Weeks 6 & 7 Be brave, be brave...

The challenges over these two weeks have mostly been with writing drafts of short films and posting them for feedback.

At first, having to post anything online for feedback has felt nerve-wracking. Questions keep rattling around my head such as : will anyone enjoy it? Is it badly written? Am I being foolish imagining I can do this? I know so little about the craft as yet, that I surely am making a right mess of everything...
So, all sorts of self-doubt has bubbled up for me to ignore and "JUST DO IT ANYWAY!" 

I am not the most patient with myself. Self doubt wracks me daily, not that anyone would know because I am a mistress at masking it... and of masking most things, to be fair.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed by self doubt, I remember my youngest child, aged about 2, stood on an elevated bridge connecting 2 railway platforms, above the train tracks. He was desperate to watch the trains, but as they came near, screeching and belching smoke, he suddenly felt frightened and held the bannister hard and said, "Be brave, be brave" to himself... if a toddler can do that, so can I. So, with the words "be brave, be brave" in my head, I forced myself to post a one-page short swiftly, without allowing myself too much time to criticise the narrative and twist. Sometimes it's good not to over-think and to be more instinctive.

Then, the first feedback came in and it was so helpful and practical. Phew! So, I learnt, "don't fear the feedback". In fact, just welcome it.

So, in week 7, we had to post a draft of our 15 minute short, which I have done and again, received some really useful feedback (especially from armchair detective, Kat). Again, reinforcing the message, "don't fear the feedback". Feedback shows us the gaps in our narrative, any errors we have made (and these might just be typos) and makes us communicate the picture in a fuller way to the audience. It is useful, helpful and non-judgemental.

I am trying to give useful feedback for other people's work as well, but do feel that my skillset is not currently in how to write in Final Draft, more on how to write a paced storyline and characterisations... how helpful I might be, I am not sure, but I hope I am pointing out any discrepancies with kindness. A writer is very vulnerable posting fresh ideas, so it's important for me to feel that I am helping to build their confidence, not take it away. We are all different and will appeal to differing audiences: no narratives are irrelevant.

With that in mind, I have some more feedback to give, before I return to my own rough daft to work on before my tutoral.