I learned something new about myself, yesterday. 

Okay, I love to write.  But my “writing time” is precious and I don’t want to spend it on a project that doesn’t bring me pleasure.  Kind of sounds selfish.  But,that’s it in a nutshell…

A filmmaker was kind of enough to ask for my help on a collaberation.  He outlined the direction he wanted me to go and I spent a couple hours writing five pages.

On one hand, it was a learning experience … a genre I would never tackle on my own.  On another hand, I didn’t enjoy it at all.   The main character needed to be a “super hero”.  Let’s face it.  Outside of Superman, I’ve never watched anything vaguely related to super heros.  Needless to say, the filmmaker didn’t like anything about my five pages.

So, I changed my mind about being part of the project.  The filmmaker was willing to work with me and, I suppose if I was younger, I would have kept plugging ahead.      In fact, I think if  I was younger, it would be difficult to say “no” to any project.  But at this point in my life, I’m going to allow myself the luxury of picking and choosing what I write.

It is good for me to  delve into projects outside my comfort level and I know it’s good experience to do this.   And I do that, quite often, at MoviePoet.com.    The environment at MoviePoet.com allows me to experiment without too much fear …   But for me to “experiment” on someone else’s project.  Just could not do it.

I’m going to write what gives me pleasure and participate in projects I feel good about.

It’s okay for a writer to say “no”.   That’s what I learned.