I’m at the airport waiting for my flight to Los Angeles. Unlike Louis CK, I don’t think I’ll have internet access on the plane so I thought I’d post a few things now.
A few days ago, one of my New York University students rushed up to me at the start of class and said that even though he had committed to writing his horror screenplay this semester he had been inspired by the work of his classmates and there was a comedy inside him “dying to come out.”
I get this a lot from the writers I work with. My answer is always the same:
“Date your material, don’t marry it.”
Unless someone is paying you for your work (i.e. you have an obligation/timeline) there’s nothing forcing you to stick with one story and ignore another.
My advice is take both of your ideas and run them through The Four Magic Questions of Screenwriting and decide which one is more complete and more appealing to you, and write that one.
Then, when you’re finished, go back to the other story. I guarantee it will still be there, following you around like a lovesick puppy.
