Think of your talent as a young and skittish horse that
you are bringing along. This horse is very talented but it is
also young, nervous, and inexperienced. It will make
mistakes, be frightened by obstacles it hasn’t seen before. It
may even bolt, try to throw you off, feign lameness. Your
job, as the creative jockey, is to keep your horse moving
forward and to coax it into finishing the course.
First of all, take a look at what jumps make your horse so
skittish. You may find that certain obstacles are far more
scary than others. An agent jump may frighten you more
than a workshop jump. A review jump may be okay while a
rewrite jump scares your talent to death. Remember that in a
horse race, there are other horses in the field. One trick a
seasoned jockey uses is to place a green horse in the
slipstream of an older, steadier, and more seasoned horse.
You can do this, too.
• Who do I know who has an agent? Then ask them
how they got one.
• Who do I know who has done a successful rewrite?
Ask them how to do one.
• Do I know anyone who has survived a savage
review? Ask them what they did to heal themselves.
Once we admit the need for help, the help arrives. The
ego always wants to claim self-sufficiency. It would rather
pose as a creative loner than ask for help. Ask anyway.
Bob was a promising young director when he made his
first documentary. It was a short, very powerful film about
his father, a factory worker. When he had a rough cut