Where is Pat anyway? His last post has been “Emancipation”.

Don’t worry guys. I’m sure the negativity just comes from you passing all of your deadlines, but if you work a little each day (what you feel is enough), you’ll finish it in 1-3 months, perhaps.

Just make sure to keep us posted.

Maybe it’s because you’ve shown the project to us, and more recently the animatic. I know from personal experience that showing my unfinished work to others, no matter how much I may want to, is the biggest mistake I can make. Even if all I get is encouragement, I’ve wasted my story prematurely, you know? I lose my enthusiasm to continue and pretty soon another project starts to look more attractive.

But guys, please push through this. Fall in love with the project again.

When I was doing ScriptFrenzy (a competition where you have to bang out a 100-page script in thirty days - eek!), I was also doing a book adaptiation. I found it was really helpful for morale to, as Artoveli said, “fall in love withthe project again,” in my case, Susan Kay’s “Phantom”. I read the book purely for enjoyment, read the book it was based off of, listened to the musical soundtrack, whatever.

Maybe you guys just need to take a break and remind yourselves how much you love Myst. Play through the games again, maybe.

Wise words, Artoveli! Yes….by showing others your work, you tend to start writing for them rather than yourself. Don’t worry about this though. You have your highs and your lows. It happens to all who write. This happened to me with my historicalish fiction series I’m writing, but then after I lazily started reading through the Sumerian Kings list and the history of Babylon, I was back. You just need to find the thing that inspires your creativity most. Perhaps a mindless train ride, re-reading the Book of Ti’ana, or that ever inspiring thing: spending a long time on the toilet HAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh come on, don’t pretend good ideas never come to you in there!

Can’t say much more than Artoveli and Baladria have said except that I would like to emphasize that you definitely should not be writing this for us. Commissioned work is never as good as work done because the artist wants to express something. I think you should do what everyone else has said and go and remember what that something is (don’t just re-read your favorite parts of the book though ).

A good source of inspiration would be to get in touch with the community. Not the text-on-a-screen type of community found here and on the forums, but the flesh-and-blood, rubbing elbows with other Myst fanatics type of community. There’s nothing like being with people of like mind; plus, as you’ll find, the enthusiasm is endless and contagious.
…
Luckily for you both, you’ll have such an opportunity the weekend of July 25th in Boston.

“or that ever inspiring thing: spending a long time on the toilet HAHAHAHAHAHA. Oh come on, don’t pretend good ideas never come to you in there!”
_
As Patrick has mentioned before, that is how I’ve earned the nickname “Epiphany”

Cheer up! From what I hear this to be expected, I heard of lots of people re-working the script during shooting even!

Well, I have to say, some of the advice people have given here is pretty good. When I find myself banging my head against a brick wall, I find it helps to do something somewhat related, but more enjoyable. I mean, if you’re simply going to be making contact with concrete via your head, you might as well do something else. Could you film some mock ups, or do something that could maybe be argued as being constructive, but is totally more fun than scriptwriting?

The most important thing is to make yourself THINK that you’re working, even if you’re really not

As a screenwriter, let me assure you:

There would be something wrong with both of you if you DIDN’T run into patches of doubt, disillusionment, and disappointment with regards to your story or your project. It’s natural. If this is your first screenplay/story/film, I can understand how you may be feeling overwhelmed by negative energy. But it goes away. I promise. What you have to do is step outside of the project. Turn your creative mind off. Get away from it. Lots of professional directors take a vacation between production and post-production. They need to distance themselves, to step outside of the project for a short time, before they can reinvest themselves. Once you’ve done that, you should be able to look at your story again with fresh eyes. Another thing that helps - talk to someone about the story who knows nothing about it. If you can see it through a stranger’s eyes, you’ll get excited about it again like you were when you wrote the first line of dialogue.

Just know that you’re supposed to hit walls like this, and that some of your best work usually happens right after them. Joseph Campbell would call it crossing a threshold. You’re in the belly of the whale right now, which is a painful but necessary obstacle.

My Rx:
Spending an afternoon in the too-hot sun sharing a bottle of amontillado (I’d prefer Pernod, which is back after being banned in France for nearly a century, but good luck getting it into the States: Congress, a bunch of retired astronauts and c-list actors - not that I’m likely to find amontillado in reactionary, uncultured South Bend, but I digress) with your friend and fellow suffering compatriot. Alcoholic inspiriation, as if there was another legitimate kind, ensues.

In regards to what Robert the Rebuilder said: I live near-by ha! By taking 90, in just 2 hours or 2.5 you can make it to my house

If you just sailed through it, it wouldn’t be as good. No pain, no gain, right? This means you want to do it right, not just do it. I’ll wait patiently if it means a better finished product (cuz I know you’ll get there!!).

Maybe you should just go see the Dark Knight. Not to cheer up (because it’s pretty dark) but because it’s so well made that it might inspire you on how to handle an epic story that feels personal.

How much more of the script do you have to finish? Because if it’s still a lot, here is what I recommend: (I do this when I’m stuck at writing)
Every single day, write one scene–but don’t make it pretty. Just a couple of pages a day. Just whip it out, and it will suck. But that’s ok. The grammar can be bad. You can have incomplete sentences. You can replace adjectives with things like *insert descriptive word here*. The scene doesn’t have to fit with any other scene. The characterization can be horrible. The dialogue can resemble Episode III. And on and on…
And once you have stuff written, and it’s finished, you’ll be more motivated to go back and fix it later, because it will just be so awful that you gotta make it better. And once you sit down and EDIT an idea that you’ve already put out there, more ideas will start coming to you. You might completely rewrite every scene you wrote, and that’s fine. It might even take you a little LONGER to get the script done this way– but at least you will be making regular progress, and won’t be having to churn it out in tears. You have more creative room.
Just an idea.

I won’t say much, but you have our full support. Even if it does take 6 more months, I’ll be here pushing you guys on.

crabcakes and lemonade, my friend

Well you know what? We’re all here for you as fans! We’re awaiting anything you have and even if it’s crap, you guys aren’t apt to keeping it that way. In fact, there’s a high chance it WON’T be crap so you don’t have to even worry about that. Just keep doing what you’re doing and things should turn out amazing just as you want them too.

I know the feeling you’re going through, but with all of these fans, how can you go wrong?

Forget the computer, and just grab a pencil and a pad, and just head out, either drive or walk till you reach a point where you can stop and just sit, no matter how crazy the place is.

You will either write, or just sit there thinking. don’t force your brain into writing because it just won’t do it, let your brain focus on what it wants to at the time.

I write computer programs and provide technical support for a living to the point where my eye’s physically feel like they are bleeding … I get to a point that I can’t stand looking at screens because of the sterile nature of them, and the static enviroment around my work space stunts my creativity.

Prehaps you are suffering from a simlar issue.

I think you guys are doing too much,you both need a vacation and a break of this forum for minimum a week and think of something else to gain energy and ideas and come back 100% energized.

well, just look at it this way: the longer it is, the better chance it has of being great! i mean, i wouldn’t let a thing like time decide how you are working. all that matters is the script and how it sounds and works out! who cares if it takes a long time! (well, maybe we’d get a bit frustrated, but the ending result would be great!) Don’t worry about it.