bad ideas are quite like bad relationships

So, I’ve just finished another screenplay. During a quiet period I thought it’d be a good to knuckle down and complete a feature I’ve been working on for ages.

Off and on I worked on it all summer and yet couldn’t quite make headway. Not good.

And then one day I had another idea. As simple as that, it just appeared. Like a new and exciting lover I instantly had a good feeling.

I was chatting with a female friend who confessed that she stays too long in bad relationships, petrified to let go, she remains regretful she's wasted so much time trying to make the wrong ones work.

I realized that I do exactly the same thing with ideas. I cling hold of an idea as if my fingernails were dug into the floating mast of a shipwreck. I flail about in the water convinced that one more day’s work is going to make all the difference.

Sometimes you just gotta let go.

So I met someone new (to keep the partner/idea analogy going a bit longer) and the moment they stepped into my life it felt different. I’ve been walking around whistling, even taking the time to smile at Big Issue salesmen (I didn't say giving money, I just said smiling).

And I wrote the whole damn thing in about a month.

Now, who’s to say this one will be "the one"? I’ve been involved in my share of bad relationships over the years (hang in there, I’m nearly done with the partner/idea analogy). Yet, sometimes when you get the good vibrations you just have to go with it.

Here’s to the good vibrations.