The Sculptor and the Surrogate

The screenwriting process is similar to sculpting. You take your raw material, chip out the basic form of your vision, then make a second, third, twelfth pass to add more detail and correct flaws. When done, you polish it up to make it pleasing to the eye. At this point, the screenwriter must also become a surrogate. While you're paid for your services, it's still painful to give up your child knowing once it leaves your hands it's not yours anymore and won't have any say in how it's raised. You have to go in knowing the 'David' you sold may be presented to the public looking like the 'Venus de Milo' and accept that that is part of the price you pay to be a screenwriter. Sell enough Davids and maybe, just maybe, you might one day have enough clout to see your David through to the end where, if you're lucky, it'll resemble David. Maybe he'll just go by Dave.

FADE IN

Call it a midlife crisis. Call it a pipe dream. I have to do this. Everything I've read on the subject of screenwriting starts with some variation of "turn around now and run away screaming like a little girl because to be a screenwriter is to be eternally miserable." I don't care.

Call it a hobby, then. A writing exercise. While the odds of selling a script are only slightly better than winning the lottery, mine is a creative soul that will not forgive me unless I write a screenplay and submit it. I'm well aware that it may not, rather, most likely will not amount to anything. It's that realistic approach that will serve me in the end.

When the time comes, I will put my 8 1/2" x 11" child on a bus to Hollywood knowing full well I will probably never hear from it again. And that's fine. It must be done.

This is where my story begins. Come along, won't you?