screenwriting Back Is Possibly Fear Of Failure

While growing up, I ran cross-country, track and road races. My Dad and I ran many of these road races together. Early on, he instilled in me a competitive pedigree to become a winner. I always feared losing because my Dad placed high standards on winning. 

In junior high school, there was this one kid who always defeated me in every race we competed in. He would beat me in school competitions, road races, and cross-country events. Somehow, I allowed my nerves to get the best of me. In training, I could run the times required to win my age group. On race day, my nerves would get the best of me--exhausting my energy to influence my breathing and race pace. 

My Dad relied on me to win my age group at a local Turkey Trot race. I entered into the 800 meter and the 5K races to increase the probability of winning a turkey. In both of these races, this junior high classmate defeated me. I lost both chances to win a turkey for our Thanksgiving family dinner. 

On our last chance, they held a raffle to give away a turkey. My Dad pulled my name in the raffle; however, the race promoters rejected this over conflict of interest. 

On the way home, my Dad scolded me for losing the two races. He said with all the training I still couldn't become a winner. He said he wouldn't buy me the running shoes I needed to continue on with training. On that night, he took me out to Macy's to buy me new running shoes. 

You can imagine a 12-year-old wanting to make his Dad proud. In the face of others, I was viewed as a failure. My Dad's opinion of me mattered the most, so losing these races shook my confidence. It would eventually carry on until my adult years, where if i didn't make something of myself that I would hear his criticism in the form of passive aggressiveness. Sometimes, my Mom and brothers would share his negative text messages or what he said to put me down. 

I admit that I allowed my Dad's opinion of me not being a winner in life to affect me. He would still buy me random gifts, subtly showing that he appreciated my support. I never held back from telling him I was proud of the life he has lived. 

Last year, my parents were given a move-out notice to leave a home they rented for the past 28 years. My Dad could not let go of leaving this home. I tried my best to convince him that maybe this is a blessing in disguise to purchase a place they can own. Along the way, I went with him on an apartment search. He struggled to overcome the attachment of living in the rental home. 

My Dad linked up with a real estate agent who specialized in manufactured homes. We viewed a few condos and manufactured homes. I even went with my Mom to see another condo. My Dad lost his patience; he wanted to fire the real estate agent. She called me to share what was going on behind the scenes with my Dad. I stepped up and put pressure on my Dad to move past the rental home and focus on purchasing the manufactured home. Usually, I just stayed quiet and didn't confront my Dad. His constant complaining wore me thin and I had to take an unconventional approach to knock down the barriers.  

After being assertive with my Dad to do what the real estate agent requested, she helped him to purchase a manufactured home in a nice 55+ community. A month later, my middle brother and I helped move all of their possessions into the home. However, my Dad started complaining once again about all the junk and refusing to accept these items. He agreed to keep the previous furniture in the place after the former owner had passed away a few weeks before viewing this property. 

When we tried to carry their household items into this place, he wouldn't stop complaining. Yet again, I stepped up to tell him we worked hard in the heat to pack the truck and prepare for this move. I made sure to be assertive like he did in my childhood. This direct approach worked out, allowing us to move everything into the place without anymore resistance. 

A few months after, my Dad underwent a serious health emergency. A medical mistake a few months prior to the move resulted in his toes later developing gangrene. His surgeon made a critical decision to amputate all of his toes and repair an artery supplying blood to his foot. My Dad was feeling so down and out that he was ready to give up on life. I supported him every step of the way, throughout his hospital stay during the holidays. All my personal growth skills went to work, molding him into being appreciative and feeling blessed under the intense circumstances. 

There were a few moments I had to put pressure on him to change his perspective that he had no one to support him. He got into this cynical mindset where he would overlook what people did for him.

Because of my Dad's medical crisis, my best friend started to connect with me again. We have gone on scenic hikes, visited the Disney museum, he helped me to apply for various city jobs and we communicated at a higher frequency. Recently, I got to watch his niece place a college soccer game. At this game, I reconnected with his brother and brother's wife, as well as his Mom who I hadn't seen or talked to in 5 years following the passing of her husband and his Dad. 

