Sometimes when what I write feels like it’s not my own, it’s because I decided to go forward when I should have gone backward.

On my six-minute film draft, I suddenly found myself writing a completely different movie. I had gone forward, inventing new situations, instead of going backward, to my original concept and treatment. By jumping too far forward, making drastic changes, I couldn’t find anything meaningful to me in it.

The valuable feedback of a peer was to step back, and now I have some clarity again. The three points of good writing that hang above my desk:

1. Clarity

2. Specificity

3. Unity

Perhaps I should add verity, something I had lost for a little while.

If your idea is becoming less clear to you, go back to the first little thing you wrote. More than likely the meaning is there, you just need to dig for it.