Film Courage: So we had another viewer submitted question from Leo “How would an inexperienced
writer enjoy writing if their writing skills aren’t spectacular but they love the idea
they have.
How do they not get discouraged and lose motivation afterwards?
Erik Bork, Author and Screenwriter: Well that’s a definite challenge for all writers, discouraged
and losing motivation.
It’s really a mental and psychological game to stay with it in face of maybe other people
not being excited about the story you’ve written.
Which I think all writers have gone through.
I certainly have and still go through and still go through at times when I am writing.
So it’s this weird combination of following your passion and your beliefs and your instincts
and what is interesting to you while also listening to sort of feedback and guidance
for sort of what makes a compelling story for others.
Now some pope I spoke with can enjoy writing and not care that anyone else ever gets it
or likes it and then it that case you don’t have such a problem because I’m writing
because I enjoy it.
I don’t necessarily even show it to other people.
Most writers don’t want to do that, they want to show it to others and have others
like it.
That’s where it’s out of our control suddenly because others are not us right?
So it’s easy when others don’t respond well to get discouraged but the reality is
every script that anyone has ever written probably didn’t impress many people on this
journey to wherever it got to.
In other words it’s just hard to write something rare, to write something that people are going
to give you the reaction that you wanted from it.
For most people starting out that’s an elusive thing to get to that place.
So it’s kind of like you almost have this kind of Zen approach of “I’m just doing
this anyway.”
I’m learning and growing and going to get there and not let anybodies criticism derail
you from that intense focus of this is what I want to do and continue to follow my voice
but my voice and my instincts are going to change somewhat when I study the craft and
get feedback from others and I just look to make that feedback useful as opposed to devastating.
What is the thing that is missing from people in my work is basically the feedback I’m
getting.
Can I wrap my head around what is missing and why and apply that understanding to the
next draft or the next thing I write.
For most people it takes many script over many years to get to the point where you have
a chance for the stuff they you are writing to really get successful to others who might
matter to you and just knowing that all writers go through that.
And there is this book called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
It’s a great book because he really talks about is how part of us is afraid and resistant
to just doing whatever it is we say we want to do.
And we’ll use any excuse not to do it including others criticism or our own self-criticism.
It’s kind of like to be productive and stay with you have to sort of push all that aside
and just continue going and turn the criticism into something productive instead of letting
it get you down.
Letting your own self-criticism which is really the hardest thing to put that aside, use is
when you need to critique and analyze your work but not always be in the critical mode
because if you’re in the critical mode you’re not in the creative mode, it’s kind of like
you have to switch one off to get to the other.
The creative mode is a more loose, free, open, relaxed free trusting mode where ideas just
sort of come.
But if you’re in that mode of what’s wrong with it and what other people say what’s
wrong with it or what do I think is wrong with me?
Ideas don’t generally come through good ideas in that state.
So you just have to work on managing your own emotional state and your own viewpoint
in order to get to your best material.
Film Courage: I’ve mentioned this before but in ADAPTATION the two Nicholas Cage characters
(Charlie Kaufman).
One that just events lightning and the other that overthinks everything and how paralyzing
that is.
Erik: Yeah, Donald Kaufman the brother may not be writing the greatest material but he’s
got a positive attitude toward himself and others that is infectious and leads to a lot
of ideas to coming that do end up being successful in that context of that movie.
Film Courage: Right because we’ve seen this so many times in life, it can become a self-fulfilling
prophecy in either direction.
And I think writers are especially prone because they are always in their heads and over thinking
things.
That’s the nature of why they are writers in some sense.
But it can also really handicap them.
Do you remember when you sort of let up on yourself?
Even if you still deal with…I mean we all do [self-criticism].
Seeing ourselves whether it’s on tape or whatever is always a cringeworthy moment for
everybody I think.
But do you remember when you were able to come to a more Zen place with that?
Erik: It’s an everyday practice.
Everyday is a challenge to feel like…to sort of put on the right mindset to be creative
and to be allowing and trusting and letting go and not being self-critical (too self-critical).
So it’s not a one time thing that you get to where you’re like “Oh I don’t do
that anymore.”
You may get more used to how you can shift your energy into that other mode and so you
have a way to do it but with like The War of Art would say the resistance in you is
like trying to stop you and it will do it everyday.
Just like there is a part of us that’s going to be self-critical to the point of paralyzing
or counterproductive, self-sabotaging.
So I really do think you have to be learn how to fight the battle or see it for what
it is and not let it take you over completely in your thinking so you can have a choice
and get to that place where you can move forward.
But I don’t think it ever just completely goes away.