Back in June, both of my vehicles broke down and this impacted my earnings. As a result of this, I revised my resume and applied for a variety of jobs. My best friend contributed to making revisions on my resume for city job openings. I focused on pursuing a tech savvy/driving position for a month, completing the extensive interview process and getting hired. Furthermore, I got invited to take an exam for a city planner and passed this test to move forward in the hiring process with the supplemental questionnaire. In about 5 days, I will start my new job with a tech company. 

This story of fearing failure involves breaking out of bad habits that likely originated from my past connections. My Dad's perception weighed me down like an anchor. I always wanted to make him proud. All he would see is me struggling with continuous challenges that impacted all areas of my life. 

I never gave up trying to meet success. Sometimes, we face extremely difficult moments where we must take serious actions. We have to do what is new, what is uncomfortable to gain confidence.

What has held me back in pursuing my dream is my fear of failure, my fear of change, my fear of losing more time. No matter how much I have tried to convince myself, I still have yet to engage in screenwriting with the identical effort that resembles my college years and 2016-2020. It took detaching from several people to start making serious decisions. 

When we lose fear, we can start living a better life. Truth is, I have failed so many times to stay afloat on the dream path. Once you have the resources to apply yourself, you start struggling with commitment. Then, your financial life keeps reminding you of all the mistakes you think you made to keep your dream alive. Balance never arrives in time, so you believe you lost many years. 

I do not feel I have given everything in my heart to become a successful screenwriter. What I do know is that I don't fear failing anymore. When you lose at winning the life you believe will make you happy, you look at different ways to do things. You develop a new perspective to view the little wins as positive steps moving you forward. 

I found great happiness in going on many unique adventures with my dog. Landing the new tech job will enable me to take him to new places. Taking photography will reserve a digital memory of our nostalgic moments.  

Even though my circle encourages me to let go out my dream and let it die, I still plan to work on screenplays on silent convert missions. We don't have to share everything we are working on. If we lack support, we can create new circles that match our interests. Most importantly, we can get ahead if we can take care of ourselves without being dependent on outside help. 

If you lost your motivation and inspiration to do screenwriting, retrace the steps to unblock these kinks. You may have to travel way back into your childhood years to pinpoint the source. Once you do this, you will be able to commit yourself and reconnect with screenwriting. 

Someone once wrote me, "Things happen for a reason, there are no accidents".  I totally agree with her. 

Good screenwriters understand real life. They are masters of showing conflict, and then resolving it. Use everything you got to get to where you want to be. Never allow any fears to set you back. 

We don't need to win at everything. We don't need to make people proud. We do need to believe in this life to have a purpose. Waking up every morning aspiring to make a difference can be enough to turn our life around. Don't be afraid that you may be extremely good at what you love. 

Remind yourself that you deserve your dream. Reward yourself for all the little wins. Appreciate the simple moments. Your dream is much bigger than what you can ever imagine. 

Happy Screenwriting! 

Screenwriting Inspiration: The Crossroads

When your Hollywood dream hits the crossroads, reflect back to the past to recapture your spark. 

Is it Writer's Block Or Lost Passion?

Writer's block is a killer on creativity. When writers lose focus on the writing process, they defer to daily distractions as an escape mechanism. Washing dishes, searching the web, posting on social media, watching Tv, doing laundry and sleeping are a few activities that replace writing. As a result of these actions, writers question whether they lost their passion to keep writing. Writer's block and lost passion hold the power to starve creativity. There is hope to get back on track...

Writers automatically assume writer's block is to blame for stalled production, lack of effort, poor performance and low efficiency. It is not always writer's block that is holding writers back from moving forward to the next page. It is not always writer's block that is responsible for keeping a cursor flashing on a blank white screen. It is not always writer's block that delays projects from coming to fruition. What is causing writers to get frustrated?

The problem: Inhibited environments represent the source of low interest. If we are surrounded with supportive people who want us to thrive, we will maintain excitement to get work done. We can rely on these people to give us feedback. They will ask about our projects. They will understand that we need our quiet space. They will genuinely care about what we are working on. Unfortunately, most writers are not always so lucky to meet these ideal people. We can take control of our surroundings, emotions and feelings to make positive progress.

Our environment is never going to reflect the way we imagine it. There is constant noise that can distract us. People rarely stop gossiping about irrelevant matters. They have conversations out loud. They don't give us space. They need us to help them with their errands and projects. They want us to listen to their concerns. Writers deal with people sabotaging their dreams because they lack the confidence to speak up; they are pushovers with no backbone to stand tall.

