I guess I’ve become a fan of acronyms.

First, it was “CURE”: what I think we as writers should aim for with every concept, every story, ever scene — that it be Compelling, Unique, Real, and Entertaining.  (I posted about this here.)

Now it’s “POP”: the three qualities I think we all need to develop and practice to move forward as writers.  I blogged about this under the heading “Talent is Overrated,” and I want to go into it a bit further – because I think a lack of one or more of these is the only thing that can truly get in our way.

Of course it starts with Passion.  We have ideas we like and want to explore, which we turn into a piece of writing that we’re enthusiastic about.  That part is usually easy, at least in the beginning.

Then you show it to people.  You’re Open to feedback.  But they never love it the way we hoped they would.  They always have notes.  They often don’t get it.  They didn’t find it Compelling, Unique, Real and or Entertaining.

Then what?  That’s when we as writers are at risk of losing one, two, or all three of these key practices – which are more important than talent, more important than connections, more important than ANYTHING ELSE.

We lose our Passion.  Our enthusiasm is gone.  We don’t see the point.  We don’t believe in our ideas anymore.  Or we can’t get excited about the process, with all the disappointment it seems to contain.  (Think you’re alone in this?  Every good writer including top professionals go through it.  We all get beat up by others’ reaction to our stuff, and we’re all at risk of losing our passion.)

Sometimes, we close off that Openness to others’ feedback – to really listen and hear what they have to say.  I’m not saying “others” are always right, and we should follow their vision above our own.  Not at all.  But I am saying that showing our work to others – especially the right kind of “others” who know what they are talking about and are honest with us – is an essential part of moving forward.  So is understanding that there’s always going to be this cycle of enthusiasm, feedback, and then rethinking and rewriting – at every stage of the process as a screenwriter.  If we are defensive, or closed off, and don’t seek that input from the world, we will not move forward.

It’s unfortunate – it even seems unfair, because we often think we just want to be DONE with a piece of writing, and to have others receive it as GOOD, and hopefully praise us, and give us money.  It’s human nature.  It’s annoying to be told you didn’t hit the mark somehow, even devastating – an outrage – and it means we have to do more work.

That’s where the Persistence comes in.  Perhaps the most important practice of all.  To keep going, despite how frustrating this process can be.  Of course, it’s only really frustrating inasmuch as we resist it, and expect or want it to be different from how it is.  But we all do it.  We want to sell our work and have it succeed.  We don’t want to be told it’s not sellable, in its current form.  So what do we do, when that happens, and it happens over and over again?

Do we get down on ourselves, and our abilities?  Do we decide we’ll never get there?  Do we lose our passion, and close off?

I like what Akiva Goldsman, Oscar-winning screenwriter of A BEAUTIFUL MIND said at a WGA rally at the beginning of the last strike, in November 2007.  I’ve quoted bits of this before, but here’s a longer version:

“I was the worst writer in my seventh grade class.  And when I went to college, I was the worst writer in my college class.  But each time someone told me to stop writing, I never stopped.  When I wanted to write a thesis in college and do it as a novel, my faculty advisor told me I have to stop writing.  He said, You’re not very good.  I didn’t stop.  When I went to graduate school, and tried to get a degree in creative writing, they told me to stop, because they said that I wasn’t that good, and I didn’t stop writing.  And now, I’m just the last one standing of everyone I knew who is still writing.”

Is it really that simple?  Obviously he had passion and continued to pursue it.  He kept showing his work to others, even as their feedback seemed to be beating him down.  (And he continues to do so to this day.  And trust me, he gets as many notes as anyone else.)  And he keeps at it.

My point is that the process is basically the same for all of us.  And the pitfalls are the same.  It’s just a question of how we respond.  I have to remind myself of this all the time.  It’s about continuing to stay with something I believe in until it reaches that level where it can positively impact others in a real way.

Of course, sometimes the passion truly isn’t there.  I’m not saying you have to push through and try to force things.  But if you can get past the disappointment and discouragement, and find that writing (or a particular project) is something you really do have underlying Passion for, then maybe it will be helpful to keep this “POP” concept in mind, and keep going…