It's done.

Thank God.

So, I finally finished a draft of my new script this past Sunday. From idea to completion, it took about a year - which was unusual since that process has normally taken me around 4-8 weeks.

But I had wanted to try something different this time.

And, let me tell you, trying different things, new approaches… challenging yourself, is really… excruciating. Writing is hard enough as it is, but then to take away the things you know, the things you’re good at, and try something else… well, it’s painful. At least it was for me.

That said, I believe all that existential hair-pulling… it actually worked. It may have taken me what seemed like forever, but in the end, I got something I feel good about.

I lost faith many times along the way. Many many times. I wanted to go back to my old ways, and sometimes I even decided to. But what was interesting is that… at some point… I couldn’t. It’s like once you start growing, you can’t go back to who you were before, even if you want to. It’s impossible. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, I guess.

I’m not sure if the growth process is as painful for everyone else as it is for me. Sometimes I feel like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly, like I’m literally ripping myself apart.

And, as I have mentioned here before, I am NOT fun to be around when this is happening.

Famously, after I presented a work-in-progress cut of my thesis film to my professor at UCLA, and was typically twisted into knots of torment and creative angst as I did so, he decided to announce to the class one of the truest observations ever made about me:

“The creative process is not only painful for you,

it’s painful for everyone around you.”

Ask my husband if that quote is true. Oh, just ask him.

So, what did I do different this time? And why did I do it?