4 Tips to Unleashing Your Screenwriting Potential

“When you’re writing, you’re conjuring. It’s a ritual, and you need to be brave and respectful and sometimes get out of the way of whatever it is that you’re inviting into the room.”-Tom Waits

As is often the case with major life changes, my pursuit of screenwriting came quite suddenly. On July 14, 2018, I sat in a Starbucks and considered my career. You see, I had worked in higher education for eight years, and while there was certainly joy to be found there, I wanted more. It was in this moment of cold brew coffee induced contemplation that I found my path…I would become a screenwriter (cue the laugh track from the doubters).

Writers will often discuss the myriad of ideas that pop in and out of their heads at any given moment, but I had become adept at pushing those ideas aside for so very long; that’s not to say that I hadn’t dabbled in storytelling or had left numerous unfinished screenplays growing dust, but I had never taken writing seriously. If I took this pursuit seriously, there would be…pain, excitement, rejection, acceptance, losses, wins and an endless barrage of near misses.

With a gulp and an exhalation of anxiety, my journey began.

After two years of toiling, there have been far more down moments than up, but what if we were able to simplify our pursuit? What if we…