Unfinished projects make us believe we lost our passion to dream. We can't get excited about what we once loved with our entire heart. We start envying people who are actually living the life we believe we deserve. We become jealous to hear that our competition achieved their dream. Meanwhile, we focus on doing too much of everything. We desire quick results instead of investing time, energy and effort into our pet projects. Our patience and perseverance are out of alignment. We keep talking about our projects to get attention. We act fake to make believe we are someone living our dream. We may act condescending to put others below us. Behind the scenes, we drag our feet and hang our heads down low to pity ourselves. Self-destructive attitudes are what block positive results.

Writer's block and lost passion are common excuses that writers use to feel better. Nobody wants to be viewed as uninspired and lazy. Lost passion is essentially allowing little things to get in the way our of big dream. Self-doubts, overthinking, excuses and distractions are defensive mechanisms that protect us from facing failure. We may fear people rejecting our talents and skills because we attach our identity to our dream. We may think that if we fail our dream, we will fail our purpose in this life.

Rewiring our brain to accept criticism is the first step to empowering positive/negative feedback to grow our writing into something beautiful, something inspiring. Hearing the truth saves us a lot of time. We may need to know what people really think. Does our story have potential? Will the audience enjoy watching this movie? What does our film resemble? Do we have a good theme? Sadly, some creative people capable of greatness expect people to always give their amateur and professional work kind compliments. In order to continue on with their passion, they need people to praise their every move. These people only share a snippet of their progress to win temporary acceptance. They treat attention and acceptance as oxygen. However, these writers remain stuck on page 5 of a 100 page script. We should not expect our work to be viewed as great: Life does not work this way.

People struggling with low confidence and low self-esteem require validation and acceptance to stay inspired and motivated. These people need other people to agree with their beliefs. They wait for others to give them 100 percent positive approval to move forward. They want people to praise their effort after sharing their pity parties. They need people to feel sorry for them. They want others to tell them what they want is guaranteed to happen. They need others to know they didn't waste their life away on impossible dreams. They depend on people to always pick them off the ground. They need people to see them, to notice them every day. The truth gets lost in the hay; it is the needle that will take forever to locate.

Athletes playing to win their coach's attention and approval will suffer after striking out, missing shots and dropping balls. Always remember that we are human beings choosing to use our gifts and talents. Win or lose, we are the same human beings. Just imagine all the possibilities, especially if we activate our laser focus to stay committed and not conflicted with what people think.

We either love our passion, or we are doing it for the wrong reasons. Seeking attention to nurse our unresolved issues is the quickest route to depression. Living for the opinions of others will lead to lifelong unhappiness. If we lose our passion, what is the reason for this happening? Did we have passion from the beginning? Are we following our dream just to be recognized as someone who is valuable? Do we lack self-worth? Do we have low self-esteem? Trying our best to pinpoint our lost passion, if this is important to us, will improve our future outlook. Time will never stop for us, so waiting for a better time is an excuse.

Our commitment as screenwriters should focus on building powerful stories into compelling movies. Take personal responsibility for your dream. If you need constant validation to live your dream, you will only focus on what other people think about your actions. Dreams don't work unless you do something to make them come true. It is as simple as starting a script and writing 100 pages. Keep revising your script until you believe the story fits your vision.

There is no right or wrong way to tell a story. Pay special attention to creativity, technique and theme to keep readers invested in your script. Write with conviction to stay on track: Follow your message and share your beliefs. An example of this approach is Jordan Peele's Get Out, a film that aims to convey racism as envying minorities for their physical strength and agility.    

Writer's block is a mental block that involves numerous components. When we sit at our computer constantly looking into space, we are dealing with a challenge much bigger than writer's block and lost passion. We may dislike our story. We may downplay our talents to get compliments. Our passion is what inspires us to take action on something that either happens now, happens later, or never happens at all. Trusting in our gifts and talents can reduce writer's block. Believing in ourselves will give us hope to continue on through the trenches.

