I got to thinking about this question today after reading an NBC news article about how some school districts are revising "active shooter" drills because of the trauma that kids are experiencing. While some argue they can save lives, others point to behavior issues some kids develop where they don't want to go anywhere alone and bring active shooter drill behaviors into their play.
That reminded me of a couple of scripts I started work on, then abandoned just because they didn't feel right.
Around 15 years ago, I did started doing background interviews for a movie script idea I had, tentatively called "Mickey's Monkey". The script was a "jukebox musical", using hits of the early 60s (written in a way so the songs could be interchanged, depending on what could be licensed) and centered on a group of high school kids having their school dance canceled by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The idea was that the kids acted more adult than the parents, going on with the dance anyway, in a sort of an a-bomb "Hairspray".
After doing the background interviews, I decided not to pursue it - the parallels between the "duck and cover" a-bomb drills and today's "active shooter" drills just felt too creepy. Some of the adults I interviewed that were in high school in the early 60s were still uncomfortable talking about the drills and the general sense of dread they had at the time. I didn't think audiences would respond to the script the way I intended.
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I have convinced myself an idea was good and 10 pages in realised I was lying to myself.
That’s why I have a mountain of loglines. They are all crashed attempts.
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I occasionally think of ideas that I don't ever use. However, I've started screenplays where I felt I wasn't getting in a good groove. Nine times out of ten, I hung in there with those scripts and some of them turned out to be my best work
I have never abandoned a screenplay but I should have. Over half of them are complete crap and I didn't even try to market them.
Write the outline first, and a character sketch before beginning the actual story. The outline will tell you if you have an effective and complete and worthy story.
I saw a show that covered the trauma of kids today after school shootings. They interviewed Columbine kids who survived and younger kids from more recent one and it was horrifying because these kids, young adult have PTSD. The impact of that experience will never leave them.