The Writing Week (Vol. 4) part 200 - Drawing the Line

At a certain point, we as writers must draw a line in the sand. Where do we scrap an idea? Where do we turn to ourselves (inwardly, in the mirror, however), and acknowledge that we don't want to work on a certain project, that we're just not invested in it?


A couple weeks ago, I sent my manager a few (four, actually) ideas that I was thinking of working on. Of the four, one was a re-hash of an earlier period piece that I had spent a bit of time on (my horror spec). The other three were new. I was really stoked about one of them - a mystery/thriller set during World War 2 - before another idea came along that surpassed it - a murder mystery set in a unique hotel. The fourth was kind of a tossup, not something I was extremely gung-ho about, but something I could potentially get behind if need be.


My manager liked idea number four the best.


Admittedly, there are some issues with the others. Namely, the first two a period pieces; while one of them is relatively recent (my manager thought it sounded better suited to television, but we didn't discuss it further, so I don't know exactly where he's coming from - I'm curious to hear, though), it's still tough to get studios to sign off on non-contemporary scripts. The horror thriller is centuries old setting-wise, so that would be an even greater stretch. 


This brings us to idea number four. It's sort of a revenge idea, but with a bit of a mystery and a bit of a twist. I still have an incredible amount of detail to figure out about it - in reality, the idea is quite nascent, so even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to go into greater specifics here. I just don't have them. 


There we are, though. Idea number four. The contemporary revenge thriller with a twist. At this point, I feel like my best option - or, at the very least, my option until I come up with an idea I like better - is to flesh it out a bit more. Why not, right? I came up with it. I sent it to my manager. At some level, I must be interested in working on it.


At a certain point, we as writers must draw a line in the sand. Where do we scrap an idea? Where do we turn to ourselves (inwardly, in the mirror, however), and acknowledge that we don't want to work on a certain project, that we're just not invested in it?


More importantly, can we become invested in something that presents itself lukewarm at first? I'll let you know next week, after I work on developing the revenge spec for seven days.