If we complain about writer's block and losing our passion, we are accepting that we have problems that are blocking our production. Taking the easy way out to complain and whine about recurring setbacks will never get us anywhere. Sharing all the things that we do to live our dream is a bargaining chip to say people owe us. It is our job to wake up and be inspired. We must maintain our passion to keep moving forward. If we are struggling to start and/or finish projects, we must dig deeper to understand the source of this problem.

There are ways to improve our concentration. We can listen to good music during the writing process. We can enjoy our favorite drink. We can take vitamins. We can go on a walk. We can go hiking. We can purchase a nice pen. We can buy a cool notepad. We can use "focus-based" apps to switch between focus time and breaks. We can embrace distractions to make them a part of our characters. We can change our scenery. We can go to a beach and write. We can go to a motel off of the coast and write without distractions. We can schedule time to write daily. We can discipline our writing life.

Writer's block and lost passion are excuses to justify our lack of effort and low production. After years of making excuses to write scripts, I finally figured out that you must rescue yourself to overcome negative traits. We can get caught up in bad habits that restrict our personal growth. In contrast, we can transfer our bad habits, blocks and problems into our stories. Compelling characters can turn movies into emotional experiences because the audience may see a piece of their life experiences in the movie. They can embrace these personal connections, realizing the writer actually understands their life.

Writer's block and lost passion can mirror what is going on in our real lives. If we work with a co-writer who wants to control our entire story, we must re-evaluate whether to stay for the long haul or leave them behind to grow our dream elsewhere. We can outgrow mentors, teachers and coaches. These people can block us, making us think we are struggling with writer's block, low drive and lost passion.

Being on the same page requires two sides to compromise on one vision. Don't allow other people to walk all over you. They may tell you that they care about your dream and assure you that they will never do anything to harm you. However, their actions may show a darker side to their real motivation. What really matters to them is their dream What they really want is to succeed. What they need is your story. What they are doing is discarding your scenes, ideas and creativity to feed their egos. They may want to be viewed as smart, a genius and exceptionally talented. Somehow, we are letting someone push us back into the crowd.

Negative people find empowerment seeing other people experiencing pain and suffering. Step away from every person you believe is holding you back. If you miss them later on, they are important to your future. If you feel better without them, maybe they are a bad fit in your life. Sooner or later, you need to recognize that you can do what you want yourself. Never think you are not good enough. Hiding from your unresolved issues will delay your dreams. If you are not ready to embrace the spotlight, you have the freedom to step in the crowd and watch the show as an audience member.

Know the difference between writer's block, lost passion, or living a stressful life full of obstacles. Your dream will stop waiting for you to react. Nobody is to blame for your life. You control your dream. You can make or break your future. You can learn from your past to create profound movies with deeper meanings. You can stop listening to people who block your growth. You can change your scenery to restore your interest. If you care about your dream, you will make adjustments instead of resorting to excuses. May your dream come true.

Happy Screenwriting!

Remind Yourself With Reminders: Dreams And Goals

We need constant reminders of what we want to accomplish in the future. If we want to become a Hollywood screenwriter, wearing shirts, hats, using notebooks, screensavers and other mementos that convey this message can keep us on track. Of course, we must do the work to achieve our dream.

Reminding yourself using visual reminders can empower you to chase harder. Our dream is within reach. Start doing what you love to do and repeat this action daily. Stay proactive and be a go-getter. Sooner than later your dream will come true. See you on the silver screen! 

Happy Screenwriting! 

Take Ownership Of Your Dream

Visualizing your future success is the most important step to believe in your capabilities. Taking ownership of your fate will create unlimited opportunities...

Do the work and your work will speak on your behalf.


Happy Screenwriting! 

Lack of Effort To Build Dreams: Faking It And Never Making It

Some people are quick to share their dreams with perfect strangers. They are not afraid to reveal that they want to become a Hollywood actor, a director, a producer, a screenwriter, a singer, a YouTube star and an Instagram influencer. They can trick their audience into believing they are living the dream life. For some unknown reason, they enjoy getting high off of attention. They feed off of daily compliments to feel happy. They rely on daily engagement to boost their moods. Truth is, some creative artists rarely invest the right amount of effort to live their dreams.

