I had a query from a new writer yesterday and I thought this person expressed a common problem, namely, just  when do you walk away from a script?  Well, in one sense you never do. Even if they never go anywhere they are still in some way active. Which is not surprising since you've poured yourself into them. We never leave them emotionally. That's why they still stay in the bottom drawer. What I said to this person was as follows. I hope others will find it useful.  Think about trying what I suggest. You may surprise yourself .

WRITER: When do you know when to put your story down.  When do you know that you've taken the story as far as you can and it's time to let go and move on?
LINDA You ask a very big question, moreover,  one a lot of writers would like to know the answer to.  I have a question for you.  What’s to stop you putting your story down for a while and having a go writing something else?  Your first story isn’t going to run away, and you won’t be the first writer to have a script rejected which is then picked up after they’ve had success with a different project.  Also, getting away from the project that you’ve been so attached to for such a long while will probably do the project good.

No successful writer even wrote just one thing. Very often you  have things on the back burner that you come back to from time to time. Sometimes,  alas,  some of the best things you write are not loved by other people and some of the things you think are just okay have people telling you they are life-changing. That’s the way it goes.  The thing is to keep writing. 

Here’s a challenge for you -  really, it’s just a bit of fun. It’s an exercise.  You can lose nothing by it and you have everything to gain.  Put your existing script in a safe place where it can sit for two weeks.. Now,  go to the first section of my book, the section on creativity under pressure. Find a story trigger and  brainstorm twenty ideas for a film – more if you can. Remember, the rule is, brainstorm uncritically. Put your inner critic aside or you will block. The idea is to get as many ideas as possible, even if some are terrible or cliched or derivative. You will find, if you relax, that some really good ideas also come out along the way, and that's what the process is about.  Choose three and spend a few days thinking about them (just in your odd moments here and there).   Finally, choose the best and try developing it using the method I show you in the book.  It will be fun and the chances are that your new baby will start to take a hold on your affections too. You haven’t forgotten your first, but now you’ve got a second. Hope that helps

I had a question from a writer who wrote very kind things about my work (which was very nice) then asked me for help.  The writer explained that they had a very logical mind and found the brainstorming process I explain in The 21st Century Screenplay  (in which I get writers to switch between their lateral and vertical imagination to get ideas), very difficult because they could see a myriad of different meanings in my terminology.They wanted me to clarify my meaning since they felt that only then would they be able to proceed. They wanted the definitions absolutely correct.  Since this problem might be something that concerns others, I’ll answer in the blog.

Dear  Colleague,
I’m so pleased that my work has been useful to you.  You write to me for help about definitions of terms in the chapters on brainstorming.  I would like to help here, so I’ll give you my response. My view is not that you need to get answers on these matters of semantics  before you can brainstorm.  Not at all. What I see is a person with very impressive vertical/ logical/ analytical skills who is locked into a definitional loop which, while interesting in itself, is actually preventing proper brainstorming for creative writing purposes.  What I see here is a vertical imagination itself engaged in brainstorming – brainstorming endless alternative meanings which are intriguing philosophically but not relevant to the task at hand. It is a wonderful gift to have such powers of logic.  Congratulations. Those powers will be immensely useful to you in your writing.  But to write to your best you need to make a conscious effort to switch between vertical and lateral at the right times, otherwise you won’t get the best out of either part of your mind. At the moment you’re locked into vertical and it’s blocking your imagination. That happens to a lot of people.  The opposite also happens when people get locked into lateral and write in a kind of intoxicated way creating material that’s silly or over the top.  The trick is getting the balance, and it’s very hard at first. 

Brainstorming is simply a tool, like a pencil.  It’s simply a way to trick the suppressed lateral imagination out into the open, to force it to make new and exciting connections.  The trigger is not important in itself, it’s just way to set off original ideas.   Just as knowing the chemical constituents of graphite will not help you draw better, so troubling yourself over a range of possible alternative meanings for my terminology will not help you create better stories.   To do that, simply choose one of your definitions, then consciously put your logical vertical self to one side for the time being and give yourself permission to be illogical and silly for a little while as you free associate the connections that come to you. When you have a good long list of ideas and  fragments from your lateral side, consciously bring your vertical side back into action to filter the quality of the results. 

For people who are very vertical it can be very difficult to switch off the vertical mind because the lateral mind is so wild and crazy that the person feels out of control. But being out of control is exactly what we want in this instance. That’s exactly what we need for the brainstorming process.  It’s a dream-like mentality. Don’t worry.  It’s  only temporary.  Vertical will come into play again to filter the ideas that are weak or silly.

 I suggest that you practice brainstorming by using a stopwatch. At first, give yourself just thirty seconds simply to free associate from any trigger while suppressing your vertical mind.  Gradually increase that lateral time over a few days. It will be hard, but you will get there.

Imagination is a muscle. The harder you work it the stronger it gets.  Think of your lateral imagination as being a bit like muscle memory for a musician.  It’s not conscious or intellectual  but it’s absolutely vital to your performance.  Your vertical imagination is a great gift.  Just learn when to quarantine it and when to let it do its job.  I hope this helps and good luck.