Unfortunately, nobody wins in this accurate, albeit strange metaphor. So, I've got this Goodland script back with notes all over it (excellent notes, might I add - thank you Brittany), but then I've got my new script idea, which I've already outlined and completed the 40-scene breakdown for. What should I do? There's the lure of the shiny new script idea, but then there's that old faithful script, that time-tested Goodland which has proven itself through edit after edit to be without the plot holes and character misrepresentations - problems my new script is sure to present. Is it wrong to start a new script without completely and totally finishing the other? Am I cheating on Goodland? Can you cheat on a script? And is it cheating if I've only outlined it?
Okay, that's enough metaphor for this evening. I had cake for dinner, so I'm a little hyper. Let's lay the question out there: should you finish your current project before beginning a new one? And by finish, I mean get all the notes back and make the necessary changes so that it is ready to be sent out to the people you actually pay to read it, and I mean the people you pay with money and not banana bread (although I have it on good authority that a certain someone enjoyed her banana bread very much). At first, I don't see the harm in starting a new project. I can refer to the older, almost finished one whenever I want, and isn't it good to let a script ruminate, breath, travel around in the mind for a while until something occurs to you that would be perfect for it, so you pick it up again and have that special moment of brilliance? But we all know those people, or rather that feeling we get when those people tell us they have a script they've been working on for years. Years. I don't ever want to tell someone that I have a script I've been working on for years. Finish it. Finish it, and move on. Isn't that the name of the spec game? Makin' sausage? Shoveling crap until the pile is so high that someone has to notice it? Am I reading too many scriptwriting blogs?
So, I'm not entirely sure what to do. I think I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to work on Goodland until it is totally, wholly, 100% ready to be sent to a professional reader, and not until then will I set it down. And if I just can't help myself, I'll secretly work on the other project. But I'll try not to (but I probably will).
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