Making excuses, constant complaining, excessive whining, self-doubting, overthinking, self-pitying, obsessing on insecurities, exposing vulnerabilities, lacking confidence, suffering with self-esteem, being self-destructive, self-sabotaging, fixating on problems and failing to confront unresolved issues get far more play time than investing time and energy into living dreams. Getting attention to feel valuable replaces hard work and discipline.

Accomplishing a realistic dream is highly possible... Unfortunately, some people are more excited about receiving attention than making a real difference in this world. They want to be told they are pretty and or handsome. They need people to validate their self worth. They desire success to love who they are in this life. So many dreams are lost to wasting time on social media, day-in, day-out.

Recurring failures somehow disrupt the small steps that grow dreams. Some people rarely take personal responsibility to admit fault after making mistakes: People automatically think their value, identity and worth are put into question. They need reassurance to know they matter.

Confidence is everything. If we focus on the competition, we will get jealous and envy others. Negative emotions can prevent people from living a positive life.

What if we just focus on what resources we need to pursue our dream? We may actually live our dream...

Actors and actresses should consider exercising their acting muscles. Taking acting classes, rehearsing scenes, making acting reels, acting in short films and volunteering for script table readings are positive actions to increase exposure. Having supreme confidence as a movie performer is pulling from the past to collaborate with the future. Do the work behind the scenes to build your acting career.

Directors can watch famous Hollywood directors reveal their tricks of the trade on Master Class. They can practice making storyboards, interpret screenplays and study past films. They can perform assembly actions to rearrange scenes and retell stories. Furthermore, they can work with actors to prepare for future directing jobs.  

Writers can read screenplays, write action-based stories, master dialogue, inject their stories with real life experiences, listen to podcasts, read blogs, write short scripts, work as an uncredited paid writer and collaborate with other writers to receive real feedback and perform script coverage. Writing every day is not enough to become a great writer. There are many steps to evolve as a writer. Conflict and resolution are critical components to write profound screenplays.

Learning the truth is extremely important. However, people are too weak minded to accept the truth. They get offended, feel judged, claim their boundaries are being crossed and even accuse others of controlling them. These people attack the people who care about them. They embrace people who give them fake attention.

As we see on social media, there are toxic people lurking around to shame others. They criticize people who do not fall align with their thoughts and beliefs. The same people return to leave fake compliments and praises. Meanwhile, the page owners are dealing with internal pain that is left untreated. Wasting time on social media is the single biggest factor that will stall dreams. If we want to impress people, we will become obsessed with posting content, making stories, producing likes and receiving comments.

Honing your draft relies on giving effort. Staying disciplined can keep us on the right track to grow our dreams. Doing things that we love to do will make us happy. Infusing our projects with what we know best will retain our focus. We can control our effort to build our dreams...

Happy Screenwriting!

You Only Live Once...

Dreams will never wait for us. If we live our life for a dream, we will miss out on many priceless moments. Don't make everything about your dream... However, take the necessary steps to live your dream. You only live this life once so make every opportunity matter. 

Lack of Support and Understanding: Why Writers Do What They Do?

Have you ever tried to include family and friends in your writing process? Share ideas with them? Tell them how you will write your scripts? However, you are met with eye rolls, sighs, unsupportive comments and criticism. Why do you have to justify the reasons you are a writer?

Some writers may feel they need other people to support their ideas. They attempt to open up with family, friends and even random strangers to prove their stories hold value. Once people realize you what you haven't done, they will stop listening to you talking...

Truth is, these people get tired of hearing about your dreams. Writers who have have yet to discover lucrative opportunities are judged with heavy criticism. They hear rude comments... They deal with passive aggressive behavior. Unsupportive people may have ulterior motives to hold you down. If you dream, you may accomplish success. If you accomplish success, it is possible you may leave...

Another way to look at it... If writers spend as much time living real life instead of remaining stuck inside a fantasy, just maybe their dream will come true. Some writers must understand that attention is overrated. Chasing after people to validate your dream will make you unhappy.

Just try to understand this: Screenwriting is viewed as a dream. What people think: Unsuccessful screenwriters are basically living in the clouds.

Do you take jobs that give you flexibility to live your dream? Work as a restaurant server? A ridesharing driver? Delivery driver? Barista? Content creation? Data science? Falling further behind? Struggling with a financial storm? There is a reason we may follow this pattern. You may hope that extending your dream can give you another chance to make everything right.

