One thing I’ve learned about myself as a writer:
I can write screenplays all day long when the story is rooted in something I’ve lived, or at least something close enough that I recognize it in my bones.
Grief. Desire. Fear. Obsession. Loss. Survival.
Those stories come with a built-in urgency. I don’t have to manufacture passion for them, it’s already there, pulling me back to the page again and again.
Where I struggle is when I come up with a genuinely strong concept that I haven’t lived.
Even if the idea is solid. Even if it “should” work.
Without that personal connection, I find it harder to sit with it for hours. Harder to bleed into it. Harder to give it the same level of obsession and care.
I’m learning that for me, discipline isn’t the issue, proximity is.
The closer the story is to something I’ve felt, survived, or witnessed up close, the more alive it becomes.
Curious if other writers feel this too:
Do you need personal truth to stay invested, or do you find passion after the work begins?
2 people like this
I don't need personal truth to stay invested, but it can help, Jay Miller. Try to find a personal connection in a concept that you haven’t lived (a character, a relationship, a theme, etc.).