Shaping the future

I have taken to watching one of my favourite movies for the third time in one week. Why? Because I never tire of it – but more importantly I realised why I don’t tire of it: Each of the characters is rounded, three-dimensional and makes you empathise with them, regardless of if you like them or not.

I’ve taken to watching this movie to see how this was achieved, so that I can attempt to do the same with the characters in my current work in progress.

But this has caused me a problem. The themes that I am seeing does not instantly link into the direction that I am taking this play (maybe this because this current work is an out-and-out drama, and there is no protagonist that the audience will instantly like – is this a fundamental flaw?). But I can see how I can use this information to shape characters I haven’t yet developed. This has caused me to add to my ideas list.

A couple of ideas literally fell out of my brain and on to the paper. Two of them have me rather excited. To add to the worry, when my wife (the greatest first reader I could ever wish to have) saw one of the ideas, she go very excited about the prospect of that idea becoming a play. She even saw the potential for it to become a sequel (though not a dependant sequel) to one of my other plays.

I know that I have to work on this idea. I will run away with it. But what do I do about the play that I am working on?

I have posted a question on one of the writing forums that I use to see what others think, based on their own experiences. But my gut reaction is to complete the scenario that I am developing and placing it to one side – enabling me to get started on the idea I’ve just had. That way the majority of the work has been completed for my current work (after all, post scenario, all you are doing is adding the colour and dialogue – the fun bit).

What am I going to do? Do I go with my gut? Do I just get on with it and wait to do the exciting project?

I’ve been playing with this for the last two days and no ideal answer has leapt to mind. I guess this is one of the pains of being a writer.