It goes much deeper than just wanting to achieve dreams, become famous, gain social status and/or get rich to experience unlimited freedom. You have a true reason you want your dream...

Whether you want to draw attention to yourself.... Whether you want to prove people wrong... Whether you want to appear successful... Whether you need value to feel self-worth... Whether you have a purpose to change the world... Whether you aspire to make people think that helping others is why you spend so much doing it... Whether you want to be popular because you did not have this feeling growing up... Whether you want compliments to boost your self-esteem... Whether you aspire to carry out the will of God to serve this world... Only you know why you want to do it.

Rewiring the mind to reflect on your dream is important. It is what can/will remove all focus off of why you need support and people to understand your journey as a writer.

Why do people want to feel good? Why do people want to feel happy? Why do people desire love? Why do people need acceptance? Why do people live for others?

Follow your dream because you find happiness taking the steps. Be excited about doing the work because you love your creativity. Be proud of yourself. The moment you make your dream all about what you are missing inside, you will find many unhappy moments. If you transfer what you are missing into your stories, you will reach an audience who can understand why you do what you do...

Ultimately, writers create what people watch... In return, they may feel proud of their work. They can make a living creating stories. It is possible: There is this small piece of them that may need this attention. If you surround yourself with supportive people who understand your journey, you will have a strong foundation to develop your ideas. If you tell stories about your challenges, struggles and hardships, people will listen to you.

The love, the time, the effort, the energy, the passion you give your dream will give you what you need inside. When people watch what you created, they will support you because they will know you understand real life. Create stories that mirror real life and solve these inner problems: Conflict/Resolution. Writers plant themes in every story. They want to send a message out into the world. Look further into why you do what you do...

Through the course of this life, you will change your motivation many times. Instead of questioning why you lack support and why people do not understand you, look deeper into your motivation. Why do you need your dream? You will eventually realize that you are your best support system. You are enough.

Don't wait to do what you love to do later on. The people you may want to prove wrong will be long gone. If you want people to hear your voice, tell stories that matter right now. Happy screenwriting!

React to Your Screenwriting Goals

Never allow great opportunities to slip away. Fear plays a major role in delaying progress. Failing to live up to our dreams may bury the perfect life we imagined in our minds. Getting criticized for doing what makes us happy can sink our ego. You'll never know the future unless you try.

Seize control of life to move forward. Truth is, negative distractions can pollute our mind. They can suffocate our creativity. Being comfortable is a curse on the screenwriting process. Setting goals will inspire us to reach milestones. React now to become a working screenwriter later.

Applying Talent To Get Work Done

Screenwriting is a craft we can develop. If you remember the saying, practice makes perfect, you will recognize that becoming better at what we love to do can improve our lifestyle. Good habits deliver consistent results. Rewarding effort motivates us to spend time on projects, jobs and tasks.

Applying our writing talent to make a difference is the first step to push our screenwriting forward. We need to be writing, writing, writing! Withholding our talents/gifts for financial gain can/will influence our passion. Spending countless hours on social media to discuss screenwriting delays production.

The fear to finish a script is connected to uncomfortable change. People who lack confidence worry about criticism. They feel unworthy without attention. They stress out watching other people get ahead. Sometimes, these people just need someone to complain to so they don't feel alone--even worthless. Insecurities can block us from climbing up that tall mountain. Overthinking is full of self-doubts that delay our production and stall progress.

What talented artists forget is that they possess what many people lack: A gift. People who are not as talented must work harder to make an impact. For some ungodly reason, talented artists are uninspired to apply their gifts. There is a big reason people never accomplish their dreams. They have unresolved issues originating from childhood that manifest into mental disorders. If left untreated, these internal problems put these people in inferior roles. They accept poor treatment because they believe it is deserved. Their sense of worth is extremely low. Nevertheless, they believe people look down on them.

No matter how much time we spend to help someone succeed, they can keep coming back with the same exact problems. They never apply what we teach them. They self-sabotage daily. They follow a self-destructive path. They put themselves down. Working hard to confront internal challenges will help us overcome setbacks.

How to gain a competitive advantage:

• Apply yourself to increase luck. 
• Work hard to get your work out there. 
• Stay humble to avoid overvaluing your worth. 
• Be patient. 
• Balance is everything.

