Screenwriting Teaches You About Yourself

So...I'm desperately trying to make up for the fact that I've been ignoring my TRF script for most of the semester by writing pretty much the entire thing in a four day marathon session. I've gotten about 12 pages written in the last 24 hours, which leaves about 70 to go. Fun stuff.

In the process, I've discovered how limited my background has made me. They say to "write what you know," and having not had much of a life up to this point, I sometimes have trouble figuring out ways to make the plot interesting.

Case in point: The story I'm working on this semester (which will probably be posted to the blog when it's done) contains a romantic subplot. Yeah. For the first time in my life, I'm trying to write a convincing love story. It's not the main story (which is much more complicated and can't be explained in less than a paragraph), but it is integral to the larger plot.

However, seeing as how I've never had a girlfriend or a date or a...non-platonic hug...or anything...I'm finding it extremely hard to write realistic chemistry into this thing. I think it's going pretty well so far even though everything I know about relationships is stuff I learned from TV/movies and observing others from a distance, but still...writing about things you haven't experienced is hard. I need to go out and live more. One of my main problems as a writer is that I have a really hard time coming up with ideas, and it hit me recently that it's probably because I don't have any experiences from which to draw inspiration.

Have I mentioned that I'd like to relive the last decade or so?

Incidentally, the mentally paralyzing depression that partially contributed to my inability to get any work done since October seems to be lifting, but that doesn't change the fact that I need to have more life experiences.

I think I'll try to find some fun stuff to do back in PA over the break. If I don't die of a stress-induced heart attack before then.