Happy screenwriting!

Be Committed To Your Screenwriting/Film/Life Dream

"Life will only change when you become more committed to your dreams than to your comfort zone" -Filmtrepreneur Podcast with Alex Ferrari.

Dreams will not manifest out of thin air. Wanting to accomplish a dream without taking serious actions to move forward is basically living in a fantasy. We should never get rewarded for complaining about successful people. Positive people walking the walk deserve credit for investing their energy, effort and time into advancing their dreams. Instead of envying, we should practice respecting.

Envy is dangerous. If we resent what other people earn, we will believe we are entitled to get what we believe we deserve. Judging people for getting ahead can make us cynical. This is a major problem that resides deep down in our core. Jealously is such a negative emotion that creates so much hatred. Blaming other people for what we're not doing will turn us into negative people. Don't live your life having regrets. It is no one's fault that your dream sits on ice.

We must change the way we think to make progress. Allowing comfort to become a mainstay in our daily lives can sink everything. Placing comfort on a pedestal is a dream buster. Complacency is a confidence killer. The moment we fail, we will fall apart. Given this widespread problem, we have to shift our focus away from comfortability to boost our confidence.

Knowing our true identity can unlock everything. Why do we do what we do? Do we have passion? What makes us wake up in the morning? What do we want to accomplish in this life? What will we do to get there? Are we making progress? Is this dream a good fit for us?

Truth is, time is definitely not on our side. Time does not care to wait for us. The world will move ahead without us. If we empower our time, we can transform this life into something truly amazing.

Waking up every day with a purpose to make a true difference in this world can give us a competitive edge. Our heart must be into our dream. Passion and drive must remain constant. Maintaining discipline, determination, resilience, consistency, integrity, persistence and patience will move us closer to our dream life. Committing our time and energy to fuel our dream will put comfort to rest.

Happy screenwriting!

Humility is A Dying Breed: Social Media Is Ruining Screenwriting

Only a Film Degree--We must work to be screenwriters

We all know humble. We all know braggers. We all know action. We all know inaction...

Social media has casted a negative light on the writing world. On social media platforms, more people talk about the act of writing instead of waking every day to be proactive go-getters. In hindsight, writers once got work done; they completed scripts to option. Unfortunately, social media has turned screenwriting into a dream that is viewed as unreachable.

Screenwriting is an art form. It is also a discipline that requires time, energy and effort. Truth is, finished scripts are appealing to producers. There is little demand for unfinished scripts because they can't be produced. What separates professional screenwriters from aspiring screenwriters: Discipline.

Think about these comparisons: I am working on my degree versus I earned my degree. Any person can be working on a degree; however, only a select few will actually satisfy all the requirements to complete their degree programs.

Screenwriting is made out to be difficult. The real truth is that anything in life can be difficult if we fear the next step. We can make waking up on time to reach work a major challenge. We can make exercising daily an insurmountable task. We can postpone talking to someone we like over the lack of confidence. Placing constraints on our screenwriting will create fear. A large number of people worry about criticism. They automatically assume that receiving criticism is a precursor to failure. Their dream is better shared in forums, on discussion boards, on social media and in real life conversations.

Braggers need to draw attention to themselves. They need this attention to feel worth. The problem with sharing our dreams without doing the work is that we can block access to production. We spend way too much time trying to impress people with our creative ideas. We may post images about what we are supposedly doing, even if we are not actually working hard perfecting our craft. We will ask other writers/people what they think about our ideas so they can praise us. Condescending, bitter and petty attitudes can rule our emotions. We need to prove people wrong all the time. We fake being successful to create that adrenaline rush, that pure excitement of what it's like to accomplish a dream. Nevertheless, we can get carried away with all the attention that our dreams bring us.

Humble writers make movie magic happen. They wake up motivated and inspired to write. They write at their most vulnerable moments. They revise their previous projects. They don't crave attention. They already know their value as human beings choosing to be writers. There is no internal motivation to trick people, unless these themes are injected into characters.

Know the difference between being humble and bragging. If you are working hard, you earned the right to talk about your success. On the flip side, talking about the dream and not taking action to make it happen will delay the inevitable. Don't waste time. Your screenwriting dream will only come true if you do.

Happy screenwriting!